Former Vice President, Atiku Abubarkar says Nigeria needs to invest more in education to achieve sustainable economic development.
Abubarkar made the statement during a public hearing on Thursday at the Senate on two bills seeking to establish Modibbo Adamawa University, in Yola Adamawa and the Federal University of Agriculture and Technology, Funtua, Katsina State.
The former Vice President said Nigeria needed to invest heavily on education to keep up with the pressure of the country’s growing population which he said will hit 400 million by 2050.
He decried the steady drop in Nigeria’s budgetary allocation to education; pointing out that even more profound was the huge gap in access to tertiary education.
Abubarkar described as “a disaster”, situation where over two-thirds of admission seekers who sat for JAMB could not secure admission.
Abubarkar who was the presidential candidate of Nigeria’s main opposition; the Peoples Democratic Party at the 2019 General Election, said “any serious government should take the issue of investing on education more seriously and shrink existing gap in access”.
He said the situation is even more precarious in the Northeast; explaining his advocacy and support for the convertion of Madibbo College of Technology (MAUTEC) to a multi-disciplinary university.
The bill which was sponsored by Senator, Aisha Dahiru (Adamawa Central), scaled second reading on November, 13, 2019.
The Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege who officially declared the public hearing opened said the bills were useful for development especially in their catchment areas.
