Education remains investment not expense – Oseghale

An architect and business analyst, Mr. Roman Oseghale, has urged improved funding of education for accelerated growth and development.

Oseghale made the call on `The Platform Nigeria’’ organised by the Covenant Christian Centre on Monday in Lagos.
The Platform is an evangelistic tool which also enables speeches and paper presentation on national issues.

The theme of the October Platform is: “Putting Together the Jigsaw Pieces that Form Nigeria’’.
Oseghale spoke on the subtheme: “Education Funding and the Socioeconomic Impact’’.
He said that education remained the most formidable weapon for driving and sustaining growth and development as well as improved wellbeing of the citizenry.

Osaghale said that poor investment in education would lead to loss of global competitiveness which would result in lag in innovation and creativity.
“Education, therefore, remains an investment and not an expense. It is not preparation for life but life itself.

“If we should invest hugely in our education, we will have no business with hunger, poverty, diseases, unemployment and a host of others.
“This is because education does not depreciate. In fact, it is one factor that gives you return over time.

“If you kill education, you kill a country,’’ he said, adding that under-funding education would lead to a fall in per capita income.
The architect said that statistics showed that Nigeria was operating at less than 20 per cent of its capacity.

According to him, a country will become poorer when its population grows faster than its wealth creation due to lack of education.
“Do not forget that poverty leads to crime.

“Poverty leads to social unrest; the war against terrorism is bound up in the war against poverty; so, with education, we can change the world positively,’’ he said.
He said that Nigeria could not afford to lag behind in funding education especially because it had a huge number of out-of-school children.

Pastor Poju Oyemade, Senior Pastor of the Covenant Christian Centre, called on Nigerians to join the centre in prayers “as we push the frontiers of the kingdom into all aspects of our lives’’.

Among those who spoke at the forum is Mr. Segun Odegbami, a sports administrator, who presented a paper on “With Sports, We can Change Nigeria’’.

Augustine Okezie,

Abuja