By Yemi Adeleye/Lucy Osuzigbo
Lagos – Alhaji Yusuf Agboola, the Chairman, Community Development Committee, Orile-Agege Local Council Development Area (LCDA), has called for free education at all levels to end hunger and poverty in the country.
Agboola spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday on the sideline of a seminar organised by the Campaign for Constitutionalism and Human Rights (CCHR) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
According to him, free education from primary to tertiary levels is possible if government manages national resources prudently.
He said that education remained the only tool to take Nigeria out of its current socioeconomic, political, religious and security challenges.
“Whatever plans government makes should be plans that will impact positively on the lives and wellbeing of the people, especially the masses.
“All the children (male and female) must go through normal education. Everything starts from education. If education is accessible to all, our country will be better than what it is today.
“In all honesty, free education is possible if the government wants to do it. I remember in those days, I enjoyed free education in my last year of elementary school when it started in 1955.
“Thereafter, when the secondary education was made free, my children enjoyed it.
“God has so blessed this country that if our economy is well planned and properly handled and we are not wasteful, we can actually do free education from primary to tertiary level,” Agboola said.
On hunger and poverty in the country, the community leader said that many families were facing the problem as a result of economic hardship.
“We were young in the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, I don’t think there was hunger and poverty in the land.
“There was free education, free healthcare, we slept well, ate and drank well and we were happy to go to school because the government of the day knew what they were doing and were particular about the welfare of the citizenry.
“My message to the present administration is to please put the interest of the masses at heart and rule with the fear of God.
“This government should do everything to end hunger and poverty. Government needs to see what to do to reintroduce free education from primary to secondary and even at the tertiary level; it is possible if it is well planned,” he said.
According to him, God has endowed the country with so many resources, saying “it is only mismanagement that is our problem and that led us to poverty and hunger.”
Agboola, who urged citizens to perform their duties, said it was imperative for community leaders to educate the people on the SDGs.
Mr Toyin Raheem, the Executive Secretary of CCHR, had at the seminar called on President Mohammadu Buhari to redouble efforts at ending hunger and poverty in the country.
Raheem urged the Federal Government to adhere to the SDGs.
