Goodluck Jonathan Addressed the Global Community in Geneva

7/25/2019 Goodluck Jonathan Addressed the Global Community in Geneva

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Nigerias former President, Goodluck Jonathan on

Wednesday January 27, 2016 addressed the gloal

community in Gene!a, "#it$erland at a %&ress

conference' hosted y the Gene!a Press (lu) *elo# the

full te+t of the s&eech in #hich he ga!e insights on"ecurity, ducation and -e!elo&ment in .frica )

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 ducation for !est "frica, for the sake of time, I will

focus on my e#perience 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 "frica and

increasing access to opportunity for wealth generation in "frica.

If you peruse the o$cial %&S'( literacy rates by country, what

you will )nd is that all of the top ten most literate nations in the

world are at peace, while almost all of the top *+ least literate

nations in the world are in a state of either outright war or generalinsecurity.

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.

!ith this at the back of my mind, I began the practice of giving

education the highest sectoral allocation beginning with my very

)rst budget as resident in -+**.

y policy was to )ght insecurity in the immediate term usingcounter insurgency strategies and the military and for the long

term I fought it using education as a tool.

"s I have always believed, if we do not spend billions educating

our youths today, we will spend it )ghting insecurity tomorrow.


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"nd you do not have to spend on education /ust because of

insecurity. It is also the prudent thing to do.

&igeria, or any "frican nation for that matter, can never become

wealthy by selling more minerals or raw materials such as oil. (ur

wealth as a nation is between the ears of our people.

It is no coincidence that the &ortheast epicenter of terrorism in

&igeria is also the region with the highest rate of illiteracy and the

least developed part of &igeria.

In &igeria, the 0ederal Government actually does not have a

responsibility for primary and secondary education, but I could

not in good conscience stomach a situation where 1-.23 of males

in the &ortheastern region of &igeria have no formal !estern

education.

The )gure is even worse when you take into account the states

most a4ected by the insurgency.

56.63 of male population in 7obe state have no formal !estern

education. In Borno state it is 86.83.

Bearing this in mind is it a coincidence that the Boko 9aram

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 &igerian federation

works, I felt that where I had ability, I also had responsibility even

if the constitution said it was not my responsibility.

;nowing that terrorism thrives under such conditions my

immediate goal was to increase the penetration of !estern

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 "lma/iri.

0or the )rst time in &igeria


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I am also glad to state that when I emerged as resident of

&igeria on ay 8th -+*+, there were nine states in the &orthern

part of the country that did not have universities. By the time I

left o$ce on the ->th of ay -+*1, there was no &igerian state

without at least one 0ederal %niversity.&ow the dearth of access to formal education over years created

the ideal breeding ground for terror to thrive in parts of &igeria

but there are obviously other dimensions to the issue of insecurity

in &igeria and particularly terrorism.

7ou may recall that the fall of the Gadda) regime in "ugust -+**

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 &orth and !est "frica.

The administration I headed initiated partnership across !est

"frica to contain such instability in nations such as ali, which I

personally visited in furtherance of peace.

"nd with those countries contiguous to &igeria, especially nations

around the Lake 'had Basin, we formed a coalition for the

purpose of having a common front against terrorists through the

revived ultinational ?oint Task 0orce @&?T0A.

Those e4orts continue till today and have in large part helped

decimate the capacity of Boko 9aram.

"nother aspect of the anti terror war we waged in &igeria that has

not received enough attention is our e4ort to improve on our

intelligence gathering capacity.

rior to my administration, &igeria


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(ther suspects were also traced and arrested including those

behind the &yanya and ;u/e bombings.

&ot only did we apprehend suspects, but we tried and convicted

some of them including the ring leader of the adalla bombing

cell, ;abir 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. 7ou, like everyone

else, want to hear about the way forward.

I am no longer in o$ce, and I no longer have e#ecutive powers on

a national level. 9owever, I am more convinced now than ever

about the ne#us between education and security.

y foundation, The Goodluck ?onathan 0oundation, was formed tofurther democracy, good governance and wealth generation in

"frica.

(f course, 'harity begins at home and for the future, what &igeria

needs is to focus on making education a priority.

Thankfully, the administration that succeeded mine in its )rst

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

"frica, to ensure that certain issues should not be politici=ed.

ducation is one of those issues. If former "frican leaders can

form themselves into an advisory group to gently impress on

incumbent leaders the necessity of meeting the %nited &ations

ducational, Scienti)c and 'ultural (rgani=ation @%&S'(A

recommended allocation of -83 of a nations annual budget oneducation, I am certain that "frica will make geometric progress

in meeting her illennium evelopment Goals and improving on

every inde# of the 9uman evelopment Inde#.


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ata has shown that as spending on education increases, health

and well being increases and incidences of maternal and infant

mortality reduce.

In &igeria for instance, "verage Life #pectancy had plateaued in

the mid 2+s for decades, but after -+**, when we began givingeducation the highest sectoral allocation, according to the %nited

&ations, &igeria en/oyed her highest increase in "verage Life

#pectancy since records were kept. !e moved from an "verage

Life #pectancy of 2C years before -+** to 12 years by -+*1.

I had earlier told you about the connection between education

and insecurity.

I believe that it is the /ob of former leaders and elder statesmen

to convince #ecutive and Legislative branches across "frica to

work together to achieve the %&S'( recommended percentage

as a barest minimum.

I intend to o4er my services, through The Goodluck ?onathan

0oundation, for this purpose and I invite interested organi=ations

to help us make this happen.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, this, in a nutshell are some ofmy thoughts for a Better Security and ducation for "frica and I

will now entertain your Duestions.

&S

EESee Felated story and pictures here httpHHl/)les.blogspot.ugH

Goodluck Jonathan Addressed the Global Community in Geneva

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