Former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, has expressed “heartbreak” over President Bola Tinubu’s scholarship offer to Saint Lucian children, “neglecting” the fact that Nigeria is the “country with the highest number of out of school children in the world”.
He said, students in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital, are currently not attending school due to teachers’ strike over the sluggishness in implementing the new national minimum wage for teachers.
Obi said, Nigeria is suffering “underdevelopment” as a result of “leadership failure”, adding, that public school in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are “shut down and closed for months”.
In his reaction on his official X account, Obi said: “I have consistently maintained that our underdevelopment is due to Leadership failure.
“It is heartbreaking that our President, who is the leader of a country with the highest number of out of school children in the world and with the students in the capital of his own nation Abuja presently not attending schools, would travel to St. Lucia and offer scholarships to children there, while his own country’s education system is in ruins, and even currently his nation’s capital, the Federal Capital Territory, the supposed seat of governance, have public schools shut down and closed for months.
“This is not leadership, it is negligence at its peak. It is an act of betrayal against the Nigerian child.
“Nigeria has approximately 20 million children out of school, according to UNICEF, the highest number globally, with a literacy rate of under 60% far below the global average of 87%. Similarly, the life expectancy stands at a mere 54 years, out of the global average measurement of above 70 years, one of the lowest in the world.
“On Human Development Index (HDI), which is the most critical measure of development, Nigeria is ranked in the “Low Category” at 161 out of 193 countries measured, while St. Lucia, a Caribbean nation, has a literacy rate of over 90% which is above the global average of 87%.
“In life expectancy of more than 72 years, which is within the global average.
“On HDI which Nigeria is in the Low category, they air in the “High Category”
“So tell me, what sense does it make that a president of a country with such terrible and dire statistics would travel to a country with better indexes of development especially in education and still offer them scholarships funded by Nigerian taxpayers when Nigeria children are largely out of school and the teachers not yet paid for months?
“Mr. President, by offering St Lucia students a scholarship, shows he knows how important education is, while depriving Nigerian students of the same access to education.
“We must, as a nation, reject these continued normalisations of misplaced priorities and build a better nation for us and our children.
“A New Nigeria is POssible.”
