Lagos State Government has promised to bring Nigerians in Diaspora from around the world to the state to support capacity building for development of its teachers and other workforce for youth development and empowerment.
This was stated by the Senior Special Assistant, SSA, to the governor of Lagos state on Diaspora Affairs, Mr. Jermaine Sanwo-Olu while declaring open a two-day teachers training programme for teachers in Surulere organized by the Association of Nigerian Academics in United Kingdom, UK which took place on Monday.
The programme is for teachers in the three local council development areas in Surulere and supported by the councils as well as Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT.
Sanwo-Olu said the state is going to use the knowledge, intellect, exposure and experience from the developed world to be transferred to the state through Nigerians in Diaspora for development.
“I believe that the Diaspora is what will hasten the development of Lagos state through the wind of change; so in moving forward we are going to be bringing in more people, doctors, nurses, teachers and others from around the world to come and impact the state voluntarily.
“This is the season of change, we are bringing the world to Lagos so that we can have world best practices”, he said.
“We believe that the Diaspora is the wheel of progress for Lagos state and Nigeria as a whole; nations like Israel, India even China utilises the power of the Diaspora to bring about changes in their respective nations. So we see this UK group coming to impart knowledge and build capacity of the teachers who are custodians of knowledge and trainers of the future leaders”.
He said he is confident that the administration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu has the capacity, knowledge and beautiful team to bring the dream of a greater Lagos into manifestation.
According to him, education and technology is at the heart of the governor’s ‘THEME’ programme, adding that “you can’t have education without being digitalised in technology information.
“Information is power, but information is maximised when it is utilised, maximise the information you receive here by utilising it, use it, and with what is going on now you cannot be analogue teachers any more.
“You need to digitalise, leverage on the power of technology to make your work better, more efficient, be IT and computer savvy, use the newest technology so that you can appeal to the various learning styles of young people,” he advised the participants.
Speaking with the press, President of Nigerian Academics in UK, Adedamola Aminu said the whole idea is to work together with “our professional colleagues in Nigeria, we just want to know what we are doing well in UK that we can share with fellow colleagues here.
“We really want to work with the governments both at the federal, state and local levels in terms of how we can be of assistance and how we can give each other the needed support”, he said.
