 Like the old saying goes, the value of a loving father has no price. Welcome to The Advocate, your weekly reminder of important conversations among the necessary tools for a senior society. Today, I am focusing on the impact of being a present or absent father in the life of a child. Sisi, who joins us for the first time from South Africa, wants to highlight the impotence of education and inclusion with regards to the African children. In the same vein, today is telling us to rethink the education system in Nigeria. Finally, any thought points out the skills of and for the future of Nigeria. Sit back, your panelists are here to dissect it all. My dad is a superhero, the absent father syndrome. Fathers are suddenly celebrated, yet the impacts they have in the lives of children are significant. The older I get, the more I realize that when fathers are deliberate parents, the children benefit the most. The kids grow up to be more stable, independent and responsible. Unfortunately, though, more fathers are dominant parents. Quiscent parents are parents that are aloof and uninvolved. The implication is that the children become not only a liability to the parents, but also to the society at large. At an academia, I must confess that the empirical research that backs my intuition is very interesting. Studies have shown that when fathers are deliberate about parenting their children, the children have better IQ, higher cognitive and communication skills. The girl child has a lower chance of teenage pregnancy and boys have a higher chance of life success. Statistics on the negative impact of the absent father syndrome is staggering. Please internalize these figures. Fatherless individuals make up to 60% of rapists, 63% of youth suicide, 72% of murderers, 90% of all felons, 90% of homeless children, 71% of high school dropouts, 75% of drug abusers, 85% of people with behaviour disorders. Girls from fatherless households have 711% more likelihood to become teenage mothers. 53% more likely to be in an abusive relationship and 192% chance of being divorced themselves. It is a rollercoaster of disaster. So the cons of having a fatherless household must be seriously guarded against. Likewise, children with present fathers are more likely to be A grade students, less likely to be dropouts and less likely to repeat a class. Even in adulthood, children with present fathers tend to make better decisions and build generational wealth. As I pondered on this topic, I reminisced on how often I call my father before I make any important decision. And how he is always quick to draw up the advantages and disadvantages of such a decision. I was not shocked when my siblings confessed that they do not take any major decision without first passing it through daddy. This daddy did not go to a university, yet he is an extremely successful entrepreneur. He lost his father at a young age, but grew his wealth the straight and narrow path. His mere presence and accomplishment is a source of motivation to me. I think if Sekiru can do it, certainly Olaemi with a PhD can do it. The impact of my father in my overall well-being is one I am grateful for. But I must thank my mother for persevering and making a marriage work. After all, it wasn't a work in the park. We, the product of that union, have benefited from having a two-parent household. So, as much as possible, parents must decide to protect their children and ensure that they do not fall among the undesirable statistics that I just wrote out. This baby mama syndrome that is crippling into our culture must be discouraged. Girls must pick their partners deliberately, a man that you can live with, that you can tolerate in the long run, a man that is ready to pour himself into his children and see that they are balanced and well brought up. Single mothers on the other hand must find male mentors for their children, someone to show them how family structure operates. And finally, fathers, train your children. Wow! That was a mouthful. And I agree with your 1,000%. 1,000%?! Yes, I'll tell you a few reasons. Tell me. I know a few families that are without fathers and some with. So, the statistics are not very, why they are very unfriendly and very staggering. I mean, the cases are very clear. I believe that when the structure was designed, you know, depending on what evolutionary story you agree with, that father and mother, I believe there was a reason why that balance was put in place. True. And the moment you take out, you know, that equation, what you find is dysfunction, more often than not. However, one must be careful and not forget that I also know families where the fathers are more of a problem than a balance. So, it's important to also, you know, on the other hand, like you said, train your children so they don't turn out to be... That irresponsible father. That irresponsible father. So, it starts from, you know, training boys, you know, to be good men. Absolutely. So, I agree with your 100%. I think that for me, my... Well, listening to your advocacy, I had quite a lot of mixed reactions. But I like the fact that at the end of the whole conversation, you were able to point out that single mothers should ensure that they have good male mentors. And what I think is very important to push out as women and as society is that we need to not just advocate for double parenting, like old mother and father households. We need to begin to talk about the quality of parents. It's not enough to have a man and a woman in a house as parents. Sometimes you find that some children are even more harmed by the interaction and the engagement they see amongst their parents. I think it's important, especially for women, to push for the quality of men that they talk about. From the beginning of any conversation, when we say it should be two parents in a house, let's begin to make it clear and apparent that we're talking about what are the qualities of a good father. Two good parents. Two good parents. Two good parents. What kind of mother should you be? What kind of father should you be? How do I balance it? Because in this day and age, we're talking about women making strides, equity, equality. We need to be careful that we're not by ourselves inadvertently pulling back the hands of time with the comments and the situations that we bring up. So I advocate all well. If you have two good parents in a house or by all means, please make sure that you preserve the sanity of that home. But for whatever reasons, whatever situation you find yourself in, make sure that at the end of the day that you do well by your children. If a single father or a single mother widowed, divorced, whatever circumstances you're in, let's just push for the quality of the values that we're pushing to the next generation. And that's really where I would want to rest, Mike. But Sizi, when we talk about parenting and not necessarily having a balanced household, that means whether you have a single mother household or single father household. I still believe that fathers can do a whole lot even if they're not with their partners. As I said, fathers, train your children. You know, I'm so excited about what you guys are talking about. And I must say, I agree with you the first presenter when she said that it is very important that parents are involved, so that their children, they can do well in school. So according to research, they say that if parents are actively involved in their children's education, they are likely to do well. And I might just, I agree with the last speaker when she said, I'm sorry I didn't get the name, when she said that, you know, it doesn't actually matter if you have both women and men, the parents in the house. It's all about the quality of parenting, you know, and you might find that you do have parents that are present, but they're not actually there. So if they are like fully involved and active in their children's lives, children are more likely to do well. And yeah, I must say that I really agree with you guys what you're saying when you can say, you know, father, father, fathers are really, really, you know, they are really, really important. They play a fundamental role in the development of children, whether they are boys or girls because, you know, as Africans, you know, the role that a father plays in our lives, it's very critical, you know, it's very important. And, you know, a father figure, you know, when you talk about a father, we're talking about somebody who brings, you know, who brings stability in the house, somebody who brings protection, you know, somebody that we can look up to. We know that, you know, that presence, it really means a lot. And, you know, it actually permits the entire, the life, the whole life of the child. Because like I was saying that, as I say, the older I become now, the more I realize that, okay, my father is a stronger parent in terms of making life decisions, in terms of, you know, looking up and hitting the ball on the head and navigating those areas of challenges. Well, Mom C is always the emotional, oh my yes, my darling, I love you, let us pray, God will help us through. But my father is like, no, this is it, this is it, what do we do, how do we go about it? And I was not shocked, I was a little surprised, but I wasn't really shocked when all my siblings actually, and we're all adults, we're all married, we have children, we have our families. And everybody I see, I can't buy a house without passing it through daddy. I can't, you know, go to that country and do that business without passing it through daddy. Or not only myself, I've spoken to a few of my friends and they've all agreed that, oh yes, daddies are always like the stronger ones, the older you grow, when you need that strong backing, I think we all want to, you know, go back to daddy. Okay, if you trust him. Yeah. You don't have that same experience. No, no, no, no, obviously, I mean, experience is different for different cases. Absolutely. There are things that you affect your father too, and there are things that you affect your mother too. For instance, I mean, before my mom passed, there were things my mom knew about me, my father did not know. My advice was that there are things that will pass through my father and my mom would not know. So it's the balance that we talked about earlier. You know, you have two figures to look up to and they have different strengths and they have different weaknesses. There are things I would never tell my mother, just because I know that her reaction, you know, might not exactly at that moment help, you know, the decision making, do you see? But I mean, on the other hand, my father would, you know, react in a different way because I know his strengths and I know his, you know, mannerisms and then outrun that, you know, particular decision making by him. So certainly, we'll continue to advocate for violence to be more present in the lives of their children. Now, the value of the African child's education is on Caesar's mind after the break. My advocacy is aligned with White Paper Six that was enacted in 2001, and then also the screening identification assessment and support, which we call CS in South Africa, which was enacted in 2014. And then the Sustainable Development Goal number four, which speaks to quality education. So I have established a foundation, which is the Sizi Butime Foundation, and the notion of my foundation is equal and quality education for all. By that, that is my notion of increasing education. So just to give a brief, sorry, background about the framework mentioned about which is the policies that I referred to. These two policies are in place in the South African education system. And the White Paper Six of 2001, it outlines how the education and the training system must transform itself. This is very critical. It must transform itself to contribute to establishing a caring and humane society, which means it's inclusive. And how it must change to accommodate the full range of learning needs to be put in place. And then the second policy which I referred to is the CS of 2014, which scaffolded the White Paper Six. And, you know, the purpose of this policy is to provide a framework for the standardization of the procedures when we identify and assess and provide programs for all learners who require additional needs. Sorry, additional support to improve participation and inclusion in school. So basically, these policies, what they want to do is we need to transform the education system to make sure that each child, they receive quality and each education. And then there's full participation, you know, full participation of everyone. And lastly, I referred to the SDG, which is the Sustainable Development Goals, which is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. We all know the agenda 2030. So the SDG four is the education goal. The objective is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. So this is inclusive, and then also in that they have target 4.8, which is to build an upgrade education facilities that are child disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, first, nonviolent, inclusive and effective learning. Now it is saddening that these policies are put in place in different countries across Africa. The policies that speaks to inclusion for all, yet the children that are living with a disability continue to be failed and marginalized. For instance, in South Africa, and I know for sure in Africa, you know, you have kids that come from downtrodden areas that they have never been to school. They don't know they've never experienced a classroom setting because they live in areas that are, you know, inaccessible, you know, there's no transport. There are no schools that cater for their additional needs. So now according to as we according to the disability Africa changing children's life, which was written in 2017, an overwhelming majority of children in Africa are being deprived of access to education. And furthermore, only about 2% of these children living with a disability are attending schools. And I can, you know, I can attest to that in South Africa, where I am based. I have worked, you know, in cities, I've worked in remote rural areas, and I've seen how these kids that are living with disability, they are marginalized, they know they don't have any access to, you know, formal education. Quite clearly, this isn't good enough, and it has to change. So I share the same sentiment that this has to change, given the policies that are put in place to promote inclusive education. And, you know, over and above the adoption of the United Nations Convention on Disability Rights by the African government. You know, the possible solution in the realization of inclusive education is the understanding that education of the children goes beyond four walls of the classroom. By this, I mean that, you know, it is our responsibility, you know, as a community, that the children are getting the education that they require, that the education that they need. We all have an obligation, we all have a responsibility to ensure that children, they are educated and they develop to their maximum potential. And thus we need to involve stakeholders to capacitate the education system across Africa. For instance, I am working in a full-savvy school, and I have, like I've said, I've established a network with different stakeholders like the NGOs, the professions, the companies, et cetera, to help our institution to be inclusive. So in conclusion, every child is born with the ability and the honors, the responsibility lies with us as parents, as teachers and community to invest in the child and lead their talent and develop them to their maximum potential. I honestly think that your advocacy is interesting coming on the heels of HMI's conversation about the role of fathers in the lives of children. And I like the fact that you put there that, you know, it's not just about education with the four walls of a classroom and that the whole community needs to invest in the education of that child. Inclusivity is a buzzword that is going on now. And I do believe that strongly the government's society, everyone has to play their own part. I mean, I don't know, I'm sure that HMI and Tulu have quite a lot to say on this very lengthy discussion that you have brought up. Yes. For me, it actually hits home, yeah? And why? It's because I have a son that lives with special needs. And so I literally work this part every day. Now the gap between the policies, the SDGs, yes, and the reality in Nigeria is phenomenal. As in there is absolutely no correlation between what we want to achieve in 2020 and what the reality is. In Nigeria, first of all, the government are completely oblivious of what is going on. They have a major problem with education because more than 85% of Nigerians or Nigerian children are educated in private schools, which of course has some issues. Now, not only that, the children are living with special needs are now relegated to the back. But we are fortunate in Lagos. Why do I say we are fortunate? We are fortunate because we are a cosmopolitan state. And so we have a lot of people from the diaspora that have come to Lagos. And so they have this up-to-date knowledge of what inclusive education is all about. So they set up these beautiful contemporary up-to-date modern schools for people living with disability. That's true. But the caveat is that you will use your father's earnings, your mother's eyes and your grandparents' be gone if you want to pay for the school fees. That's true. So my last child with special needs, his school fees is like the one in secondary school and the other one in primary school together and it's only five. So it's so expensive. So the government needs to first of all make it mandatory. See, let's make this thing simple. Government doesn't have the willpower or everything. Just make it mandatory. Every private school in Nigeria, if you want to operate in Nigeria as a private school, you must have a minimum number of special needs children that you admit. That's also a very good idea. That's an idea that I have never really thought about actually because on this issue. But you know, I have worked in special needs unit for, but then you know the one that, so I will talk about a lot of attention that's been put around children with special needs autism and the rest. But one area that I also observed from since this conversation is really physical disabilities. It's like we don't even talk about it at all. What do you mean physical disability? That's not the issue here. We're going to talk about education and disability. Physical disability is not the issue. Physical disability you want to move from one place to another. If you get to the classroom, you can learn. When we talk about disability and education, we talk about children with autism, people with Down syndrome, children that have intellectual disability. They can sit in class with other children. It's called inclusion. But the way you teach the regular children is not the way you teach them. So don't mix the physical disability children and the intellectual disability children together. We are learning from our layman's understanding of inclusion. Now that you have shared more academic light to it. But you know, from the layman's perspective and from my understanding and I mean even thinking about it. I'm not sure that throughout my entire educational system, I actually had a classmate who was actually in physical disability. So now you can see the gap. So where are they? So the thing is if we actually start from let's say something as basic as being physically handicapped. If someone like physically handicapped cannot even get into a class. There's no rams. Then you know there's no rams. Is that the no no, they now have intellectuals ability. Yes, so I mean intellectuals but it's like the second layer of it. True. So I mean it's the same thing. I mean I can count in my years of it, in 20 years of education. How many people I saw in my class are physically handicapped? But there are people that are my age that are physically handicapped. My sister, that is now a doctor, a practicing doctor, said that when she became a doctor in the UK, she had a flashback when she was five years old in primary one or going to primary one, that her sitmate beside her could not write one to ten. She was writing one to hundred. And the teacher was there when they came beating the person. You are so empty. And it was essential. The realization came to her that no, he wasn't slow. No, he wasn't empty. The guy has an intellectual disability. So thank you, Sizi. We really appreciate this topic. Up next, Tolu advocates for the restructure of the Nigerian education system. 6034, education or miseducation. Kanda was always a strong student. She was a child of hard-working parents who taught her the dignity of hard work. She was almost a straight A student throughout primary and secondary education, even university. Kanda finished her youth service and was expected by most of her classmates to end up in a fortune 500 company. Kanda can get a job. She has applied for years. She has attended many interviews. Still, nothing. Kanda's story is a story of millions of Nigerian youth today who have gone through 6034 plus one system of education. If you count now yours, sorry, the NYSE in Nigeria, and after giving those long or just 21 years of your life to get in a good education, then what? In many cases, years and years of waiting for gainful employment. Who begs the question? What is the point of giving all those years? I mean, if we're going to end up still being dependent on our parents, you know, our guardians. Many employers argue that it's not a question of unemployment but unemployability, which means there are lots of graduates but they're not just employable. Perhaps they have a point. They look at the dailys or job advertisement platforms, reveal their hundreds and some cases, thousands and hundreds of thousands of vacancies across various industries in Nigeria. Every day you get those emails, you get, you know, those job vacancies. So why aren't these, you know, unemployed people why aren't they scooping up all these, you know, vacancies considering there are millions of people that are unemployed? Do you know that most people are already, do you know that most people that are already employed actually stand a better chance at getting another job than those who have never had a job before? So where does that leave those inexperienced graduates who are, you know, tossed out of an interview many times because they lack experience, they don't have job experience? Where does that leave the remaining millions of undergraduates who will soon be joining the labor force? So let's look at some numbers from, you know, 2019 and 2020 to start with. There are about 308 degree awarding institutions in Nigeria. There's 134 polytechnics and 174 universities. They have an enrollment population of about 2 million and they produce about 600,000 graduates yearly. Let that sink in. 600,000 graduates every 365 days. How many Nigerians are unemployed? 13.9 million. That is 34.9% of Nigerians use aged 15 to 34. Those are the unemployed ones. How many Nigerian graduates are unemployed? Almost 3 million of Nigerians unemployed hold graduates and postgraduate degrees from tertiary institutions. So they've gone through polytechnics, they've gone through universities and about 3 million of them are still unemployed. Between 2008 and now, there has been a steady year-on-year increase in unemployment. We urgently need to start rethinking education as we know it because how many more candles can we possibly handle over the next 10 years? Not so many, I must tell you. Not so many. And the issue is not so much about the education system. The issue is so much about the fact that you are educating them but there is no job for them to come and do. Now, the problem is in two phases. One, there is no job for them to do. Two, they themselves cannot even apply themselves to create a job or to actually stay on the job. What do I mean? First of all, something as simple as ketchup were important. Remember that that ketchup were important. Somebody in another country is farming the tomato. Another person in that country is bagging the tomato, grinding it, bagging it, packaging it and that person is loading it onto the truck and that person is driving that truck to the airport, putting it into the container, not carrying that container, putting it on the ship. That ship will now, and that person will manoeuvre the ship, drop it in Nigeria. Then what are we going to do? Very simple. We'll carry the tomato, put it on the shelf and now come and buy our tomato. All the stages behind that, humans should have operated and contributed and would have been employed to create capital and labour. We don't have those. That's why we don't have the job sitting down for the candles to come and take. Point number two, candle has finished its university and an entrepreneur like me, I now start my very small business, which of course, this is a real life story. I start my very small business and my books and I tell my staff, there's a customer in Kalabada who wants our books to be dispatched to her, go and find out how much it will cost for me to dispatch the books to Kalabada and the procedure. The staff goes and comes back and tells me, madam, to dispatch it to Kalabada is three five and I tell the customer, customer who will send it to Kalabada three five, it takes two days. Then she asks, what is the name of the cargo company? Then I ask my staff that I give transport money to go and investigate and the person says, I did check the name of the logistics company. Let it out. Let out the laugh. What you're saying is it's interesting that this conversation is coming up quite coincidentally because one thing that I have come to understand and see is that we have a problem that is beyond just the educational system and like you rightly said, HMI, it's not about the fact that the educational system has a problem. It's actually about what is the educational system actually imputing. So we have a situation where perhaps what has been imputed into people is an obsolete system of education. Maybe, for instance, the situation in the entire world and in reality has to change. I remember when I was in secondary school where the book was called The Mayor of Caster Bridge and I was quite fascinated with that because at that time, my dad was an entrepreneur and he remained an entrepreneur and I went home and I said to him Daddy, I presume that you are going to be out of business very soon. He almost slapped me like this guy is mad. Like how do you come home? I was an SS1 and I said to him that from what I read in this book here they are talking about different revolutions. At that time the mayor was pretty much doing things in a manual method and I can see that automation is taking over from this book and I see you here, you go to your office in the morning, now you're a lawyer you went into maritime and many other things thereafter, maritime molested, but your system of oppression is still pretty much very, just you. It's you and your team members. You have a fax machine that is not even functional so people are going to have to call you and talk to you. I said Daddy, what I saw here is that you are going to need to improve on something. I had no idea what I was talking about fully at that time so I'm thinking here that we are taking on a system of education that has taken an old methodology. We are teaching people outdated obsolete things and the reality is that research has shown now and I'm sure that you in academia can testify to that that in the near, in the new years to come, we are going to have people and the roles that they have right now, currently speaking, they will not have jobs for them. Some of those in employment for instance now, I mean by training, okay yes, so I'm a lawyer, I've been in journalism but I realize that a lot of the things I have done are totally not going to take me through this year and into the next year. I am going to have to embrace a lot of new thinking. So I think what we may be advocating for is that the educational system needs to begin to infuse new blood, needs to begin to look at what exactly are we teaching. The teachers themselves also need to re-skill and up-skill. So it might be a situation that Kando may actually need to take on what are the skills of the future. What are the technical things that need to be done. Destructive technology. Which is why I say the system is the problem. The system is the problem because you cannot rise beyond the system that you've gone through for 20 years and I'll tell you why. Let me tell you why. Most classrooms today, they teach for exams. They don't teach for life. But the job of your job is to improve yourself. I think since he wants to join in So you know that because you're an adult 4 or 10 years old 6 years old is not quite the same. Do we allow him to join also? When I was in year 3, I remember I told myself that I have to go to a computer school. So I took my pocket money. I remember vividly, 5000 I saved it up and I took that money and I went to a computer school. Please join us. Please join us. Thank you. Thank you very much. You guys are just infuriating me because this is what I've been advocating for for the past I don't know 6 years. What you guys are saying, it's scaffold. It's scaffold my notion of inclusive education. My call as an activist, I am calling for a revolution in the education system. And then I'm saying that education, it needs to be tailor made. Education, it needs to be tailor made because I'm feeling that the kind of education that we are giving now is not preparing for the present dispensation. Looking at the industrial revolution. What kind of skills and knowledge are we giving them? For example, it is very important that everyone I feel that as part of my call or as part of my advocacy I feel that things like entrepreneurship entrepreneurship should be entrepreneurship and financial literacy. They should be the fundamentals or the course that every student irrespective of the fields that they go into because right now we are no longer we shouldn't be producing employees. Children should not go to university with a mindset that when I qualify I need to go get a job. I need to say that I need to create something. I realize that there is a gap and we need to produce graduates that are problem solvers. That is why when you look at the first century skills problem solving is one of the skills that we need to incorporate. We need to teach our students and basically I want to become a doctor because of one, two, three. Now that I want to become a doctor so that I can have money because now we find even in South Africa the same thing. We've got time and time to graduate. Thank you, Sisi. Sisi, thank you very much. Sisi, sitting at home waiting for a job with the skills and knowledge. We need the education system that will actually propel in compelling them who will get the entrepreneurs like Sisi said, the entrepreneurs are going to take the forefront disrupting technology and the ability to get the children to have the skills they need to survive in the 21st century. Absolutely, I agree. I think that, yes, certainly from a young age we must start to include entrepreneurship skills and financial skills, problem solving skills from a young age. Thank you very much, everyone. That was an excellent conversation. Now, who is responsible for the skills for the future Nigerian? Is it us or the government? Anytime it lightens us after the break. So the skills of the future for Nigerians, my question is whose responsibility mine or the government's? We all know the Nigerian person is resilient, tenacious, goal-getting and almost aggressive in execution. However, what is it about us that makes us a nation of optimists have such a high unemployment rate and an increasing poverty index? It is interesting to note that the forward of the Inido Skills Gap Assessment Report of six priority areas of the Nigerian economy states that the high unemployment rate in Nigeria among other issues has impacted negatively on the economy. Thus, jeopardizing national security and social economic development. It is now being said that without new skills Nigerians are being left behind in jobs of the future and in a few years from now approximately by the year 2030, it's highly likely you and I will be working in a job that doesn't even exist yet. So according to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs report 50% of all employees will need re-skilling by 2025, which is just a few years from now in case we're not aware of that, especially as adoption of technology increases and due to the double disruption of the economic impacts of the pandemic. Topping the list of skills to grow will be critical thinking and problem solving while skills in self-management such as active learning resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility are also emerging, as well as skills in the use and design of technologies otherwise known as digital skills. The forum estimates that by 2025 85 million jobs may be displaced by a shift in the division of labor between humans and machines. But even more jobs or whooping 97 million may emerge that are more adapted to the new division of labor between humans, machines and algorithms. Another report by the International Finance Comparison, IFC highlights the existence of a skills gap, outdated curriculum in engineering programs and lack of opportunities for students to apply skills learned in the classroom in most African countries including Nigeria. Nigeria also lacks behind most of the world in terms of technology advancement, innovation investment and digital skills. It is interesting to note that according to the 2020 global innovation ranking, Nigeria as a country dropped seven places to rank 121st out of 131 countries. And so an example to drive this home would be that of an accountant. An accountant might become less relevant if he or she focuses only on theoretical accounting knowledge. However, if he or she decides to upskill by getting more knowledge in data analysis or sciences in positions such a person as an accounting expert with additional digital capabilities. Meaning that the good news is that the very technological disruption that is transforming jobs could also very well be the key to providing us with new jobs and helping us learn new skills to adapt. As organizations are re-evaluating their operations and identifying personnel not crucial to their operations it is important for you not to be complacent and comfortable your current skill set. Rather develop yourself in the four core areas of skills of the future which once again are problem solving, self-management working with people, technology use and development. So my thoughts today are very simple and they are very multifaceted at the same time. On one hand, will we as Nigerians adapt to innovation and skills of the future as quickly as required due to our competitive nature or are we going to continue with business as usual. And on the other hand what role will our famous government play in harnessing the strength of our population and creating an enabling environment for our citizens. At the end of the day it may very well be in the hands of each Nigerian to realize that the skills of the future which are simply put comprising of technical and social skills must be harnessed and it's time to take the bull by the horn. You are what you make your life to be. I remember when my first child started secondary school, she went to a private school, one of the preschools in Fez Tak and I saw the curriculum, I saw the numbers of topics number of subjects, there were so many, I had a problem with that. Then I saw Ibu and I was like why is my daughter taking Ibu? She's Yoruba, she's struggling with Yoruba, I put in Ibu and I told the teacher there and there that I'm not going to support this and I'm not going to help her to prepare for Ibu. So then and there, both myself and my daughter, we agreed that this Ibu will take zero and we'll move on. That's taking your life into your hands. Really? Yes. Okay. Because of what benefit is I'm learning Ibu. I beg to disagree with that. Now, what do we do? Let me, I'm going back to your points. What do we do? We channel our energy to the points, to the courses that matter. I'm an accountant, I'm a paid accountant, I have a business that has absolutely nothing to do with my so-called accounting, MSC, BS, CPHD. It's not so much, school is grossly outdated. You and I know that. And that is why it is important that the future is what we make of it. This technology skill that you're clamoring for, are you going to find it in Nigerian schools that are still teaching my daughter Ibu in 2022? No. It's what we make of it. These entrepreneurial skills that Sizi is clamoring for, that is where the future lies. And that is what you arm the children with. What is most important? This so-called X plus Y. Where is it going to take them to? How many of the top silicon companies employ somebody with a B.S.C.? They don't need your B.S.C. What they need is your ability to sit down there, take decisions and produce results. You see, and that is where I think that and that is one thing that I think that maybe we are not particularly understanding. Now, why I said I disagreed with the Ibu part was it's not so much so learning Ibu. The thing about skills is that skills are gotten from actions that you carry out. From the things you saw, we look at critical thinking, problem solving, decision making and the floor classifications. If my daughter was to learn Ibu, I probably will not discourage her. Not because she is going to use Ibu but because I understand that the process of actually going through learning that language is actually developing a skill set in her that she will use. I remember when I was trying to do a lot of things at the British Council back then and they were talking about competency-based interviewing. I do a lot of stuff about human capacity building and I realized that when we talk about experience, maybe that's one thing that even for interviewers and in the HR space, there might be some misunderstandings. When I'm asking you for experience or competence and put there at the top head in that they said you may not have the experience required in this particular role you're asking for but what from your general life's experience can you extrapolate and then bring out those competencies? At that time they were speaking over my head. I lie not speaking Latin, gibberish. Every single day I was like what are they talking about? I don't understand what you're saying. So I think that it's that's what we're learning from the actions. The process might be more important than the real things. This is what we're taking 16 courses. You see, when I was talking to school, we did all the SS1. Okay yes, SS1. We did all the school and here you are today. How many of those experiences have you translated to what you are today? Quite a lot actually. This is what I think. Both of you are speaking from two sides on the same call. So what I'm saying is this. I'm just trying to make it clear. This is what I'm saying. I agree with you. So what you're saying is that the learning, the subjects that have been learned that have been outdated and needs to be thought in terms of the content. She's talking about the process of actually learning. So if I'm learning Ibo and I'm learning French, it's a process of picking up new words. So it requires a certain cognitive ability to pick up new words. Wait, if you're learning French in the number of useful languages in the world, do you know that studies have shown that Nigerians are one of the most linguistic people in the world. But unfortunately, the languages we speak have no place in the international world. I think you are a very focused straight to the point and that's good. But instead of putting that effort into people put that effort into let's have Sizi bring your perspective from another side of the continent. Sizi, do you want to learn, Mazurine? I've been advised to be brief because I know myself, I've got beveled area and this is the kind of stuff that gets me going. And if I start nobody can stop me. But I want to say, you know language on cognition you know it's just a topic on its own. But what I want to say is just to add on what you guys are saying that I want to say what is important is you guys might have the same skills might have the same knowledge but what is important is you know being innovative being creative. Those are very fundamental you know in the present this sensation. But on the issue of language and you know I'm pro-mother time education and I really don't want to get started next we'll have time when we speak about mother time education. Maybe you, Sizi. So what I wanted to highlight is innovation and creativity is very critical. Yes it is. Thank you for your contribution Sizi. Yes, most definitely. Am I allowed to say make a point? Okay, two seconds. You're very correct on the language issue but my point still remains, she's Yoruba you've not access to speak and write Yoruba, SSE and letter pass. The next thing I'll expect you to give to Pamilary is that you know that the language of the future is the Chinese language bring it to the table. In America for example, the researchers showed that in the next two decades, Spanish is going to be the most sought after language in America so you cannot have a student in class and you'll not equip the child with Spanish. So must we learn it for the future? Thank you for using the word focused. I think that are very interesting dynamic conversations and truly what I would say is that in everything that we're talking about I think we're going to have to look at both the school and the entirety of community as we have said across what everything we said today has kind of tailored around that. Anyway, we thank you for your attention while the program lasted. We hope our conversation resonated with you and that in some small way encourage you to contribute to your immediate environment. Little drops of water they see makes a mighty ocean. 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