1 month ago
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Former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has said Nigeria’s problem is not because of foreign intervention, stating that the country is not being exploited by the Western powers.
Peter Obi said the education system of the country and Africa has no problem. He explained that Nigeria lacks a weak value system.
He added that the colonial masters built so many systems that worked; unfortunately, those systems collapsed after independence.
Obi said this in an interview which Why Not Afrika posted on its X handle on Monday. He noted that he believed that educated people in Nigeria lack integrity which is affecting the country in all areas.
The Labour Party chieftains argued that Nigeria received the same Western education as China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia indeed, but failed to have a strong value system that encourages integrity.
The former governor of Anambra State said, “I’m one man who has always argued that the problem of Africa has nothing to do with any foreign intervention.
“Neither has it to do with people who think we’re being exploited and the problem of Africa is Africans. Africans can solve it. We are not forced into anything. The education we get is Western education.
“For me, it’s Ok. The values. our own societal values. It is not an education that will make people demand money from you at the airport. It is our values that made it.
“Then education, it’s the same education Asians received, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Indonesians, but they go back and bring in their own values system and said, you can’t do this, you can’t do this. It is not an education that is making us unproductive.
“Let me use the example for Nigeria. When the colonial masters were here, I can use train from Lagos to Kafanchan in the North. I can use train from Lagos to Kano. These facilities were there. Since they left, the facilities are gone.
“They didn’t go out with it. It was destroyed by Nigerians. So there, they didn’t stop it. So for me, I disagree. And I say, with all the responsibility, there were a lot of people who destroyed it. It is us and I don’t believe in blame game.”
He emphasized that what the country and continent need is a strong political leadership that has capacity and competence.
He stated that an educated person has to imbibe integrity and character for education to work.
“Education is not our problem. The more educated a society is the better the society. Educated mind has to be thinking right and doing the right thing, has to be a person who has integrity and character before the education will work. Educational qualification for me is not a measure or good character,” Obi added.
English (US) ·