Zuma advises African leaders on qualitative education to tackle underdevelopment
South African President, Jacob Zuma, has warned that the African continent might remain perpetually underdeveloped if political leaders failed to provide a sound qualitative education for her youths.
Zuma observed that external conspiracy against the African continent could be effectively tackled when African children are provided the opportunity to acquire western education as a veritable tool to fight ignorance, poverty and destitution ravaging some nations of the world.
The South África President gave the warning last weekend when he signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between his foundation: The Jacobs G Zuma Foundation and The Rochas Foundation College System at a brief but colourful ceremony in Owerri the Imo state capital.
Africa, he said, has fought a number of wars perpetrated by her enemies and detractors who do not mean well for her people, stating that it is only when “our children are properly educated, empowered and enlightened that they will be in a better position to fight for us”
President Zuma who gave a brief history of his up-bringing and the circumstances that gave birth to his “Jacob G. Zuma Foundation explaining that the foundation which began like a mustard seed some years ago but has grown into an Iroko tree producing many professionals in all fields of human endeavour was conceived to assist the children of the poor and the less privileged to go to school
He therefore commended Governor Rochas Okorocha for establishing the Rochas Foundation College which he noted had continued to produce a number of professionals just like his own foundation is doing in South Africa.
The visiting South Africa leader who was bestowed with the chieftain title of Ochiagha (Warlord) by the Imo state council of traditional rulers attributed the legion of woes besieging Africa to several years of colonialism by the western world, insisting that Africans must come together and tackle their problems.
“Whatever we do Africanism must run through our veins and we must put African unity in practice and not just in speech”.
In his remarks earlier, Governor Okorocha recalled the history of his “Rochas Foundation College which he said came on board 17 years ago with an initial population of 15,000 students.
The governor stated that his humble beginning was afflicted with a crushing poverty and penury which almost denied him the acquisition of western education, adding that it was as a result of this that he made a pledge to plough whatever resources he receives from him for the services of humanity.
Val Okara, Owerri
