Obi charges the FG with honoring looters with national awards.

Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s nominee for president in the 2023 election, charged on Saturday that the Federal Government had honored people who had “stole the country dry” while ignoring the crucial roles that educators played in shaping the “leaders of the tomorrow.”

During the Pace Setters Academy graduation ceremony in Abuja, Obi spoke in support of more funding for education. He attributed the nation’s lack of progress to the government’s lack of awareness of the value 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.

He referenced a teacher, Akeem Badaru, from St Michaels School in Ogun State for winning Cambridge’s best teacher award, beating 99 other countries. “Many Nigerians did not know. We are busy giving national awards to those who stole the country dry,” he added.

“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.