Former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has come down hard on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his recent decision to award scholarships to students from St Lucia and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) for studies in Nigerian universities. The initiative, unveiled during Tinubu’s state visit to St Lucia on June 30, has sparked outrage, with Obi describing it as a “deep betrayal” of Nigerian children.
In a statement released Wednesday, July 2, Obi questioned the logic of extending educational aid to foreign nationals while millions of Nigerian pupils remain at home due to strikes and unpaid teacher salaries. He argued that public primary schools across Nigeria are currently shut, yet Tinubu is offering scholarships to outsiders—a move Obi says highlights misplaced priorities.
“How can we solve the problems of foreign students when our own children are being denied basic education?” Obi lamented. He called on the federal government to prioritize local education reforms before extending assistance abroad.
His statement shared on social media reads
‘’I have consistently maintained that our underdevelopment is due to Leadership failure.
It is heartbreaking that our President, who is the leader of a country with the highest number of out of school children in the world and with the students in the capital of his own nation Abuja presently not attending schools, would travel to St. Lucia and offer scholarships to children there, while his own country’s education system is in ruins, and even currently his nation’s capital, the Federal Capital Territory, the supposed seat of governance, have public schools shut down and closed for months.
This is not leadership, it is negligence at its peak. It is an act of betrayal against the Nigerian child.
Nigeria has approximately 20 million children out of school, according to UNICEF, the highest number globally, with a literacy rate of under 60% far below the global average of 87%. Similarly, the life expectancy stands at a mere 54 years, out of the global average measurement of above 70 years, one of the lowest in the world.
On Human Development Index (HDI), which is the most critical measure of development, Nigeria is ranked in the “Low Category” at 161 out of 193 countries measured, while St. Lucia, a Caribbean nation, has a literacy rate of over 90% which is above the global average of 87%.
In life expectancy of more than 72 years, which is within the global average.
On HDI which Nigeria is in the Low category, they air in the “High Category”
So tell me, what sense does it make that a president of a country with such terrible and dire statistics would travel to a country with better indexes of development especially in education and still offer them scholarships funded by Nigerian taxpayers when Nigeria children are largely out of school and the teachers not yet paid for months?
Mr. President, by offering St Lucia students a scholarship, shows he knows how important education is, while depriving Nigerian students of the same access to education.
We must, as a nation, reject these continued normalisations of misplaced priorities and build a better nation for us and our children.
A New Nigeria is POssible. -PO”
