Elder Statesman and President, Board of Trustees, Nigeria Conservation Foundation (NCF), Chief Phillip Asiodu yesterday tasked the Federal Government to abolish illiteracy within the next 15 to 20 years.
He said Nigeria should aggressively pursue education for the future with a view to fast-tracking the growth and development of the economy.
Asiodu spoke on the sidelines of the Annual General Meeting of the NCF held at Lekki Conservation Centre in Lagos.
He spoke just as the foundation kicked against the planned destruction of forest by the Cross River State Government for the construction of a superhighway in the state.
Asiodu lamented that Nigeria was already 50 years behind despite being ahead of the Asian tigers.
He however said this is not the time to despair while charging the government to come up with a recovery template that would be sustainable and devoid of political consideration.
He stressed that Nigeria should invest the oil windfalls on developing renewable resources and also develop a green recovery template to return Nigeria to 25 percent forest cover within the next 30 years, saying the country’s landmass under forest cover is just five percent currently.
According to him, education is key to Nigeria’s greatness in all spheres.
"We have not aggressively dealt with education. Nigeria should abolish illiteracy within 15 years, 20 years maximum. We should give ourselves the education for the future and once we do that, then we can grow this economy from the next five years, at 15 percent per annum. Look at the tremendous things South Korea achieved. Japan has no iron, has no oil, has no gas, it is number two economy in the world today. So this is what we must address and the future will be bright.
"We must go back to planning. We must go back to say where should Nigeria be in 20 years time; 2040, 2050? Let politics be about who can do it better so that it is not when you have a change of government, programmes are abandoned."
On the planned destruction of forest by Cross River Government, the elder statesman said the area set aside was being developed by NCF through international collaboration.
Director General of NCF, Mr. Adeniyi Karounwi said the foundation is not against infrastructural development but destroying the forest especially when there are alternatives would not augur well for the nation with already depleted forest cover.
He said, "NCF is not against infrastructural development. We are for sustainable development and what we are saying, if there are alternatives, they should leave the forest alone because the problems that we are having in Nigeria is that the percentage of the land mass that is under forest cover is less than five percent and the minimum is supposed to be five percent according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
"So if the remaining forest that we have and Cross River State happens to be the major area where we have those forests and if those forests are destroyed because a superhighway is going to be constructed, that’s not good for Nigeria.
So what we are saying is if there is already an existing road which probably is longer. What you should do is to use that and leave the forest alone."
The Chairman, National Executive Council of the foundation, Chief Ede Dafinone urged Nigerians to plant more trees and release less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to reverse the effect of climate change.
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