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INTRODUCTION.
In 1995, at St John’s University, the former President of the United States of America, President Ronald Reagan captured his vision of what America of the future should be in the following statement, ” We have lived through the age of big industry and the giant Corporations, but i believe that this is the age of the entrepreneur, the age of the individual. That is where American prosperity is coming from and that is where it is going to come in the future”
This statement, though, not totally true for Nigeria, since we cannot boast of equivalent giant corporations and multinationals as that of America, the scenario is not entitely different in Nigeria. Indeed, it is in ” entrepreneurship” that the prosperity of Nigeria of the present and the future lies; and the reasons are obvious.
Unemployment constitutes one of the major problems facing the world today. In Nigeria, the severity of the phenomenon has varied over the year, with successive governments coming up with different measures and policies aimed at reorienting the youths towards self employment, through entrepreneurial education and vocational skills development. Through these efforts, small scale industrialists have been created, which have made contributions in terms of output, employment and export.
Vocational Education can be defined as the science dealing with the body of knowledge organised in a sequence of class room and workshop experiences, of how to use industrial tools, machines and materials in preparing interested youth and adults for a cluster of jobs in a specialised field of technology. From this simple definition, it can be deduced that human resource rather than material resources are key to economic transformation of any nation now and in the future. In other words human resource are the recipe for economic transformation and development of any economy. This is the postulation of Adam Smith in the “Wealth of Nations”. The notion that material resources are the key to development is fallacious. Nigeria and Brazil have tremendous material resources. Japan and Israel have very poor material resources. The difference in the level of the economies of the latter and the former is largely a reflection of manpower of the aforementioned countries.
Technical or Vocational education came into the limelight in the 1960s when the Ashby Commission drew attention to a major defect in the Nigerian education system; namely the strong bias towards traditional literary and academic subjects. This was reflected in the attitude for showing disdain or lack of respect for manual skills and technical achievement. The Commission went on to recommend that Technical streams be introduced into the curriculum of some secondary schools leading to a school certificate Examination which include technical subjects, pointing out that experiments on this pattern have been notably successful in some developing countries, such as Ghana, South Africa and that this was an aspect of secondary education which Nigeria could not afford to ignore.
From the forgoing, it became obvious that Nigerian governments was aware that as a developing economy, the country needed technology to improve her economy. Unfortunately, two mistakes had been made.
a) The first was to assume that material resources were enough to grow and become a prosperous country. The assumption was further reinforced by the oil proceeds through which Nigeria appeared able to purchase everything including economic prosperity and technological advancement.
b) The second delusion, which was also fostered by the oil boom was the possibility of technological transfer, by which it was assumed that an oil rich country could purchase technological-know how from the developed countries. But somehow, it became obvious that technological know-how is the means of subsistence and indeed the trade secret of the developed countries. Certainly, one of the reasons why trado -medical practitioners do not disseminate their knowledge to all and sundry is that they see it as their means of subsistence and livelihood which they are not too eager to part with, otherwise, they become an ordinary being like you and I. The myth will be gone.
In the same vein, technologically advanced countries are only willing to sell their expertise, their services, but not their knowledge, not their formulae, not their trade secrets.
Any country, therefore, that will grow technologically must produce its own technology, its own technologists; its own inventions and its own inventors
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In our technical colleges, it is my belief that focus should be on local technology and its improvement. The raw materials to support this development are abundantly available. Our curricular should lay more emphasis on science and technology.
We also realise that efforts at advancing in technology is in vogue today with DSTV, GSM, LAPTOP, Satellite phones and the likes, but we also know that the capital needed to access these are in short supply, so it is imperative to go back and engage ourselves in our own little ways.
Indians have successfully cultured this concept and today, India is a super power with real and not a perceived nuclear threat. They also contribute 70% of our industrial productive capacity in Nigeria.
The successive Federal governments of Nigeria since independence have always realised the need to accelerate the rate of technological advancement in this country. They also realise that technological advancement implies the development of manpower can only be developed through education. Hence, they always invest heavily in education. The unfortunate thing is that those educated have always had the wrong orientations and the wrong attitudes to technical and vocational education which is pivotal to the nation’s technological advancement.
The new National Policy on education has five main objectives as stated in the various past National Plans, and endorsed as the necessary foundation for the National Policy on Education. They are:
1) A free and democratic society,
2) A just and egalitarian society,
3) A united, strong and self-reliant nation
4) A great and dynamic economy,
5) A land of bright and full opportunities for all citizens.
Some of the values that the Policy expects at all levels are to inculcate:
(1) Respect for the worth and dignity of the individuals
(2) Shared responsibilities for the common good of society
(3) And respect for the dignity of labour
The policy goes on: for the philosophy to be in harmony with Nigeria’s national objectives, it has to be geared towards self actualisation, better human relationships, individual and corporate efficiency, effective citizenship, national unity as well as toward sociocultural, economic, political, scientific and technological progress.
From the foregoing, it must have become obvious that the aims and objectives of vocational education are:
• It is a means of developing its human resources to provide the much needed manpower for its technological and hence socio-economic growth.
• It is a means of securing a job without being an applicant in a country with fast diminishing job opportunities
• It is a means of developing one’s aptitude and talents
• It’s a means of becoming self reliant, self sufficient; a means of livelihood and subsistence for oneself and one’s family
• Most important of all is a means of self realization.
• It’s a means of early discovery of self since aptitudes and abilities are best discovered in the formative years.
• It’s a means of inculcating the right work attitudes and the right manual skills whilst the muscles are still young and malleable
While all we have said is focussing on individual development, to uplift the nation as a whole, we have now realised that National Plans, or States’ Plans without the consent of the beneficiaries will always result in failures. Project development will be abandoned. Educational plans without the input of stakeholders will fail. Agricultural planning without the inputs of practising farmers would not work. This new understanding has led to the beneficiary-driven development (BDD). With Community as a focus, it has led to the Community Driven Development (CDD) this has given rise to the JKF’s stance on Community participation/ Stakeholders initiatives and participation in Budget and Budgetting as well as people’s involvement in Ekiti State’s based poverty reduction projects. These initiatives are to ensure that our people own their government, their projects and the dividends drawn therein.
The government’s objective is two-fold; to bring communities together for their empowerment, and also to reduce poverty. To give them sense of belonging and show interest in governance and how government is run. The ultimate goal is to create corporate wealth and individulal prosperity.
Let us imbibe the concept of self sufficiency, dependency and employment. Let us revive our cultural technological know-how for self sustenance. Let us set ourselves up in the following areas: a) Blacksmithing revival, to produce
1) Cutlasses, Knives, Scissors
– Tye and dye to produce
2) Adire, Kijipa
-Pottery to produce:
3) Pots- a well-designed big water pots that preserves water better and colder than the big refrigerators without electricity in our communities.
-Plates
-Bowls
-Bottoms
4) Soap making to produce
a) White bar soap
b) Green Canoe soap
c) Black soap.
Let us revive and reinvent Ogotun Mats and allied businesses to take our women out of poverty…….
All these will create own markets to support other vocations. We can set up any of these with little resources and employ people. We can imagine dressed -up in the morning in our efforts and walk up to our private concerns and little factories.
Little drops of water make an ocean, and will still do. Poverty is a curse and we can choose to reject it. Prayer will help but remember, heavens help those who help themselves. Take action, seek counsel, diligently follow your plans, manage your resources and ask for divine intervention. As you take a step of faith and DO SOMETHING, by the power of the name of Jesus Christ, all shall be well with you and I assure you, all shall be well.
Thank you for your attention
