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 through the matriculation ceremony of Miva Open University, stating that Nigeria’s present scenario mirrored the choices made by political leaders and their priorities, urging students to purchase training not just for private success but additionally to contribute to nationwide improvement.
“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 stated.
“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 stated.
Ihekweazu argued that training empowers residents to query management selections, demand accountability and develop options succesful of shifting Nigeria in a distinct path.
He urged the students not to see training merely as a pathway to private consolation, however as a possibility 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 stated.
He added that Nigeria’s future would not be handed to its residents however would have to be constructed via deliberate efforts and collective duty.
Drawing classes from historical past, Ihekweazu advisable the guide Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, explaining that societies typically stagnate when political and financial energy is concentrated within the arms of a number of privileged people.
He famous that European societies had additionally skilled intervals of aristocratic dominance, monopolies and restricted alternatives earlier than regularly shifting in the direction of extra inclusive programs.
According to him, wider entry to training helped folks purchase the information and confidence to problem present constructions 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 stated.
He reiterated that training 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 stated.
He urged the students to recognise their duty 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 improvement.
“Nigeria does not belong only to presidents, governors, ministers, or those who hold power today. It also belongs to you,” he stated.
He added that the long run could 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 loads of skills as a result of in our analogue are made students to abandon their lives, household and work so as to research,” including that finding out from residence have modified the narrative.
