The Director General, Institute For National Transformation International, Professor Vincent Anigbogu, on Thursday said that Nigeria can only achieve its desired goals in the education sector when it is able to properly articulate and achieve a national vision, as great education is a product of national agenda.

Anigbogu, a guest on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, at the Nigerian Economic Summit on Education, said “education is a tool, not an end in itself. It’s a tool for national development, so if you try to execute an education policy outside the context of a clear national vision, it is a journey that will not succeed very well.”

In trying to paint a picture of what Nigeria needs to aspire to, Anigbogu made reference to a statement made by a former President of Singapore and re-stated by Dr. Victor Koh, a delegate at the Summit: “Singapore’s vision is to build a multicultural, multi-religious, multilingual society that is rugged and dynamic enough to compete in the world market.”

At the time the statement was initially made, Singapore had a per capita income of $400 but have over the years grown to be the 4th wealthiest nation of the world with a per capita income of $62,000.

“In the process, they’ve also built one of the best education systems in the world,” Anigbogu added, insisting that “you don’t build education outside the context of a strong national vision that creates passion, ownership.”

He explained that when there is a clear vision of what the country should be, in striving to build that nation, “you will end up building a good education system because it’s a pre-requisite.”

Furthermore, Anigbogu blamed the government for failing to articulate the vision for the nation properly. “If we do, we have not done a good job to allow that vision to drive all our policies including our education policy, so that every teacher in the classroom, every government employee knows where we are going and there’s a monitoring and evaluation system so that we know where we are.”

He stressed, “Besides having a clear vision, we must make sure that that vision is recited on a regular basis, so that everybody hears it and buys into it.” This, he said, will foster passion, ownership and focus.

Anigbogu also disclosed that the organization had made recommendations to governments in a total of eight countries, including Nigeria but had not been invited by the Nigerian government. “I will humbly say that most nations where we are, the government of that nation actually invited us and they are listening to us. When we are invited in Nigeria, we will respond.”

Commenting on claims that the education sector has been politicised, Anigbogu said that the trend can only be reversed when “politicians understand the long term implication of not having quality education sector.”