The Governor of Bayelsa
State, Henry Seriake Dickson, could not hold his excitement with the bagging of
the first PhD in Philosophy from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN)
by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo, last Saturday, reports ITRealms.
Dickson while reacting to
the development, called on governments at all levels to commit more attention
to the promotion of education in the country.
Dickson also told ITRealms that education remained the
only route to sustainable stability and development in Nigeria.
According to him, the most
important of all investments any government could do was the development of the
human mind through quality academic efforts.
Dickson, according to his
Special Adviser (Media Relations), Fidelis Soriwei stated this at the 7th
Convocation Ceremony of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Abuja
where former President Olusegun Obasanjo bagged the first PhD in Philosophy.
He called for support for
the NOUN at the federal and state levels to enable he institution to extend
quality education to more Nigerians.
The governor said that
effective education was the only option to guarantee the stability, security,
development and prosperity of the country in view òf her increasing population
which he said would be the third highest in the world in a couple of years.
He said “I call for more
support to this university. A number of our people don’t know that In the next
couple of years, our country will be the third most populous country in on the
face of the earth, after China and India.
“And there is no way, we
can talk of any meaningful stability, of security, of development, of
prosperity unless we have succeeded in creating that critical mass of
enlightened citizenry that can sustain economic prosperity and development and
prosperity
“This issue of education
is so important because every other form of development, in the end is brick
and mortar. It is good to build the roads, and bridges as we are doing, but the
only investment that has the inherent capacity to multiply itself in several
folds, the only investment that does not need repairs is the investment in
human mind.”
The governor who commended
former President for making the efforts to bag a doctorate degree in Philosophy
at his age. He stressed that the award signified the fact that it was never
late to acquire education.
Dickson added that the
Bayelsa State Government had committed N70 billion to the development of
educational infrastructure in the state.
According to him, the
government had built model secondary schools in the headquarters of the eight
local government areas of Bayelsa State which offer free quality education to
students.
Dickson also said that his
administration had commenced the construction of 25 Constituency model schools
across the state.
Uj. N. Dominic/GEE
ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!
