Nigeria: Nigeria's Future Lies in Tech, Military Strength - Jonathan, Lumumba

FORMER President Goodluck Jonathan and renowned Kenyan lawyer and pan-Africanist, Prof. PLO Lumumba, have identified technological advancement, educational reform and military strength as critical pillars for securing Nigeria's future and enhancing Africa's standing in the global order.

They spoke at the plenary session of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Yenagoa Branch Law Week held at the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, Conference Hall in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, at the weekend.

While Jonathan called for a comprehensive overhaul of Nigeria's colonial-era education system and increased investment in science, technology and military capability, Lumumba urged African nations to embrace bold policies that would strengthen their economies, institutions and strategic influence.

Speaking on the theme, "Securing the Future," Jonathan lamented that Nigeria was still operating an education system inherited from the colonial era, insisting that the country must redesign its educational framework to meet contemporary realities.

According to him, securing the future begins with deliberate investment in human capital development.

"Before we secure the future, education must be properly planned. In Nigeria, we need a robust restructuring of our educational system. We have not changed from the colonial education system that we inherited," he said.

Drawing comparisons with India's rise in global technology and business, Jonathan noted that many of the world's leading corporations are headed by Indians because of deliberate investments made decades ago in education and manpower development.

"If you look at some of the richest companies in the world today, many of their chief executives are Indians. These things do not happen by chance. It is because that country planned early and prepared the people who would eventually control strategic sectors of the global economy.

"We cannot continue with the kind of educational system we have today. That was why, when I was President, I introduced the Presidential Scholarship for Innovation and Development. We identified critical disciplines in science and technology and selected the brightest minds, particularly first-class graduates, and sent them to some of the best universities in the world so that we could develop men and women capable of moving this country forward."

Jonathan stressed that technological innovation and military capability are indispensable for national relevance in today's world.

"By now, we should be producing missiles, but we have not produced anything that can even trave