Atiku, Obasanjo Allowed Nigeria’s Universities Flounder, Established Theirs-Presidency

The Presidency has accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of allowing the country’s education to flounder during their tenure while they went on to establish their own universities.

The Presidency said this in response to an article by Abubakar advising President Bola Tinubu on steps to take to revive the economy.

In the article, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party listed steps he would have taken if he was Nigeria’s president to ameliorate the hardship Nigerians are passing through.

Responding in a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency listed Abubakar as one of those who put Nigeria in its present state.

It said under his watch and that of Obasano, Nigeria’s education floundered while they went on to establish their own universities.

While Abubakar is the owner of American University of Nigeria, Obasanjo founded Bells University.

Under The Bells Educational Foundation established in 2004, Obasanjo also has nursery, primary and secondary schools.

Onanuga said in the statement on Sunday: “He and his boss demonstrated a lack of faith in our educational system, and both went to establish their universities while they allowed ours to flounder.”

The Special Adviser on Information and Strategy also accused Abubakar of supervising a questionable privatisation programme during the Obasanjo era.

He said: “Nigerians have not forgotten this, nor would they be comforted by Atiku’s antecedents when he ran the economy in the first term of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government between 1999 and 2003.

“As vice president, Atiku supervised a questionable privatisation programme.”