Buhari Charges African Leaders On Development Of Quality Education

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday charged African leaders to provide quality education in their various countries.

Buhari, according to a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, made the call in his address at the African Union (AU) Summit on Industrialisation and Economic Diversification held in Niamey, Niger Republic.

He urged the leaders to rejig their educational systems to reflect the advancement in science and technology as this would help to raise a generation of industrial managers on the continent.

Buhari said: “Your excellencies, the African continent is blessed with a large youth population that can address our labour shortages. Therefore, we should tap this human resource potential that abounds in the continent by providing our youths with qualitative and fit-for-purpose education that recognises the labour market demands.

”In this regard, we must rejig our educational system and academic curricula to gravitate towards science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This is the short way we can produce the next generation of managers for the industrial complex we envisage, one that will not be dependent on expatriates.

”They are the solution to the socio-economic challenges that have bedevilled Africa, particularly those worsened by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia- Ukraine war, as well as the effects of climate change, terrorism and banditry.

”Chairperson, let me call on all African leaders, our development partners and the organized private sector to team up and fashion a collaboration that will ultimately lead Africa to achieve full industrialisation by the year 2030.”