Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate for the Labour Party on Thursday slammed Nigerian leaders for
Living ostentatious lifestyles while the education system of the country continues to dwindle.
Obi, in a post on X, said the recent alarms raised by the chairman of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) that Nigeria’s education sector is facing crisis of great magnitude is unfortunate.
UBEC had warned that over 20 million children are out of school with many others unable to read or write.
According to UBEC, those who are in school are not learning as expected.
Obi while reacting to this said the statistics dished out by UBEC are scary.
He wrote, “These scary statistics were also mirrored by WAEC, as they confirmed that the recently released WASSCE is the worst academic performance in five years, with only 38% of students passing.
“At a time when education should be our most urgent national priority and most critical investment, we as leaders continue to spend trillions on infrastructures, most of which contribute little or nothing to the measurable development index and cannot be completed and renovations that are a misplaced priority, while the foundational sectors like education remain in crisis,” Obi stated.
Also asserting that investment in education is one major way the future of the nation can be secured, Obi warned that any nation that neglects its young people is toiling with its future.
“Education is the most powerful investment we can make in the future of this nation. We must urgently redirect our focus towards building our national human capital by providing quality and functional schools and investing in access to learning for every Nigerian child.
“A nation that neglects its young people has no future. We must urgently redirect our priorities, and invest in quality education. Our children deserve classrooms, not abandoned projects.
“To build a stronger, safer, and more prosperous nation, we must invest in our children, because when we fail them, we have failed our nation,” he added.