Yesterday, former President Olusegun Obasanjo revealed that he’s not computer literate despite his age and attainments. He spoke in Abeokuta at the opening a two-day robotics workshop where he urged Nigerian youths to embrace robotics education because of its potential to prepare them for global leadership roles.
In his remarks, Obasanjo allayed fears in some quarters that the adoption of robotics education would take away more jobs from Nigerians and escalate unemployment rate in the country.
According to the former president, he missed the opportunity of being computer literate because he was not born during the computer age.
He said:
“Let me also comment on what has been the fear of the people. Here we have unemployment and people will say we need to create mass employment opportunities for our people. It will not be so. What will normally happen is that there would be jobs that would emanate from robotics. The jobs would compensate what robotics will take over. “We have seen that through history. When train came, people thought there would be no way for road transportation. Same thing happened when railway came. People also thought when aero plane came that railways and cars would not be useful. But, today, roads are being constructed and we have not even done enough. So, if we actually planned well, robots will have a place and other jobs will be created for our teeming population not only in Nigeria and Africa, but also all over the world.”
