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The Labour Party presidential torchbearer in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has accused the federal government of rewarding persons he claimed have stolen the country dry with national awards.
The former Anambra State governor also lamented the attitude of the government to continuously overlook the roles teachers play in moulding the leaders of tomorrow.
Obi made these remarks while speaking during the graduation ceremony of Pace Setters Academy in Abuja on Saturday, July 15, 2023.
He called on the government to increase budgetary allocation for education while attributing the lack of development in the country to the government's lack of understanding of the importance of education.
He stated, “Education is the most important thing any nation needs. It is the foundation of development. If you don’t have an educated citizenry, you can’t have a healthy society. You can’t pull people out of poverty without education. This is because the more people you ensure get education, the more they would be able to pull themselves out of poverty.
“We can’t have 20 million out-of-school children and start to talk about development tomorrow. That is why we need to invest in education. During our campaigns, we said we will invest in public schools and private schools. We talked about having a budget for every child in a way that the budget for each child will be paid to their respective schools, whether private or public.
“As the governor of Anambra State, I didn’t have anything called private school because there is no private child in Nigeria. I equipped schools with computers and other necessary facilities. If I have my way, education will have the highest budget and teachers will be celebrated. They are the ones moulding the children."
While stressing the importance of celebrating educational excellence, Obi drew attention to the feat achieved by a teacher from St Michael's School in Ogun, Akeem Badaru, who defeated teachers from 99 other countries to win Cambridge’s best teacher award.
“Many Nigerians did not know. We are busy giving national awards to those who stole the country dry,” he noted.
Meanwhile, the founder of the school and Labour Party governorship hopeful in Edo State, Kenneth Imansuangbon, charged the graduating students to be at their best always.
“The students are the future of Nigeria and we have trained them. It is now time for them to go out and practice what they have been taught,” he added.