The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 general election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has clarified his statement on his plans for education if elected in 2023.
Atiku noted that he would not hand over federal universities to states, explaining that education remains on the concurrent list.
In a statement issued on Monday night, Atiku’s media aide Paul Ibe said what his principal said at the plenary of the 62nd annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association as it relates to education and how to address the crisis in the sector was misinterpreted and quoted out of context.
The statement said: “What the PDP presidential candidate referred to was his plans for a phased devolution of power to the federating units.
“The report in some sections of the media is, therefore, a misleading and false account of what transpired when the PDP Presidential candidate fielded questions as a panelist at the opening ceremony of the NBA conference.”
The media office of the PDP presidential candidate stressed that “in answering the question posed to him, Atiku Abubakar merely recalled his engagement with a university professor where he argued that the United States of America shared similarities with the first set of universities in Nigeria which belonged to the regional governments and noted that with proper planning and phased devolution of power, federal universities that have now become unwieldy could be made to work better under the component federating units.
“He also maintained that education would remain in the concurrent list under his administration when elected”.
