From Magnus Eze, Enugu
Presidential candidate of Labour Party, (LP), Peter Obi, has vowed to reinvigorate the education and health sectors in Nigeria if he is elected president in 2023.
Obi also said he would end the recurrent university lecturers’ strike, which has almost crippled university education in Nigeria.
Obi made the declaration on Thursday at the UNN Business School Interactive session titled: ‘State of the Nigerian Economy: The Way Forward,’ held at the Central Bank of Nigeria Auditorium, University of Nigeria Enugu Campus, UNEC.
According to him, universities should be well-funded, pointing out that there was nothing big about funding the universities.
“ASUU strike would be a thing of the past. We will not have one day of ASUU strike. There is nothing big about funding the universities. Funding a university is the collaboration of everybody. Education is not an expense but an investment. We’ll make sure that nothing stops education,” he said.
To encourage university education, the presidential hopeful said that students would be given loans to study and repay the loans after graduation and have started working.
He said that there was nowhere in the world where university teachers are being toyed with, adding that they should be motivated to work to improve their industry.
On insecurity, Obi said that good governance, provision of jobs and industrialisation would check it in Nigeria.
Director of UNN Business School, Prof. Josephat Onwumere, said they organised the interactive session so that the presidential candidates could tell Nigerians how they would turn around the economy.
Onwumere said that it was important that Nigeria produced men with competence who can move the country forward, adding that other presidential candidates would be invited to the school to showcase their manifesto to the world.