• Churches Are Running Into Debt Because Of Quest To Start University
• Small Scale Industries Should Be Encouraged In Nigeria

The Senior Pastor and Founder of Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC), Worldwide, Matthew Ashimolowo, has harped on the need to properly fund education in the country.

The man of God, who disclosed this on Friday in Lagos, noted that education has become an issue that needs proper interrogation.

Noting that the academic environment is no longer conducive as they were before, especially with the challenges of running a proper curriculum, he said education should not be free.

According to him, “one of the biggest challenges we have in Nigeria is that we have failed to let our young people know how expensive education is.”

He added, “we are also lying to our kids in states and federal universities that they are paying school fees, when they are not. They are not paying school fees. If a person read medicine in College of Medicine, Idi-Araba, and paid N160,000, I don’t know how much they paid, which is equivalent to 160 pounds and somebody else read medicine in a British university and paid 32,000 pounds and they read same course.” Ashimolowo asked, “who really paid school fee out of the two?”

He added, “I lived in the United Kingdom for 39 years; and I know government has taken its hands off education. So, if you are British citizen, your school fee is 9,000 pounds. Whether you are the son of a pauper or son of the rich, being a home student, your school fee is 9,000 pounds. If you are a foreigner, your school fee is 14, 000 pounds. It starts from that amount.”

He noted that people who brought education to the country, that is, the British do not pay school fees for anyone. Likewise USA and Canada. “There is no Western nation where government pays school fees, because when you pay fees as a government, that is a socialist approach. Nigerians need to realise this truth.”

Ashimolowo said, “I know that somebody will like to hit me tomorrow for saying this. When they told them they can’t pay N160,000 any more, they had to pay N300,000, which is 300 pounds how can you use 300 pounds to learn how to give injection and another person spent 32,000 pounds, who will I prefer to inject me?”

According to him, “my sons had the privilege of me paying their university school fees, because I have to pay. But their wives, their parents couldn’t afford, so, my son’s wives went to borrow from the bank and for the next 10 years, the Mrs. Ashimolowos are paying their school fees. It’s not until three years ago that Barack Obama finished paying his school fees. We are not telling ourselves some truth in this nation and these kids will go and block Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.”

He said the only reason you can japa is because government paid people’s school fees without condition. “Government should have said if you read medicine in Nigeria, we are holding your certificate for four years.  At the end of your four years, wherever you like, you can go.  They are like a man who came to your house, ate the food you provided and spit to your face and said, ‘what have you done’?”

While saying maybe Covenant and Babcock universities are the only two faith-based that have broken even in the country, he said, “every church university is running on debt, and as I speak to you as a chancellor of Kings University, so, it’s really painful when the churches have shut down some of their areas of evangelism to put money out there to help people and their children gain education.”

Going further, he said: “I need to make a public confession that the churches KICC should have been opened, we spent the money raising other people’s children.”

He called on churches that are eager to provide education to look into the area of technical education, “not just universities, practical schools.”

He also advised that churches should also, where possible, “start even if it is small scale industries so that people are hired. But let me put it this way, it is my opinion that Nigeria overemphasises three or four wealthy men and give them undue advantage when the advantage should be given to small scale industries.”

Ashimolowo said, “no matter how Mr. A whom you gave $3 to $5 billion concession at the port tries, he cannot hire more than 200,000 people, whereas those SMEs are the reason that Nigeria is mystery that we didn’t collapse. When you leave here today, you notice that in front of every house in Lagos, there is a shop. It is supposed to be set back for grass, but man must eat before grass grows. Everyone is a business person in Lagos. I think and maybe I put out to government that they should do a study on how to capture well-meaning fathers and mothers, who didn’t want their children to suffer. I saw a mother driving tricycle. She must have children in the school. That is the woman that should be empowered. The woman didn’t want to go hungry and she wants her children to be children of dignity. Let us empower so many of such people in our society because those small ones they hire two, three, four persons and so on.”

“Every day, when you leave your house in the United Kingdom, in the morning, the highest number of vehicles on the road are small vans and small businesses. These people are either scaffolding man, or tile man, they are the ones that fill the roads, because SME is what the nations like that have found holds their country. You hardly see United States running after one wealthy man; you hardly see the United Kingdom overemphasise one wealthy man rather, it is the small and medium businesses that are encouraged.”