Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Wednesday
gave a press conference at the Geneva Press Club to a
packed audience of diplomats, policy makers and
journalists where he gave details of his post presidential
focus and touched on some of the roles his
administration played in key areas of the Nigerian and
West Africa polity, with particular emphasis on Security
and Education.
Read speech below
Press conference on Security, Education and
Development in Africa Geneva Press Club - Wednesday
the 27th of January, 2016
Protocols
Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, I thank you for
coming to hear me speak on the twin issues of education
and security.
Though this event is billed as a press conference on a
Better Security and Education for West Africa, for the
sake of time, I will focus on my experience in government
which gave me a practical demonstration of how
education impacts on security.
I will thereafter touch on my post presidential focus which
is on advancing democracy and good governance in
Africa and increasing access to opportunity for wealth
generation in Africa.
If you peruse the official UNESCO literacy rates by
country, what you will find is that all of the top ten most
literate nations in the world are at peace, while almost all
of the top 10 least literate nations in the world are in a
state of either outright war or general insecurity.
Lower education levels are linked to poverty and poverty
is one of the chief causative factors of crime whether it is
terrorism or militancy or felonies.
With this at the back of my mind, I began the practice of
giving education the highest sectoral allocation beginning
with my very first budget as President in 2011.
My policy was to fight insecurity in the immediate term
using counter insurgency strategies and the military and
for the long term I fought it using education as a tool.
As I have always believed, if we do not spend billions
educating our youths today, we will spend it fighting
insecurity tomorrow. And you do not have to spend on
education just because of insecurity. It is also the prudent
thing to do.
Nigeria, or any African nation for that matter, can never
become wealthy by selling more minerals or raw
materials such as oil. Our wealth as a nation is between
the ears of our people.
It is no coincidence that the Northeast epicenter of
terrorism in Nigeria is also the region with the highest
rate of illiteracy and the least developed part of Nigeria.
In Nigeria, the Federal Government actually does not have
a responsibility for primary and secondary education, but
I could not in good conscience stomach a situation
where 52.4% of males in the Northeastern region of
Nigeria have no formal Western education.
The figure is even worse when you take into account the
states most affected by the insurgency.
83.3% of male population in Yobe state have no
formal Western education. In Borno state it is 63.6%.
Bearing this in mind is it a coincidence that the Boko
Haram insurgency is strongest in these two states?
So even though we did not have a responsibility for
primary and secondary education going by the way the
Nigerian federation works, I felt that where I had ability, I
also had responsibility even if the constitution said it was
not my responsibility.
Knowing that terrorism thrives under such conditions my
immediate goal was to increase the penetration of
Western education in the region while at the same time
making sure that the people of the region did not see it as
a threat to their age old practices of itinerant Islamic
education known as Almajiri.
For the first time in Nigeria's history, the Federal
Government which I led, set out to build 400 Almajiri
schools with specialized curricula that combined Western
and Islamic education. 160 of them had been completed
before I left office.
I am also glad to state that when I emerged as President
of Nigeria on May 6th 2010, there were nine states in the
Northern part of the country that did not have
universities. By the time I left office on the 29th of May
2015, there was no Nigerian state without at least one
Federal University.
Now the dearth of access to formal education over years
created the ideal breeding ground for terror to thrive in
parts of Nigeria but there are obviously other dimensions
to the issue of insecurity in Nigeria and particularly
terrorism.
You may recall that the fall of the Gaddafi regime in
August 2011 led to a situation where sophisticated
weapons fell into the hands of a number of non state
actors with attendant increase in terrorism and instability
in North and West Africa.
The administration I headed initiated partnership across
West Africa to contain such instability in nations such as
Mali, which I personally visited in furtherance of peace.
And with those countries contiguous to Nigeria, especially
nations around the Lake Chad Basin, we formed a
coalition for the purpose of having a common front
against terrorists through the revived Multinational Joint
Task Force (MNJTF).
Those efforts continue till today and have in large part
helped decimate the capacity of Boko Haram.
Another aspect of the anti terror war we waged in Nigeria
that has not received enough attention is our effort to
improve on our intelligence gathering capacity.
Prior to my administration, Nigeria's intelligence
architecture was designed largely around regime
protection, but through much sustained effort we were
able to build capacity such that our intelligence agencies
were able to trace and apprehend the masterminds
behind such notorious terror incidences as the Christmas
Day bombing of the St. Theresa Catholic Church in
Madalla, Niger State.
Other suspects were also traced and arrested including
those behind the Nyanya and Kuje bombings.
Not only did we apprehend suspects, but we tried and
convicted some of them including the ring leader of the
Madalla bombing cell, Kabir Sokoto, who is right now
serving a prison sentence.
But leadership is about the future. I am sure you have
not come here to hear me talk about the way backward.
You, like everyone else, want to hear about the way
forward.
I am no longer in office, and I no longer have executive
powers on a national level. However, I am more
convinced now than ever about the nexus between
education and security.
My foundation, The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, was
formed to further democracy, good governance and
wealth generation in Africa.
Of course, Charity begins at home and for the future,
what Nigeria needs is to focus on making education a
priority.
Thankfully, the administration that succeeded mine in its
first budget, appears to have seen wisdom in continuing
the practice of giving education the highest sectoral
allocation. This is commendable.
I feel that what people in my position, statesmen and
former leaders, ought to be doing is to help build
consensus all over Africa, to ensure that certain issues
should not be politicized.
Education is one of those issues. If former African
leaders can form themselves into an advisory group to
gently impress on incumbent leaders the necessity of
meeting the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommended allocation
of 26% of a nations annual budget on education, I am
certain that Africa will make geometric progress in
meeting her Millennium Development Goals and
improving on every index of the Human Development
Index.
Data has shown that as spending on education increases,
health and well being increases and incidences of
maternal and infant mortality reduce.
In Nigeria for instance, Average Life Expectancy had
plateaued in the mid 40s for decades, but after 2011,
when we began giving education the highest sectoral
allocation, according to the United Nations, Nigeria
enjoyed her highest increase in Average Life Expectancy
since records were kept. We moved from an Average Life
Expectancy of 47 years before 2011 to 54 years by 2015.
I had earlier told you about the connection between
education and insecurity.
I believe that it is the job of former leaders and elder
statesmen to convince Executive and Legislative
branches across Africa to work together to achieve the
UNESCO recommended percentage as a barest minimum.
I intend to offer my services, through The Goodluck
Jonathan Foundation, for this purpose and I invite
interested organizations to help us make this happen.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press, this, in a nutshell are
some of my thoughts for a Better Security and Education
for Africa and I will now entertain your questions.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/jonathan-at-geneva-how-i-tackled-boko-haram/

Waiting.....

OK I know some people will say that the statement is not correct, that it is poverty that is causing it. But in your mind, did you believe the Southern Nigeria with high level of education can do what the Boko haram are doing to their brothers?
It is imposicant.

Rubbish, what does a fox in a sheep skin got to tell the world; it would probably be lies upon lies. I pity Gej so much because its good for a man to go through bad situation before experiencing good situation than vice versa.

Wailers for your information Gej is the worst president in Nigeria democracy ara.

Wailers kindly help us to deliver our message to Gej that his prison and that of Okonjo wala are under construction.

K

Okay