Sometimes last year, I joined a team of professionals in the development work to provide technical assistance to the leading think-tank for the country; the Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS).
The peak course offered by the institute is the Senior Executive Course which typifies the convergence of egg heads and very senior cadre officers drawn from various sectors of the country. It has representation from the armed forces, academia, health, education, manufacturing, economy, name it!
Every year, the Nigerian President assigns them a task in form of a project which culminates in a set of recommendations for the development of the country. This report will then be presented to Mr. President for actions. The leadership of the institute thought to switch up the game by engaging external facilitators who would fine-tune the report and make the recommendations SMARTer. My team was therefore brought in considering the theme for the SEC 42 (2020) participants; Population Growth and Human Capital Development.
It was such an exciting offer I couldn’t resist since I’ve always looked forward to every opportunity to contribute to national development. Another reason is the theme. I’ve worked in the population space for a while. I have taught population to in-service and pre-service professionals. Every opportunity was always an attempt to win souls with the gospel of Population Dynamics. Here comes another one, at a bigger scale and there was no way I could let it slip by. Human Capital Development is another area I’m passionate about given that many of our people within and outside government are yet to appreciate that this alone is the way out of our current quagmire. I therefore must appreciate the thoughtfulness of Mr. President in bringing this to the fore of national discourse. A way to show this gratitude is to accept this responsibility and give it the best of my efforts.
Our work involved tying all the pieces around population and human capital development together. We worked based on the pillars of HCD namely health, nutrition, literacy, skills, and labour. Most importantly, we harnessed the various resources efforts of governments in the past and present as well as at all levels to promote the HCD vision and take Nigeria out of the bottom 6 positions that we currently occupy among nations of the world.
We went to Kuru, interacted with the highly cerebral participants, and made valuable input to the report which was presented to Mr. President. We already saw some of the action points being taken and we look forward to ticking more boxes on the list.
I believe in the Nigeria of my dreams, I’m convinced more than ever before.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria
