A frontline PDP Governorship Aspirant in Imo State, Mr. Ken Ojiri and Former Minister of Education, Prof Fabian Osuji, recently brainstormed on ways of ending societal ills that has sunk deep into the society, thus eroding good societal values.
The duo who spoke at the 2014 National Tertiary Educators Conference on MDGs organized by the Global Educators for All Initiative at Owerri identified several factors responsible for the failure of the Nigerian society in recent times.
Speaking through his Media Chief, Nnamdi Cos-Ukwuoma at the event where he was conferred with the honour of Millennium Development Ambassador recently, Ojiri lamented the extreme decay in our society as a result of abdication of roles by parents, teachers and leaders. In his words, “as parents, teachers and leaders, we must make our influence, positive influence count, not mere rhetoric.”
According to him, children should be helped to develop their unique personality and inherited potentials and talents, with the fear of God. He counseled teachers, who form the first strong influence on the child outside family members to be conscious of their roles to the society, insisting that the sorry state of our society today is as a result of failure of parents, teachers and role models.
He enjoined parents to fulfill their roles to the society by exhibiting positive influence, as the task of raising the ideal child is their first and foremost responsibility that rests solely on them
He thanked the Organizers for the award and asked them to always count on his support.
In his keynote address, Prof Fabian Osuji, former Minister of Education opined that for national development to be achieved in Nigeria, researchable works and learned conference must be sponsored for educators to equip themselves with the current global best practices on education, entrepreneurship, politics, and public service. This, he asserted, will help raise future leaders whose watchword will be selfless service driven by competence and patriotism.
Amb. Chief Livinus Ebo, who chaired the event, in his opening remarks thanked the participants for responding to the clarion call for participation in the conference. He urged them to deliberate critically on the issues at stake and come up with a result which can help the government in her quest to rebuild the grossly dilapidated education sector in Nigeria, a situation he described as the cause of retardation in the country’s economic growth.
Amb. Mrs. Mgbengasha Apakama Ph.D., Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee for the conference, in her welcome address deplored the apathy the public has towards conferences, stressing that conferences of this nature should not be seen as concerning educators alone. She commended participants drawn from various institutions of higher learning within Nigeria for coming, despite obvious economic constraints occasioned by industrial actions in most tertiary institutions in the country.
Apart from the presentation of learned papers on many sub-themes which included such topics as MDGs, tertiary educators and human capital development, MDGs and human rights education, MDGs and agriculture, MDGs and entrepreneurial studies, etc by erudite scholars, it also witnessed the award of Millennium Development Ambassadors to five deserving individuals; four drawn from the academia and one from the public sector.
