Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour party in the 2023 general elections, has slammed Nyesom Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory for ignoring the ongoing strike by its Primary School Teachers.
TheNewsGuru reports that the strike is in its third month and there’s no end in sight and stirred up protests during the week.
Taking to his social media pages, the former Anambra governor explained that the most critical and immeasurable component of human development today is Education.
He said it is a known and verifiable study that the more educated a nation is, the more developed it is.
He stated that the most critical investment and policy a nation needs is the education of its people, particularly children, to ensure a better future.
He pointed out that Nigeria is not only a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which highlight education as a crucial measure of development, but it also has legislation for Universal Basic Education. This law guarantees that every child should have access to quality basic education.
“Yet, right here in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, public primary school pupils have been out of school for over three months due to a strike.
“When the strike began, we all thought, ‘This is Abuja; it will only last for a day or two’. But here we are, three months later, our children are still at home and we are busy renovating the infrastructure,” Obi lamented.
He argued that the foundation of societal development is educated citizenry, not physical infrastructure. True development is about building people. It is about educating the next generation.
“A nation that ignores its children’s education” he said “is digging deeper into poverty, insecurity, and underdevelopment.”
He stressed that Nigeria “must prioritise investment in human capital, especially in basic education, healthcare, and pulling people out of poverty. That is how nations grow. That is how we build the New Nigeria that is possible.”