Former vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 presidential elections, Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party counterpart, Mr Peter Obi, yesterday attended the 16th Annual Founders Day and 20th anniversary celebration of the American University of Nigeria (AUN) held in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.
The political motive behind the two presidential candidates attending the event was not known as both of declined comments over their meeting.
Obi in his remarks at the event, attributed the current hardship Nigerians are passing through to wrong choice the country’s leadership.
The Labour Party flagbearer who taught and fed almajiri pupils at the university said Nigerians got it wrong in the selection of leaders which culminated into present hardship.
“Nigerians got it wrong in leadership, because our choice was wrong. The almajiris are wonderful people abandoned on the streets and we want to bring them to school facilities like AUN before we can be a great country,” he said.
According to him, the country has the capacity of enrolling 20 million out of school children back to class.
“‘We are already paying through our nose those we left behind yesterday and we cannot continue to leave like this,” he added.
Obi said investment in human capital is critical to the development of Nigeria.
“Am happy with the almajiri school at AUN which is trying to help the nation,” he said while suggesting that the way out of the present predicament was for people to abandon their premodial ways of selecting leaders during elections, saying selection of leaders should be based on competence, capacity and compassion.
Atiku promised a world-class university that could address prevailing challenges.
He said the institution had made study of entrepreneurship courses mandatory so that students can learn one form of skill before graduation.
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