The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) Omoyele Sowore says his government will prioritise education and will make it free at all levels if he comes to power.
Sowore made the comment while fielding questions on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
Free education is one of the key promises in his party’s manifesto. When asked to explain further about the plan, he said it is for “every level. The money is there. I keep saying this to Nigerians and I say it with that knowledge of how they manage Nigeria’s economy”.
He claimed that the money siphoned from the country’s coffers in the past 16 years is “enough to have supported free education in this country or to have supported it for 50 years or 100 years ahead of now”.
According to him, when compared with other oil-producing, particularly the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Nigeria is lagging behind.
“They provide free education for everybody. They even pay people to get married and we all started with the same oil that we are selling,” the activist-turned-politician said.
“But what we have been doing in Nigeria is corporate welfare and individual powerful people welfare.”
As part of his plans for Nigeria, he also promised to decentralise the power sector if elected, saying the plan will generate about 24,000 megawatts of electricity in four years.
“With 24, 000 megawatts of electricity in four years, you would be creating nothing less than one to four million jobs,” Sowore explained.
“The private sector taking it over with stolen money is not working,” the 51-year-old said, claiming that “the privatisation thing is a scam. It is still Nigeria’s money stolen by them. ”
Away from the power sector, Sowore claimed the 1999 Constitution of the country is “fraudulent”, pinning most of Nigeria’s challenges on it.
“If you are going to vote for me, you are voting for that promise to change the fraudulent constitution,” the publisher added.