Amara Nwankpa, IT specialist and social commentator, has called it as he sees it: Nigeria is in trouble if the government doesn’t focus on the things that really matter.

The development of human capacity is imperative if the story of the next generation of Nigerians is going to be different from that of the current one.

See below:

Let me be honest with you guys for a quick second: we are in deep sh!t. The kind of sh!t that can only be fixed over a period of 25 years.

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

You can throw any amount of money you like at it. You can borrow beg and steal, but it will achieve very little.

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

Economies are not built on roads, hospitals or stadiums, they are built on competent human capacity.

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

You can commission any world class infrastructure u like, in 1 year its quality will degenerate to level of the competence maintaining it

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

The chickens of poor human capital development we hatched over the last few decades are coming home to roost, fam!

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

Ten years straight of piss poor performance levels in WAEC, NECO etc… Where do you think those kids are going… Into the economy!

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

WEF recently published the global competitiveness report for 2016-2017. Nigeria is ranked LAST place in basic health and primary education.

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

So, we r screwed. What can u produce competitively if your young ones are getting NOTHING as education? Who will banks, investors etc hire?

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

Unfortunately, basic education is d constitutional responsibility of state governments – the level of government we fail to hold accountable

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

So governors r commissioning roads that seem to always need to be rebuilt and we say they are "working". But investment in human capital = 0

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

The poorer our basic education, the more primitive our civic engagement. When voters can't appreciate policy, stomach infrastructure rules!

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

So, this is a slippery slope, one that leads to perdition. However averting this disaster is hard and requires a departure from our norm

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

I don't know what we are going to do about this, but I am convinced a new generation of leaders need to step up. We are in desperate times

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

It was Jesus that told the parable of two builders. One built his house on sand, the other built on solid rock.

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

As it happened, a storm descended on both houses. When it subsided, only one house was left standing.

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

Nigeria seems to believe it can avoid the hard work of breaking rocks and digging deep to lay a steady foundation for its economy.

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

So we built it on volatile oil and nothing else. Guess what, when the storm of low oil prices descends, everything comes crashing down.

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

It doesn't matter that we recorded 7-8% GDP growth rates 5 years in a row, one year of low oil prices and hello recession!

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

Much of the national attention, when it comes to education, is focused on tertiary institutions. But…

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

When kids have passed through the worst basic education system in the world, how can you expect universities to fix such damage.

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

So, universities just package as much as they can and spew them out even if they can't spell to save their lives.

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

Don't get me wrong tho, we have and still do produce some excellent people, just not in sufficient numbers to make a dent on our challenges

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

Our failure to prioritise basic education has left us in the position of the foolish builder.

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

We simply cannot continue like this. Not with our population projected to be 450m by 2020. Something has to give: either us or our problems

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

The road 2 improving basic education begins w/ holding state govts more accountable. But as I type this, I have no idea how that will happen

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

All I know is that fixing education is like planting trees – it takes many many years for efforts to begin to bear fruit.

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

So, if we haven't started now, we have at least 20 years to go before we can be out of the woods.

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

But as the Chinese say: "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now".
God help us!

— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) September 29, 2016

Like Amara said, we best get to planting now!