Opeyemi Bamidele: With quality education, Nigeria can produce its own Elon Musk, Bezos

Opeyemi Bamidele, the senate majority leader, says governments at all levels, corporate organisations, and philanthropists should invest more meaningfully in education.

Bamidele said doing so is the key to producing global billionaires and world-class brands in Nigeria.

He spoke at the 29th convocation of Ekiti State University, where he was conferred with a doctor of law (Honoris Causa).

Bamidele noted that developed nations have leveraged education to achieve their growth objectives and tackle major challenges.

“When I talk about quality education, I mean the kind of education that liberates minds; that meaningfully transforms generations and that unlocks doors to limitless opportunities across all sectors,” he said.

“In this sense, education is a veritable tool that all developed and emerging countries the world over have leveraged to get to where they are today.

‘This tool is equally available to us as a people in the pursuit of our national aspiration.”

Bamidele said there is a need to create not just an enabling environment but also a highly competitive one for Nigeria to thrive globally.

“It also entails purposeful public investments in our younger generations, and we act now,” he said.

“It, no doubt, demands sustained and strategic support from private interests across all sectors that produce the global brands and billionaires.

“This is the credible template that produced Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla; Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon Inc; Mark Zuckerberg, Co-founder of Facebook and Instagram; Larry Page, CEO of Google; Warren Buffet, the proud owner of Berkshire Hathaway Inc and many more.

“It is now time for us all to leverage the tool of quality education to produce our own global billionaires and brands. But we cannot achieve it by accident or by chance, but by strategic planning and aggressive pursuit of those plans.

“We may not achieve it without redefining our national priority and investing meaningfully in people.

“In essence, education that liberates minds is the only answer to our desired ends. And the earlier we start investing more strategically in our people, the better for us as a federation.”

The senate leader challenged public and private actors “to return to the drawing board, reflect on this message and recommit ourselves to the task of investing more meaningfully in people”.

“This message should be a significant part of our takeaways from this historic convocation,” he added.

He urged stakeholders to reassess their priorities and commit to investing more meaningfully in people.

Ayodele Joseph, the vice-chancellor of the university, listed Bamidele’s interventions to include the facilitation of male and female hostels for medical students, a mini stadium within the university, and an FM radio station.