HASKEN MATASA; Improve Human Capital to Solve Nigeria’s Development Challenges – Experts
AREWA AGENDA – Experts in the education and economic sector have agreed that if politicians stop using mere thinking to decide what kind of intervention people need to drive their development, there would be an improvement in Nigeria’s education and economic sector.
Dr Abdusalam Kani, a lecturer with the Department of Economics, Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education (SRCOE) said a detailed plan by politcal office aspirants undertaken by assessing the needs of each community in line with human capital development is the only instrument that can resolve Nigeria’s education and economic crisis.
Kani spoke at the 41st Episode of “Hasken Matasa” a popular radio series aired weekly on Express 90.3fm radio Kano where issues on youth affirmative action and societal concerns regarding overall impact and development are discussed.
While speaking on the theme; Agenda and Priorities for Elected Officials and Electorates With a Focus on Education and Economic Empowerment, the academician noted that development will continue to stall if emphasis is not given on Human Capital Developemnt which invloves mainly, education, health, and labour force participation for economic empowerment.
According to him, “Nigerian leaders should imbibe John Kennedy’s philosophy of what they can do for their country and not what their country can do for them, this philosophy alone is capable of driving them to be selfless and patriotic and this will drive development and so we wouldnt be buying aspiration forms in 100’s of millions, we wouldn’t be seeing primary election delegates becoming sell outs in hard currency,” he quipped.
He decried the level of poverty and unemployment bedevilling the country.
“According to research, poverty is 68 percent in the North. So if Nigeria is the headquarters of poverty, the North is the headquarters of the headquarters of poverty and yet we have over 20 industries in the North that are comatose, if they are serious about development they must promulgate legislations that will enable revival of our industry, agriculture and economy and most importantly provision of electricity supply,” he argued.
According to him, statistics shows that 23% of Nigerian youths are employed and only 21% of women are in the workforce making human capital very low.
“If we must build economy we must build human capital and must involve women and youth. This group need capacity building, they need skills and access to capital with low interest rate and most importantly they need an enabling environment just as its done in saner climes.”
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He argued that in order to achieve this, domestic resource mobilisation should be prioritised and electorates should always have a charter of demands to give to political aspirants.
“This charter of demands should have scorecards, monitors and trackers if a candidate fails on them after being elected, they should be given a vote of no confidence so that next time, they know they can’t come back with the same campaign promise again.”
Also speaking on education sector reform, Dr Auwal Khalil a Lecturer with the Department of Community Development, Bayero University Kano, and Chairman of Civil Society Action Coalition and Education for All (CSACEFA) stated that education in the country need a form of crucial rescuing that must be done from the grassroots.
“Before standing for election, politicians should have practicable and implementable manifesto on education and this must involve the people to understand their problem and draw plans from their demands. There should be a discussion and segmentation of their education needs and this should form the basis of the manifesto with clear goals and objectives and mind you this plan should include formal and non formal education.”
According to him, this manifesto should include plans for funding through available aides and philanthropic minds in the community.
He argued that those who abandon or fail to achieve their manifesto usually do so because they fail to constitute the right team for the task.
“Square pegs must be put in square holes and politicians must understand this before we can get things right. You can’t put someone who knows nothing about education in charge of education, you can’t put someone who has no passion whatsoever for health in charge of health, and then expect to acheive result, the plan will just fail. Competent hands should be identified even before taking power and we must keep sentiments and nepotism aside to get results.”
He charged electorates always vote competence over party, enter agreements with politicians through community based lawyers and remain steadfast as only government cannot deliver.
Speaking for the youths, Ahmad Sani Saye, Chairman Saye Youth Development Association argues that youths must themselves document their problems and demands for any politician seeking their votes and this must include education, health, and economy, and it should serve as a bargaining chip for their votes.
“It doesn’t always have to be what the politicians plan for them,” he said.
Saye believes vote selling has reduced among young people because they have learnt lessons to always vote for competence over money, “if it works in some places it won’t work in another place,” he posits.
Hasken Matasa, which literally translates into “Light of the Youth,” a weekly program on topical youth oriented issues organised by the Community Health and Research Initiative (CHR) and the Youth Society for Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Social Vices (YOSPIS), is sponsored by the Aminu Magashi Garba Foundation (AMG Foundation).
