TheCable

Patricia Lamour, the CEO of Aspire Education Group, says Nigeria can learn from Mauritius to teach anti-corruption at primary school level.

Lamour, who is also the CEO of Gender Education and Enterprise Development for Africa (GEEDA), made this recommendation while speaking about education in Nigeria with Osasu Igbinedion on The Osasu Show.

She said one of the items lacking in Nigeria’s educational system is ethical leadership, which she says should be imbibed at the elementary levels of learning.

“What is lacking and what could be made better I think is ethical leadership and implementation. For instance, in Mauritius, they have an institutional programme for primary school children to teach them about how not to be corrupt,” she said.

“They talk about anti-corruption stars. So already, you are putting in the mindset of children about ethical values. People do not become corrupt when you become a politician.

“It happens everywhere. It happens when you are young and growing up and watching what your elders do. It is on us elders to set the tone.”

According to the Mo Ibrahim governance index, Mauritius has about the best overall governance system in all of Africa.

Speaking about the 2019 general elections in Nigeria, Lamour said: “Democracy does not begin and end by casting a vote, you have to hold leaders accountable”.

“People just cast votes and just leave them to it and wait another five years… no no no. The vote is precious, people have fought and died for it, its not something that we should take for granted.

“Study the manifesto and see what they are doing. If you believe, then you vote for it and then you follow it up.”

She added that the poverty in Africa is man-made, and can be defeated by proper policies and education.

“Talking about the poverty mindset, one of the things I show in my talks, I show the map of Africa, I show the home of the geopolitical strategic minerals capital of the world.

“If it hasn’t got diamond, its got oil, if it hasn’t got oil, its got cobalt, if it hasn’t got cobalt, its got coal tar. So how is it that the most resource-rich continent of the world has such poverty?

“That has nothing to do with what God has placed in the soil, but has everything to do with how man is managing those resources.”