Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, has condemned the Federal Government for issuing national honours to individuals who “stole the country dry”.

According to Obi, same individuals failed to recognise the massive contributions by teachers in moulding the “leaders of the tomorrow.”

The former Anambra governor said this while advocating an increased budgetary allocation for education, during a speech at the graduation ceremony of Pace Setters Academy in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

Obi stressed that the level of Nigeria’s development depends on how the government understands the importance of education.

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He said, “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,” he added.

No private child in Nigeria
Recounting on his time as Anambra governor, Obi said he refused to own private schools because every child belongs to the government.

“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.

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“If I have my way, education will have the highest budget and teachers will be celebrated. They are the ones moulding the children.

Obi further lauded Mr. Akeem Badaru, a teacher from St Michaels School in Ogun State who defeated others from countries to win the Cambridge’s best teacher award.

“Many Nigerians did not know. We are busy giving national awards to those who stole the country dry,” he added.

The founder of the school and LP governorship aspirant in Edo State, Kenneth Imansuangbon, in his remarks, charged the graduating students to be at their best always.