Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Mr. Peter Obi said on Thursday that prioritizing education and healthcare would lay the foundation foundation for a renewed Nigeria.
Obi stated this in a post on his X account, @PeterObi, which he titled: “Roadmap to a New Nigeria That Is Possible – Part II.”
Referencing an ealier post, the former governor of Anambra State said transforming Nigeria would begin with the rebuilding of human capital through education and healthcare.
“Recall that on July 1st, in Part 1 of ‘My Vision for a Productive and Prosperous Nigeria,’ I outlined the broad framework of my proposed roadmap for national renewal.
“In it, I emphasised that the transformation of Nigeria must begin with rebuilding our human capital through quality education and healthcare, supported by reforms in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), character and civic education, and strategic investments that will move our nation from a consumption-driven economy to a production-driven one,” Obi said.
According to him, his post on Thursday, July 16th, was to expand on the two critical pillars – education and healthcare – because they are the bedrock upon which every prosperous nation is built.
He noted that education and healthcare are the cornerstones of the foundation that will ensure that a son of nobody can become somebody and remove many from the ranks of the disaffected who often become tools in the insecurity challenges confronting us.
“Evidence from around the world shows that quality education and accessible healthcare are among the clearest distinctions between thriving nations and lagging ones.
“Princeton University Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton highlights this reality in his book, ‘The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality.’
“Nothing, therefore, could be further from the truth than the claim by some young people that ‘education is a scam.’
“Education, when combined with good health, provides the ladder for individual upward mobility and drives economic growth for the nation,” Obi stated.
Insisting that Nigerians must become more intentional about aligning education with their national priorities, as Singapore did, Obi called on citizens to challenge the country to value education in the same way Deng Xiaoping repeatedly urged China to do from 1978 onwards, with the remarkable transformation we see today.
On the strategies his government would apply if elected to enhance education and healthcare, Obi said he would set up commissions to strenghten collaboration with other tiers of government.
“We will work through commissions that strengthen collaboration among the tiers of government, ensuring that primary education is domiciled at the community and local government levels, with strong parental involvement and curricula that are sensitive to local economic factor endowments and the value chains derived from them.
“State governments will be supported to expand high-quality Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), as well as general secondary education, through targeted grants and incentives.
“We are also developing schemes that will enable universities to focus more deliberately on specialised areas of teaching and research, making them globally competitive while producing a workforce equipped for the demands of the future,” Obi said.
The NDC presidential candidate promised to follow up with other parts in the coming weeks and months.
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