A new World Bank report has highlighted poverty and illiteracy as two reasons Nigeria’s human development ranking is still low.
The report said, “Nigerians are relatively poor, with about 46 per cent of the population living in absolute poverty and there is high inequality. Nigeria still faces considerable human development challenges, with poor human development indicators, high regional disparities, and huge pockets of extreme poverty, ranked 156 out of 187 countries on the human development index”.
Whilst addressing the report, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Dakuku Peterside said Nigeria should take remedial steps to ensure that the country is not engulfed by the human development challenges.
Peterside said: “What seems to be cheering news from this depressing verdict is that the bank’s State Education Investment Project would provide $150m credit facilities to Ekiti, Bauchi and Anambra states in partnership with the federal government.”
He said Nigerians should take the report seriously as failure to invest in education was dangerous.
“This is why we must constantly remind ourselves that everything that makes life worth living or makes a country great no matter how small, only begins with education because it is the foundation of everything. Today, part of our reality, sadly though, is this decrepit state of education which is no longer a secret. That the gates of our country’s universities have remained shut since July 1, 2013 should naturally give us nightmares. But we are busy trading blames and playing politics with the future of the next generation. These developments in my opinion are indications that we may be headed for a very long night in the education sector,” he said.