The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has criticised the Federal Government over what he described as misuse of public funds.
In a series of tweets on Thursday, he advised the government to stop sending public officeholders on trainings abroad with taxpayers’ money while workers in the nation’s public universities are on strike.
According to the presidential candidate, the government should stop misplacing its priorities and ensure the youths who are the nation’s future are not neglected.
“Our students and future leaders are idling away at homes or in some undesirable places, while our government is spending millions in foreign currency, supposedly training public office holders in Ivy League universities across the world,” said Obi who is a former governor of Anambra State.
“Through such policy neglect, we are unwittingly breeding some societal misfits who will someday embark on vendettas and take revenge on our society. As a matter of adaptive leadership, such trainings being sponsored with public funds should stop forthwith, until all our schools start functioning optimally.”
University workers, including members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), had gone on strike for various reasons.
Amid the prolonged strike that has crippled academic activities across universities for more than five months, officials of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) recently attended an advanced leadership programme of Judge Business School (JBS) at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, also came under intense criticism for a recent social media post in which he shared pictures of him taking a course at Harvard University.
Obi, however, stressed that if there was a need for such trainings, they should be required to take place only within the country.