The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has vowed to hand universities under the control of the Federal Government to state governments if elected the president in the 2023 general elections.
The former Vice President stated this on Monday while as a panelist at the ongoing 2022 Nigerian Bar Association’s (NBA) Annual General Conference held at the Eko Atlantic City in Lagos State.
According to a Channels TV report, Atiku said that the Federal Government does not have enough resources to maintain all the universities, while he also argued that universities were previously under regional government, which translated into state governments.
The 75-year-old former vice president noted that “The only way is to make sure that you make a 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.”
Atiku buttressed his point on why he would hand over the federal government-controlled universities to state governments by recounting his argument with a Nigerian professor from Federal University, Lokoja, Kogi State capital.
He 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 do I do that?
“I said, ‘Mr Professor, do you realise that the first set of our universities belong 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 Nigerian students studying in the Federal Government-controlled universities across the country have been at home for the past five months due to industrial action by members of Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU).
The union went on strike on February 14 over improved welfare, revitalisation of public universities and academic autonomy among other demands.
Meanwhile, many Nigerian politicians and top government officials have been junketing overseas to celebrate their children’s graduation from one world renowned university or the other.