Emem Coffie, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State, has urged Nigerian youths not to abandon education in pursuit of quick wealth, stressing that formal education remains critical to professional development, specialisation and national growth.
Coffie, a said on Wednesday that the growing perception among some young people that education was a waste of time could undermine efforts to develop the country’s human capital.
He argued that while university education should not be regarded as the only route to success, young people needed a solid educational or vocational foundation to acquire the knowledge and skills required to become productive and self-reliant.
According to him, academic knowledge provides the foundation upon which specialised professional skills are developed, particularly in technical fields where practical experience needs to be supported by an understanding of scientific principles.
Coffie said education had played a significant role in the development of advanced economies and should not be dismissed simply because some individuals had achieved success without attending university.
‘The truth is that engineering is probably 90 per cent from scientific theory and 10 per cent empirical.
‘The truth is that education has created a system and whether you like it or not the countries are developed today and worked with those systems and became what they are,’ he said.
He cited robotics as an example of an emerging field where a combination of formal education and specialised technical training was required.
Coffie said anyone seeking to specialise in robotics needed to first acquire basic knowledge of the sciences before progressing into relevant engineering disciplines.
‘If you want to be a robotics engineer for example you must have had an understanding of physics, chemistry, I don’t know biology has to do with medical engineering but for you to go into robotics you must have those basic understanding and then have mechanical engineering, electronics engineering, electrical engineering by the corner before you now begin to do robotics,’ he said.
The PDP candidate said his interest in education and youth development had informed his sponsorship of hundreds of students in Akwa Ibom State, Enugu and Abuja.
He said the objective was to provide young people with the foundation and support needed to identify their talents, develop their capabilities and become economically independent.
Coffie called for reforms that would enable young people to complete university education within a reasonable period, identify their talents early and begin specialising in their chosen professions without unnecessary delays.
He said early identification and development of talents could help reduce the length of time young people spend trying to establish themselves professionally before gaining recognition and accessing opportunities.
However, he stressed that the government should not adopt a university-only approach to human capital development.
According to him, vocational education, apprenticeship, entrepreneurship and other forms of skills acquisition should receive equal attention and institutional support.
‘I want to see a country where the youths are very specific in their achievements in where they are going.
‘Everybody doesn’t need to go to university, that’s why we get everybody wrong, but whatever level, whatever trade you should apply, the government should support you, train you, and make you relevant,’ he said.
Coffie said investment in education and skills acquisition would have limited impact if the economy failed to create industries and businesses capable of absorbing trained young people.
He therefore called for greater investment in industrialisation in Akwa Ibom State, arguing that the state government should identify industries with the potential to create large-scale employment and train young people to meet their manpower requirements.
He identified oil and gas, refineries, gas processing facilities and steel plants as areas that could provide significant employment opportunities if developed.
The engineer advocated apprenticeship programmes that would expose young people to the technical skills required by such industries before they entered the labour market.
He also proposed that apprentices should receive financial support during their training to encourage participation and enable them to remain in the programme.
‘You begin to prepare them, empower them to program the way they will learn such skills, and within that period pay them, even if they are doing an apprenticeship scheme, pay them during that period so that you can encourage them to participate in such,’ he said.
Coffie further called for stronger government support for small and medium-scale enterprises, particularly through access to affordable financing.
He said traders and entrepreneurs needed loans and other forms of support to expand their businesses, create jobs and contribute more substantially to the state’s economy.
He also proposed the establishment of cottage industries across Akwa Ibom’s local government areas as a means of creating employment, processing locally available raw materials and increasing household incomes.
According to him, opportunities existed in areas such as palm oil processing and the production of briquettes from palm kernel waste, which could provide raw materials for small-scale industries while reducing waste.
The PDP candidate also called for a return to what he described as Akwa Ibom’s original development master plan, arguing that successive administrations should sustain major development projects initiated by previous governments rather than abandon them when political leadership changes.
He listed the deep seaport, science park, airport, road network and power plants among projects associated with the state’s long-term development plans.
Coffie said Akwa Ibom needed to revisit its original development priorities and focus on projects capable of creating sustainable economic opportunities for residents.
He argued that infrastructure development, particularly road construction, should be accompanied by industrial and economic activities capable of creating jobs and putting incomes in the hands of residents.
‘Road construction is interesting but road construction does not put food on the table of people,’ he said.
He said his proposed development agenda, tagged ‘A New Drive Back to the Genesis’, would focus on human capital development, industrialisation, skills acquisition and support for small businesses.
According to him, the objective is to create an economic environment where residents can acquire relevant skills, secure employment or establish businesses capable of providing sustainable livelihoods.
‘When I say Genesis, let’s go back to that master plan and start to execute it all over again,’ he said.
Coffie said a development strategy centred on human capital and productive economic activity would provide young people with clearer pathways to professional and financial independence, while reducing dependence on political patronage for survival.
He maintained that government support should focus on equipping young people with education, technical skills, access to finance and opportunities to apply their abilities, rather than encouraging dependence on politicians for financial assistance.