President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has lauded the commitment of former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara to advancing the cause of education in Nigeria.
The President was speaking on Friday at the foundation laying ceremony for the construction of Yakubu Dogara Centre for Legal and Legislative Studies (YADILDS) at the Achievers University, Owo, Ondo state.
The President who was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Dr Suwaiba Ahmed, said that: “let me use this medium to thank the former Speaker, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, and members of his Council, for this great project which is in line with our ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ aimed at boosting educational standards in our dear country.
“This shows how committed and patriotic the former speaker is towards achieving quality education in Nigeria.”
“I hope that the Yakubu Dogara Institute of Legal and Democratic Studies (YADILDS) will be one of the Centres of Excellence that Nigeria and Africa will be proud of, especially in the area of legal and democratic studies.
“It is our hope that this project will see the light of day and, I call on many organizations and philanthropists to make commitment towards financing this gigantic project that will impact positively, not only on the law and political science students of this great institution, but also the entire Nigerian society and beyond.”
On his part, Dogara noted that there are millions of out-of-school children in Nigeria not because they hate education but because they cannot afford it.
He said: “And there’s always a correlation between education and development. Look at all the countries where the level of literacy is high you will see that advancement trails it. But where the literacy level is low, you will see underdevelopment trailing it.”
The former Speaker commended President Tinubu’s numerous interventions in the education sector through the establishment of the Students Education Loan Scheme.
Speaking on the Institute, Dogara said: “This institute is wonderful in the sense that it speaks of two things that are critical in society or to society. It is dynamic, it is organic but law is the fabric that glues everything on the tapestry that ensures the progress of society.
“Science is wonderful. Perhaps, my first love was to be a scientist. Apparently, I didn’t get to the science school at the end of the day, so I ended up becoming a lawyer. But the beauty of the law like I said, is, it holds everything together.
“If you remove the law and the social fabric collapses, then science itself although it guarantees advancement, becomes destructive. … was somebody pressing a button somewhere for …but what stops that person from pressing that bomb is the law and so that is why we must always strive to ensure that we expand the boundaries of education beyond just reading books by studying, understanding the dynamics, the critical interplay of forces in society.
“Someone has said democracy is a government by the people, for the people and by the people. Some remarked that it is not the best form of government except for the other ones that we have tried.
“So democracy to me, it still represents the most progressive idea of governance ever invented by man since the ancient city-state in Greece introduced direct democracy. Democracy itself is a promise, it guarantees nothing.
“It is a promise that free citizens utiising the promises, the tools of democracy can better govern themselves, better organize themselves so that they can reach out for those potentials in themselves that guarantee progress.”
The former Speaker announced an initial donation of N50 million for the commencement of the construction of the Centre.
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