There is a need to utilise indigenous knowledge and attitude, apart from education and technology, which have always been in use to scale up and propel development in the country.

Professor Olabode Popoola, a discussant in the 7th edition of Sustainable Conversations, an annual event organised by ThistlePraxis Consulting, a multilateral and Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), in partnership with Etisalat Telecommunication Company, gave the disclosure. This year’s theme was: ‘#SDGs: Fast-tracking targets through technology and education,’ and was held at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.

Buttressing his point, He added that “we cannot assume that one or two disciplines can solve the problem of development. This is why we have to include curricula that is inter and multidisciplinary in nature, to train leaders in development who understands it in technology.”

Speaking further on the issue of lack of proper impartation of education knowledge, as far as problem of teachers’ motivation and quality is concerned, Professor Popoola lamented that “it is those who do not have choices and are rejected are the ones we have in teaching line now. That is why we have problems. It is a societal problem too. When we were growing up, we had good teachers. We had models.

“We have a problem in the education sector, but I don't want to defend the university system in Nigeria, because we still have many scholars in the country. We run a university system that is highly and unnecessarily political. In that case, we cannot make progress.”

He also blamed the society and government for the decay for not also expecting results, asking that the society and government must demand results from the university system and research institutes in the country. “We need positive attitude to all these.”

He however advised government to sponsor teachers, so that we can have quality and well-trained ones.

Speaking earlier, Lead Consultant of the Organisation, Ini Onuk Abimbola, while welcoming participants, noted that the programme was borne out of the need to promote development and leadership in our country. She identified that “We know the problems we are facing but we must not go back to it. That is why we want to have solution-oriented discussions. We need to stop rehashing the problems.

“The public sector has a role to play but where are we? Sustainability is a very difficult aspect for any nation to get into. That is why we want to use two things to achieve some goals; education and technology. We are positioning this as we are tired of talking about our problems and even more tired of arguing about it but need to partner with the government to find lasting solutions so that we can move forward.”

A discussant, Soromidayo George, Director, Corporate Affairs, Unilever Nigeria, during her contribution, maintained that the problem we have is lack of understanding to drive development, saying that there is a huge part of the assignment on the private sector. She said: “private sector has a pivotal role to play in driving sustainable development goal.

“We have to be more prepared because there are many opportunities for more businesses to get involved in solving development problems. We need to change our paradigms and drive it. We need to begin to sensitise the government agencies and public in general, because it is interwoven. We need a framework for implementation as a whole. Education has to be done speedily. We can go by campaigns.”

Laying emphasis on technology and aspect of e-learning in education, Yusuf Kazaure, one of the discussants, offered that it is almost impossible we achieve SDGs, without the proper use of technological tools, to develop as a country.

“By the year of 2050, Nigeria will surpass US in terms of population which would be youthful.”

George added: “E-learning may be the way because Nigerians are tech-savvy. Nigerians must be able to key into the aspect of e-learning, and government also needs to annex these aspects to start moving forward.”

He decried the state of compliance of lecturers in Nigerian Universities, saying that "our universities and lecturers today are still analogue, and they are the ones teaching this generation. If we do not address this fundamental issue, in that we cannot have a teacher that can use ICTs in a better way, it is grossly discouraging.

“We are part of a global family and we must not continue to pretend so as not to fail in moving in the direction of development. Also, there is a role for private and public sector. And majorly, the government must lead us in the direction. Technology is a black box and it is about time we focused on it. In our concept of technology and education, there must be a paradigm shift. We need a framework that would be elucidated to everybody,” he said.

A participant also contributed that there is a need for us to talk about family planning and control if we are looking at development control.

“This is an aspect which is always being neglected during a discourse like this.” He lamented that overpopulation is a menace to the development of this country.

•Photo shows Education Minister Adamu Adamu.