Host of the quarterly August Meeting Port Harcourt and education promoter, Kingsley Wali, has warned Nigerian government to be cautious about the growing negative cliché ‘Education Is Scam’ among the young generation of Nigerians.
He gave the warning at the second quarter of the August Meeting held in Port Harcourt at the weekend decrying lack of government’s investment in education.
Speaking at the event during which the book “Grit” by Osaro Gomba was reviewed, Wali explained that lack of incentives to education, especially graduate unemployment is a major cause of the growing disinterest in education among the youth of the country.
He said: “People go through school and they come out, no job, so why do I have to take school serious, which has led us to a point where our younger generations are saying that education is a scam.
“That is something that should bother the government. Government is grooming a generation of people who are not educated and of course we know the implications of that.
“What it quickly translates into is a people who don’t understand what is happening around them and if they don’t understand, they don’t have hopes and so they just do whatever they want to do”.
He once again stated that the mission of the August Meeting is to fill the gap between writing and reading in Nigeria, beginning from Port Harcourt.
Dr. Youpele Banigo, Associate Fellow Historical Society of Nigeria emphasised the need for a people to know their story and be able to tell it so as not to allow outsiders do it for them.
He lamented the lack of interest among the people in learning about their history, noting that except people know their true story they could be exploited and manipulated by outsiders who will claim to know it.
Former Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), Amleruchi Cookey-Gam, commended the efforts of the organisers of the event, describing it as a worthy effort in trying to correct many things going wrong in the Nigerian society.
Highlight of the event was the draw for secondary schools to participate in the Education Champion League also sponsored by the group, to be held in September.
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