The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has criticized Nigerian leaders for their extravagant lifestyles while the country’s education sector faces deepening challenges.
In a post shared on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Thursday, Obi described as unfortunate the recent alarm raised by the Universal Basic Education Commission, which warned that Nigeria is grappling with a severe educational crisis. UBEC had reported that more than 20 million Nigerian children are out of school, with many others unable to read or write, while those enrolled are not meeting expected learning standards.
Reacting to these revelations, Obi said the statistics provided by UBEC were alarming. 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.”
Obi decried the continued prioritization of non-essential infrastructure projects over critical sectors like education. “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,” he stated.
Reaffirming his stance that education is essential for national development, Obi emphasized the importance of investing in young Nigerians as a means of safeguarding the country’s 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,” he said.
He further warned of the consequences of ignoring the needs of the younger generation. “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.”
Concluding his remarks, Obi underscored the need to make deliberate investments in children’s education to foster national growth. “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.
