A former Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, and present Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organisation, WHO, Chikwe Ihekweazu, has urged Nigerians, significantly students, not to lose hope within the nation regardless of its challenges.
Ihekweazu made the decision in Abuja on Saturday in the course of the matriculation ceremony of Miva Open University, stating that Nigeria’s present state of affairs mirrored the choices made by political leaders and their priorities, urging students to purchase schooling not just for private success but additionally to contribute to nationwide growth.
“Whatever you do, please do not lose hope in our country. The future we want will not be built by resources alone. It will be built by educated, engaged, and courageous citizens,” he mentioned.
“Whether to build roads or to invest in education, whether to travel in convoys of 50 cars or to fix our universities, these are not benign choices,” he mentioned.
Ihekweazu argued that schooling empowers residents to query management selections, demand accountability and develop options succesful of transferring Nigeria in a distinct path.
He urged the students not to see schooling merely as a pathway to private consolation, however as a chance to develop the judgment, confidence and social consciousness wanted to rework society.
“Please do not consume education only as a route to personal success. Use it to develop the judgment, the confidence, and the social consciousness to serve others and transform our society,” he mentioned.
He added that Nigeria’s future would not be handed to its residents however would have to be constructed by deliberate efforts and collective accountability.
Drawing classes from historical past, Ihekweazu really useful the ebook Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, explaining that societies usually stagnate when political and financial energy is concentrated within the palms of just a few privileged people.
He famous that European societies had additionally skilled intervals of aristocratic dominance, monopolies and restricted alternatives earlier than progressively transferring in the direction of extra inclusive techniques.
According to him, wider entry to schooling helped individuals purchase the data and confidence to problem present buildings and demand extra inclusive societies.
“Your education must therefore be more than a passport to personal comfort. It should help you to understand the institutions around you, question what does not work, challenge injustice, create alternatives and widen the opportunity for others,” he mentioned.
He reiterated that schooling ought to finally empower people to enhance not solely their very own lives but additionally the lives of others.
“The purpose of education is not simply to change what you know; it is to expand what you’re capable of doing with your life and in the lives of others,” he mentioned.
He urged the students to recognise their accountability in shaping Nigeria’s future, insisting that the nation belonged not solely to political officeholders but additionally to youthful generations whose selections would affect its growth.
“Nigeria does not belong only to presidents, governors, ministers, or those who hold power today. It also belongs to you,” he mentioned.
He added that the longer term can be formed by what the students learnt, what they constructed, what they refused to settle for, whom they selected to serve and the alternatives they created for others.
The Chancellor of the establishment, Sim Shagaya, added, “Our nation misplaced quite a bit of abilities as a result of in our analogue are made students to abandon their lives, household and work so as to examine,” including that finding out from house have modified the narrative.
