Ezekwesili tasks Nigerians on solutions to challenges

The former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has charged Nigerians to get involved in efforts at addressing the numerous challenges facing the country.

Ezekwesili made the call when her team at the Human Capital Africa (HCA), an accountability initiative, visited the Not Forgotten Initiative School, a non-profit school, on Thursday in Abuja.

She noted that Nigeria was bedeviled with serious challenges, saying no government, no matter how good, can solve them alone.

The minister said: “There is a classic failure in governance that creates the kinds of problems and situations we have in the areas of delivery of basic services like education and health to our citizens.

“But then there is also the part where this initiative doesn’t necessarily have to be because of the failure of the government. It is rather an initiative where citizens are showing that they can be contributors to solving society’s multiple needs. The kinds of needs that we have are humongous, that even the best government acting alone would not be able to solve all of them.

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“So all citizens must be part of the process of solving problems in society. But I think that what the initiative does is that, it will create an example so that the government will see that if you did this kind of a program in a certain kind of way, the children in the school will actually not just come to school, but that they will learn literacy and numeracy, which is a major challenge.

“Tosin looked around her environment and saw children who were out of school. They are children of parents that live in those makeshift houses that you see around in this neighbourhood in Asokoro. Then, she decided that she must do something about it and ensure that they get an education, and she started literally under the tree.”

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