Education, apart from being the most important resource for human development, has also remained the bedrock of national development, Dr Amina El-Imam, a senior lecturer at the Department of Microbiology, University of Ilorin, has said.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that Dr Amina El-Imam said this while responding to questions asked by members of the Kwara state house of assembly during her ‘confirmation hearing’ on Thursday.
The university lecturer, who held everyone spellbound, has also suggested ways to address the ‘Japa syndrome’ noting that Nigerians can replace ‘JAPA’ with ‘JAPADA’ if necessary steps are taken to rectify the situation .
She also suggested that the importance of education should be promoted right from the basic education level while students with excellent results should be celebrated.
‘I say, with the potential Nigeria has and particularly with the trajectory that Kwara state is on, it is quite simple to stop the exodus and convert our ‘JAPA’ to ‘JAPADA’.
And when students from our schools finish and get fantastic results in WASCE, we will not be celebrating them with handshakes. We will make it worth their while. Their names will be engraved in their schools as some of the pillars that motivate others coming behind them. They will be celebrated in more ways than one. They will even be given the opportunity to come into this hallow chamber.
There are many other ways in which we can make education more appealing and attractive. So that they will stop saying, ‘who will education help?’ So that they will know what I knew, what my father knew 40 years ago when he kept saying ‘there is nothing else I can do for you than give you the world’s best education’. And if my father knew that he would rather pay my fees than feed me, and that is the reason I am here today, my story alone will motivate many others to believe in the beauty and power of education’ she said.
Dr Aminat also talked about improving and strengthening healthcare delivery system in the State of Harmony.
‘Healthcare is something that is a sticking point for us in part. Why? Because we have a very young and growing population, we have high maternal mortality. We are blessed. And we are people who are quite diverse in age, in location, in cultural practices, and all of that. And these come with their challenges. Most of the tertiary health institutions in our state are burdened with what I consider primary ailments.
So, if I am, with the acceptance and confirmation by this Honorable House, deployed to the Ministry of Health, I will ensure that the primary and secondary health institutions are strengthened. There are trainings that are conducted to improve and revitalize the manpower of these institutions. They will be expanded as necessary. And even if we do not immediately have permanent medical and nursing staff, we would have locals who would have visiting members of the healthcare sector to ensure that our people are seen quickly, swiftly, and proper and well-passed medical attention is provided to the deserving citizens of Kwara state.
Additionally, because we know that the health sector is particularly beaten by this Japa problem, we will ensure that doctors and nurses are sufficiently incentivized so that they remain at home. The majority of Nigerians want to stay at home.
All they need is just a little better standard than where we currently find ourselves, and then we will come back. Rural areas where we have the higher concentration of population in Kwara state will also see dispensaries, primary healthcare centers, and others being renovated and have staff deployed to them. And there will be specific incentives to motivate people to even say, ‘you know what, post me to the rural areas’. Because what we have is rural-urban migration of professionals all the time. We will make sure that we reverse that flow to saturate our rural areas so that our mothers can live from there, our fathers, our aging population can live devoid of pain and ailments. Additionally, and this is something that is particularly dear to me, I teach about sustainable development sometimes in the university, and most of our parameters in Nigeria are defined by most of the developmental industries that we have. Luckily for Kwara state, we are on uptick.
Even our maternal mortality rates, in a few short years, we went from second worst to second best under Governor Abdurrahman’s leadership. Second best is very good, but we still know that there is nothing stopping us with our potential in Kwara state from being the best state for a woman to be pregnant in Nigeria. This will ensure that we stop losing our young women of reproductive age, who are also the young women at the peak of their careers. And this will ensure that our children are raised healthy and happy’ she said-Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980. Thank you
