By Muyiwa Adetiba
Last week, my friend and neighbour Dr Kingsley Kola Akinroye (KK), was
formerly presented to a diverse but select crowd of expatriates and
Nigerians as the Honorary Consul of Finland. It was the peaking of a
romance that started about 15 years ago, and which hopefully, will still
have many peaks.
As a young doctor who had chosen cardiology as his area of study, he
had gone to Finland to find out how a country which at a point, had one
of the highest heart diseases in the world, turned itself around to
becoming a country with one of the lowest heart diseases. He had been
intrigued by what he found in this tiny, rugged country and that
fascination kept him going there again and again. Hence the beginning of
what, hopefully, will be a mutually beneficial relationship.
Two months ago, in exchange for a book on Collin Powel which I
cherish, my friend had given me a book on Finland. I didn’t think at
that time that it was a good deal. After all, I had come across such PR
books during my years of travel. But this book was different. For one,
it was written by an outsider who had been fascinated and assimilated by
Finland. An intellectual, he was able to explain the feat that
forefathers of Finland who transformed the country, had performed, in
management terms.
Finland is a tiny country that has been made cold and unfriendly by
nature. It is also a country with very few natural resources. But what
it lacked from nature, was more than compensated for in men and women
who are fiercely patriotic and courageous.
Twice, it fought wars that many people thought it could not win. One
of them was with Russia, a sprawling, powerful neighbour that wanted to
swallow Finland up. To end the war, Russia demanded a hefty sum as
compensation. Finnish leaders preferred to ‘pay the price of freedom’
even if it meant working their collective fingers to the bone. Finland
eventually paid Russia off by producing superior goods that could be
marketed in Russia and never looked back after that.
Today, Finland is one of the most prosperous European countries and
as usually follows, one of the least corrupt in the world. Its strength
has been in education and research and has some of the most advanced
research institutes in the world. An average Fin, according to the book,
has a logical, analytical mind.
So why am I bringing this up? What has Nigeria to learn from the
Finnish example? Its education, education and education. The lesson here
is that the future of the world does not lie in oil, gold or such
natural resources any more. It is in education. President Obama of the
US recognised this four years ago when he made re-educating Americans a
campaign promise. He reiterated it again during the last campaign. For
America, he said, to compete and take jobs back from China and the Asian
countries, America must have higher training and higher skills which in
the final analysis, mean higher education.
At home, our ‘leaders’ are still busy fighting over revenue
allocation. Neighbours – Anambra, Kogi, Rivers and Bayelsa – are
fighting themselves over newly discovered oil. Instead of fighting over
what is under the ground, why don’t we develop what is over the ground –
the human resource? Instead of fretting over depleting assets, why
don’t we worry over renewable assets – the human brain?
As it is, many countries in Africa have discovered oil. Worse still,
our two main markets, America and China are looking inwards. On top of
it all, the rest of the world is moving away from oil to cleaner, more
renewable forms of energy.
If certain leaders don’t want to move ahead, then we should leave
them behind. This is the time to forget tribal, religious and political
affiliations and come 2015, choose a competent, visionary leader from
any corner of Nigeria who will put education on the front burner.
Would it be possible, for example, for our new President, to pick the
best five universities now and make them centres of excellence with a
mandate to be among the world’s top 50 in five year’s time? Let the
country’s brightest and best, irrespective of state of origin, be
enrolled in these universities.
Let them be run by highly acclaimed Nigerians picked from anywhere in
the world, who are driven by excellence and the need to leave a legacy
(it should still be possible to find a few I hope) Let the academic and
administrative staff be the best we can muster. Then let these
universities be the yardstick for the others.
In the mean time, let the clamour for a new man in Aso Rock begin; A
man who will have the vision to prepare our young ones for the
challenges of the knowledge driven 21st century.
Let the social media, the Save Nigeria Group, and other Civil
Societies begin to look for a man (or woman) that most of us can back,
not because of his religious, tribal, or political leaning but because
of his intellect, passion and vision.
Vanguard
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