Peter Obi, former Anambra governor and presidential hopeful
on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says it is sad that federal
universities are on strike while politicians are campaigning for the 2023
elections.
Obi said this on Wednesday while appearing as a guest on the
Berekete family radio in Abuja.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is currently
on strike over the federal government’s failure to honour an agreement on
issues bordering on funding universities, as well as salaries and allowances of
lecturers.
According to Obi, such a situation in which students are not
attending classes and election campaigns are ongoing can only happen in
Nigeria.
“It is very very sad. It is intolerable that schools are closed and we are campaigning and we are even talking about elections. It would never happen in any other country except Nigeria,” he said.
“Education is the most important investment a nation can do
for its citizens, which we are playing with here.
“The scourge of this problem is because we have an uncaring
government. The agreement was made in 2009 that they will give universities N1
trillion to renovate universities, and that they will pay lecturers’
allowances.
“If they were to be paying N100 million yearly, the payment
would have been paid in full. Even N50 million yearly would have done it to
some extent.”
He said the ASUU strike shows the inability of the
government to keep to agreements.
“The problem is the government made empty promises. So, this
made everyone fight. Money collected from presidential aspirants can feed
ASUU’s demands,” he added.
Obi said if he is elected to rule the country, he will make
primary and secondary education free, but not for tertiary level.
“I won’t make
tertiary education free. Primary and
secondary will be free, but we must find a way to fund tertiary education,” he
said.
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