From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, yesterday, said if elected his administration would be driven by youths and women.
He also promised to increase funding for the education sector.
Obi, who spoke at a town hall meeting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, assured he would accommodate old people in his cabinet, mostly as advisers, while the youths would dominate the government.
On eduction, Obi told the town hall meeting, made up of largely youths and students, that he would increase funding to the sector, grant autonomy to universities, put an end to strikes while students would have access to loans.
The LP flag bearer regretted that that nation was placing more emphasis on building physical infrastructure while neglecting investment in its human capital.
“This government is going to be youth and women government. The old people will be there as advisers, they will guide us, we will respect them, but the youths will spearhead it…
“A government that refused to recognise the impact of education to development is doomed. I said we will fund education, we will increase the funding. We will invest in education because the greatest investment any society can do is education. The more educated a society is, the more developed they are. So we will fund education at tertiary level through collaborations, government will bring the money and we can also get some corporations to support and we will give students loans. University should be able to manage their resources, so they don’t have to shut down.”
Obi said the university system was beset by lots of challenges, but promised to sit down with ASUU to sort things out.
“I will not allow them to make you to stay eight years for a five-year course; five years will be five years. If I have a problem with ASUU it is between me and them. You shouldn’t suffer for our disagreement. As president, I will participate in the running of the universities ,I assure you that when I become president I will visit at least 10 universities in a year. I visited over 500 secondary schools when I was a governor in Anambra State and all their school prefects have my phone number and I deal with them directly,” he said.