Presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has pledged that his administration will ensure that every child has access to education in Nigeria.
Atiku stated this in his goodwill message at the 2022 AGM/conference of the Association of Nigerian Universities Professional Administrators (ANUPA) in Port Harcourt yesterday.
The former vice president who was represented by Nigeria’s former Ambassador to Canada and Mexico, Prof. Iyorwuese Hagher, sympathised with the association and the parents of all students for the avoidable incalculable harm that has been done to them by the APC administration.
He said, “When you compare the PDP and the intervening APC interregnum from 2015- to date, it is clear that the APC doctrine about education is suspect and tantamount to saying that education is sin.
“How can one explain the fact that Nigeria has the largest number of children out of school in the world? Even the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan has only 3.7 million children out of school while Nigeria has 20 million precious Nigerian children who are willfully denied school enrollment by a civilian administration.
“In my view and that of the PDP, basic education is a human right. No Nigerian child will be left behind when I become President next year as Allah will permit.”
He said his government will rigorously invest a robust percentage of the budget in education, saying it is only through education that impossibilities become possibilities and the improbable becomes probable.
“My government shall also strive to improve the welfare of university administrators and their conditions of service to ensure that they face their jobs squarely and reduce as much as possible distractions occasioned by their participation in private businesses and Private Practice (PP) that take them away from the university environment.
“As the elections approach, I also wish to enjoin all university administrators to be steadfast in their personal and official dealings as you are also watchdogs of society. Your involvement in election management duties and supervision should be seen as a national duty and civic responsibility and not as an avenue to pervert the curse of the elections or an avenue of enrichment due to improper interactions with corrupt and desperate politicians,” he said.
