Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan today gave a press conference at the Geneva Press Club to a packed audience of diplomats, policy makers and journalists where he gave details of his post presidential focus and touched on some of the roles his administration played in key areas of the Nigerian and West Africa polity, with particular emphasis on Security and Education.
Below are extracts of his remarks and pictures from the event....
Protocols
Ladiesand Gentlemen of the press, I thank you for coming to hear me speak on the twinissues of education and security.
Thoughthis event is billed as a press conference on a Better Security and Educationfor West Africa, for the sake of time, I will focus on my experience ingovernment which gave me a practical demonstration of how education impacts onsecurity.
I willthereafter touch on my post presidential focus which is on advancing democracyand good governance in Africa and increasing access to opportunity for wealthgeneration in Africa.
If youperuse the official UNESCO literacy rates by country, what you will find isthat all of the top ten most literate nations in the world are at peace, whilealmost all of the top 10 least literate nations in the world are in a state ofeither outright war or general insecurity.
Lowereducation levels are linked to poverty and poverty is one of the chiefcausative factors of crime whether it is terrorism or militancy or felonies.
Withthis at the back of my mind, I began the practice of giving education thehighest sectoral allocation beginning with my very first budget as President in2011.
Mypolicy was to fight insecurity in the immediate term using counter insurgencystrategies and the military and for the long term I fought it using educationas a tool.
As Ihave always believed, if we do not spend billions educating our youths today,we will spend it fighting insecurity tomorrow. And you do not have to spend oneducation just because of insecurity. It is also the prudent thing to do.
Nigeria,or any African nation for that matter, can never become wealthyby selling more minerals or raw materials such as oil. Our wealth as a nationis between the ears of our people.
It isno coincidence that the Northeast epicenter of terrorism in Nigeria is also theregion with the highest rate of illiteracy and the least developed part ofNigeria.
InNigeria, the Federal Government actually does not have a responsibility forprimary and secondary education, but I could not in good consciencestomach a situation where 52.4% of males in the Northeastern region of Nigeriahave no formal Western education.
Thefigure is even worse when you take into account the states most affected by theinsurgency.
83.3%of male population in Yobe state have no formal Western education. InBorno state it is 63.6%.
Bearingthis in mind is it a coincidence that the Boko Haram insurgency is strongest inthese two states?
So eventhough we did not have a responsibility for primary and secondary educationgoing by the way the Nigerian federation works, I felt that where I hadability, I also had responsibility even if the constitution said it was not myresponsibility.
Knowingthat terrorism thrives under such conditions my immediate goal was to increasethe penetration of Western education in the region while at the same timemaking sure that the people of the region did not see it as a threat to theirage old practices of itinerant Islamic education known as Almajiri.
For thefirst time in Nigeria's history, the Federal Government which I led, set out tobuild 400 Almajiri schools with specialized curricula that combined Western andIslamic education. 160 of them had been completed before I left office.
I amalso glad to state that when I emerged as President of Nigeria on May 6th 2010,there were nine states in the Northern part of the country that did not haveuniversities. By the time I left office on the 29th of May 2015, there was noNigerian state without at least one Federal University.
Now thedearth of access to formal education over years created the ideal breedingground for terror to thrive in parts of Nigeria but there are obviously otherdimensions to the issue of insecurity in Nigeria and particularly terrorism.
You mayrecall that the fall of the Gaddafi regime in August 2011 led to a situationwhere sophisticated weapons fell into the hands of a number of non state actorswith attendant increase in terrorism and instability in North and West Africa.
Theadministration I headed initiated partnership across West Africa to containsuch instability in nations such as Mali, which I personally visited infurtherance of peace.
Andwith those countries contiguous to Nigeria, especially nations around the LakeChad Basin, we formed a coalition for the purpose of having a common frontagainst terrorists through the revived Multinational Joint TaskForce (MNJTF).
Thoseefforts continue till today and have in large part helped decimate the capacityof Boko Haram.
Anotheraspect of the anti terror war we waged in Nigeria that has not received enoughattention is our effort to improve on our intelligence gathering capacity.
Priorto my administration, Nigeria's intelligence architecture was designed largelyaround regime protection, but through much sustained effort we were able tobuild capacity such that our intelligence agencies were able to trace andapprehend the masterminds behind such notorious terror incidences as theChristmas Day bombing of the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, NigerState.
Othersuspects were also traced and arrested including those behind the Nyanya andKuje bombings.
Notonly did we apprehend suspects, but we tried and convicted some of themincluding the ring leader of the Madalla bombing cell, KabirSokoto, who isright now serving a prison sentence.
Butleadership is about the future. I am sure you have not come here to hear metalk about the way backward. You, like everyone else, want to hear about theway forward.
I am nolonger in office, and I no longer have executive powers on a national level.However, I am more convinced now than ever about the nexus between educationand security.
Myfoundation, The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, was formed to further democracy,good governance and wealth generation in Africa.
Ofcourse, Charity begins at home and for the future, what Nigeria needs is tofocus on making education a priority.
Thankfully,the administration that succeeded mine in its first budget, appears to haveseen wisdom in continuing the practice of giving education the highest sectoralallocation. This is commendable.
I feelthat what people in my position, statesmen and former leaders, ought to bedoing is to help build consensus all over Africa, to ensure that certain issuesshould not be politicized.
Educationis one of those issues. If former African leaders can form themselves into anadvisory group to gently impress on incumbent leaders the necessity of meetingthe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)recommended allocation of 26% of a nations annual budget on education, I amcertain that Africa will make geometric progress in meeting her MillenniumDevelopment Goals and improving on every index of the Human DevelopmentIndex.
Datahas shown that as spending on education increases, health and well beingincreases and incidences of maternal and infant mortality reduce.
InNigeria for instance, Average Life Expectancy had plateaued in the mid 40s fordecades, but after 2011, when we began giving education the highest sectoralallocation, according to the United Nations, Nigeria enjoyed her highestincrease in Average Life Expectancy since records were kept. We moved from anAverage Life Expectancy of 47 years before 2011 to 54 years by 2015.
I hadearlier told you about the connection between education and insecurity.
Ibelieve that it is the job of former leaders and elder statesmen to convinceExecutive and Legislative branches across Africa to work together to achievethe UNESCO recommended percentage as a barest minimum.
Iintend to offer my services, through The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, for thispurpose and I invite interested organizations to help us make this happen.
Ladiesand gentlemen of the press, this, in a nutshell are some of my thoughts for aBetter Security and Education for Africa and I will now entertain your questions.
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