Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has revealed that he plans to hand over control of all Federal Universities to their respective states if he is elected president.
He revealed this on Monday during the opening ceremony of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) general conference in Lagos.
Abubakar revealed that he recently discussed with a university lecturer who read his policy document and an argument ensued on his (Atiku’s) intention to return the universities to the states.
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““I had an argument with a university professor from Federal University, Lokoja. He said he read in my policy document that I intend to devolve, in other words, to return education to the states. How dare I do that?
“I said: ‘Mr professor, do you realize that the first set of our universities belongs to the regional governments?’ He said, ‘yes’. I said ‘who are the successors of the regional government?’ He said: ‘the states’. I said the children you send to America or England, who own those universities? Mostly the private sector. So, why is it that you think we cannot do it here? We don’t have the money,” he said.
Abubakar explained that one of the fundamental reforms in his policy is to encourage the private sector in order to encourage development in the country.
“One of the fundamental reforms I have in my policy document is to encourage the private sector as far as the development of the country is concerned — both foreign and local. It is very essential because the federal government does not have the resources to do all the things that they want to do.
“The only way is to make sure that a conducive environment is available for the local and foreign investors to participate in the development of our country, whether it is infrastructure, education and healthcare,” he said.