Dr David Oyedepo, the Pro-Chancellor, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun, has hinged the nation’s overall development on commitment to huge investment in education by the government.
He said the level of education of the citizenry would help to drive nation building and development.
Oyedepo spoke at the institution’s 5th inaugural lecture on Saturday in Ota.
The theme of the lecture is “Sustainable Engineering: A vital Approach to Innovation Product Development and Community Capacity Building.”
He said:“People need to be educated before they can partner with stakeholders to achieve meaningful development.
“Development will never be a product of political ideology because no political platform will attain meaningful development.’’
Supporting the national campaign for change, Oyedepo urged Nigerians to change their approach and attitude to issues.
“’Nothing will change until our approach to issue change because each Nigerian needs to play a role by taking responsibility.”
The founder of Living Faith Church a.k.a Winners Chapel advised the Federal Government to review its investment policy on education.
According to him, there must be huge investment in the sector before any meaningful development can be achieved in the country.
“Every development in all the nations involves heavy investment in education,’’ he said.
He said Nigeria should take a cue from the huge investment of America and Britain.
Also speaking, Prof. Israel Dunmade of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the university, advocated consistency in education policy by government at all levels, particularly in engineering curriculum.
He said undergraduates in the Nigerian universities should be exposed to what he called technical multi-disciplinary engineering programme.
Dunmade noted that Nigeria’s heavy dependence on imported technology would hinder its technological advancement.
The don also advised the Federal Government to ensure consistency in policies in a bid to develop local technology.
He urged the government to focus more on capacity building particularly at the grassroots.
“The strength of a chain is determined by the strength of its weakest link.
“The foundation of a house determines how many storey buildings can be built on it.
“The nation needs massive investment in education in terms of research to have sustainable engineering and innovative product development that will boost infrastructure in all sectors of the economy,” he said.
Also commenting, the institution’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charles Ayo, said:“Until the nation gets to the right path of development, it will never be one of the nations to be reckoned with in terms of technology.
“Putting Nigeria on the right path of development, we need to ask the following questions — where are we presently? where do we desire to be as a nation? what do we do to transform Nigeria to one of the technology-driven nations?”
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