Why Nigerian Leaders Don’t Value Education – Fela Durotoye

Mr Durotoye made this known at an annual leadership and entrepreneurs’ conference organised by the students of the Department of Economics, Obafemi Awolowo University, on Wednesday.

His criticism is coming at a time university lecturers are clamouring for proper funding of Nigerian universities and have shut down academic activities in various schools.

Recall that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on an indefinite and ‘total’ strike on Sunday and the compliance of some schools.

Addressing the comatose state of the education sector, Mr Durotoye said Nigerian leaders do not really have the quality “of what we can call education”.

“Since most of them have no idea of what education actually means, they are always finding it very difficult to actually define the space of education in a nation’s development. If you do not have something it is possible for you not to value it” he said.

Also, he faulted the curricular of the country’s tertiary institutions, saying “there’s need to have practicing individuals in the disciplines design it.”

“We can specialise our institutions, and once we specialise our institutions, we specialise the people. Our generation must build a nation where everybody gets equal values without necessarily have to know anybody, where you want and receive equally those opportunities the rich get easily.”