The presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has said he would return all universities in the country, particularly those owned by the Federal government to the state governments where these universities are located.
Newsonline reports that Atiku Abubakar stated this at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Annual General Conference held on Monday at Eko Hotel in Lagos.
Atiku said the Federal government has no money to operate and finance universities, citing the United States and other European countries where universities are either owned by the state governments or private individuals.
The former vice president also stated that university education worked in Nigeria during the regional government era in the country, which he intends to replicate by returning ownership of universities to state governments.
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Atiku who was a panelist among other presidential candidates said, “The only way is to make sure that you make conducive environment available to both foreign and local investors to participate in our country, whether it is infrastructure, whether it is education, whether it is power,” he said.
He further said, “I had an argument with a university professor from Federal University, Lokoja. He said he read in my policy document that I intended to devolve, in other words, to return education to the states. How dare I do that?
“I said, ‘Mr. Professor, do you realize that the first set of our universities belongs to the regional governments?’ He said, ‘Yes’. I said who are the successors of the regional government. He said the states.
“I said the children you send to America, to England, who own those universities? Mostly the private sector. So, why is it that you think we cannot do it here? We don’t have the money.”
Recall that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike since February 14, 2022, over lack of funding by the Federal government.
The six months strike is yet to be resolved as the Federal government is yet to meet the demand of ASUU.
