Former vice-presidential candidate Peter Obi has called on concerned authorities to see to the amicable resolution of the alleged invasion of Providence High School, Enugu by the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) on account of debt.
“I feel for the innocent students affected by this development,” Mr Obi said.
He advised that the disruption of activities of educational institutions in the country should be avoided to avoid further setbacks on Nigeria’s education system.
He made this known in a message to mark the International Day of Education, celebrated on January 24. He reiterated his stand that education remains a major contributor to national development which if aggressively invested in by the government, would usher the nation into high level development.
Obi lamented that poor funding has continued to tell negatively on the education sector.
“Highly advanced nations like Norway, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States spend 6.4%, 6.3%, 6.2% and 6.1% of their Gross Domestic Product on education respectively. For seven years counting, China’s government budgetary spending on education remained above 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). And we can see how these nations have continued to enjoy more developments.
“Sadly, our education investment to GDP in Nigeria have continued to fall below expectations. This has resulted in Nigeria having an army or over 15 million out-of-school children. The few available educational facilities are in very bad shapes with very unfavourable learning environments. How do we then expect our youths to compete with other nations on a global platform?” Obi asked.
He called on the Federal Government to see education as the right of every Nigerian child and put measures in place to enable them to have access to at least basic education.
