Date: 2018-05-21

To reinvent nation's manufacturing sector, governments would need to encourage technical education, a Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State, Alhaji Hakeem Lawal, has said.

While describing technical education as a key component of educational system, Lawal also identified technicians in the manufacturing industry as the lifeline of the economy.

He stated this in his lecture titled "The Role of the Youths and Education in National Development", which he delivered at the second matriculation ceremony of Pan African College of Education Offa, Offa Local Government Area of the state.

Of 105 matriculants of the institution, the PDP chieftain sponsored 100 of them on three years scholarship.

Lawal, a governorship aspirant of the PDP in the 2015 general elections, explained that Nigeria has chosen to be manufacturing based economy but stressed that quality of labour otherwise known as human capital is essential to grow the economy.

He expressed concern that many Nigerians were desirous of securing admission into the nation's ivory tower with little attention for technical education.

The PDP stalwart wondered why those in the workforce scramble to be in the management cadre of an organisation not minding the place of technical aspect, which he pointed out, critical for economy to blossom.

"Human capital development is the key to our economic development. Human capital development is the quality of labour we put in the market. If the people you put in the market are not educated, you know that there is nobody who is going to run those factories or those industries you want to build.

"There are two types of economic development. It is either you are manufacturing based economy or you are service based economy. Where we are in Nigeria today, we have chosen to be a manufacturing based economy. If you are going to be a manufacturing based economy, it means that the key and quality of our labour, which is our human capital, is essential.

"Everybody wants to go to University. But for most developing economies, we have to have it synergised or arranged. There is need for us to go to Technical Schools, there is need for those in Polytechnic and Colleges of Education and there is need for those University.

"In any manufacturing economy, there are those who run the factories. Those are the technical people, those are the engineers, those are the ones that we cannot do without.

"But a lot of people psychologically believe that they all want to be management level. You will grow to management level but we must cater and have people who will take care of those manufacturing things. You in the country taking care of those manufacturing things are the lifeline of the economy. We all have something to contribute and I believe that we must begin to look at it from that perspective", Lawal said.

The PDP Chieftain said there was need for stakeholders and students to be conversant with quality and substandard education so as to set their priority right.

"Education is key to our development, we all know that. But there are two categories of education; quality and substandard education. The quality education comes from the facilities, infrastructure and the standard, which is monitored by the government.

"It enables you to open your mind, be yourself, express yourself, reason for yourself and develop who you are inside. It doesn't teach you to follow anybody or be subservient to anybody. You have talents and blessed in different ways. When you got education that encourages those talents, each one of you have a skill that is blessed and given to you by God. When you are given the opportunity to express yourself in those things, we refer to it as quality education.

"For the sub-standard education, it is when you go to school that is not regulated, the courses you do are not even accredited. They don't encourage you to be yourself and aspire to be what you want to be. They tell you I give you handout, if you don't give me something back for the handout, you are not going to pass the exam. That is what I referred to as substandard education. This type of education can have different impacts on our national development", he added.

At the ceremony, which attracted creme de la creme of the society, Lawal was presented with prestigious award.