The presidential candidate of the AAC party has declared that it will be illegal for parents not to enroll their kids in school.
Speaking to Arise tv on Tuesday, Sowore mentioned that he would incentivize parents to put their kids in school: “one of the basic things we would do about the educational sector is to attach conditional cash transfer to parents enrolling their kids in school. That’s the way to incentivize and encourage parents to make sure their children go to school. Meanwhile, under our government it will be illegal for parents to keep their wards out of school.
When asked where he would get money to fund education, Sowore said: “Nigeria’s problem from time has always been wealth creation and not distribution. What Oxfam, an international Organization said is: in 2014, five Nigerians were richer than half of the population; how did they get it? Because all the cooperate and individual welfare packages are tossed in their direction.”
“As at yesterday, 16 trillion Naira went the way of some few Nigerians, Dangote and Honeywell, and the rest of us, there is nothing for us. ASUU is asking for 1.3 trillion Naira, to be given 200 billion in tranches, they said they didn’t have but the accountant general could steal 150 billion Naira without being noticed.”
“I’m saying it’s a matter of priority and international policy; a substantial amount of our budget must be allocated to education. The goal is to educate our population massively so that we can compete internationally. That would also be the source of economic development; our educated populace will surely help develop the country. Its how India did it and several other countries that use to be at the same level with Nigeria.”
“What we have done over the years is that we have ignored Education, policies and agreements and we kept turning over the wealth of the country to a few people who use the money to send their children abroad. Let me give an example, for a child to be enrolled in UK, in some big schools, it costs nothing less than £50,000, an amount enough to build two schools here in Nigeria.”
“When it comes to spending our own wealth on our own people, we keep complaining that we don’t have money, while we do, but not just spending it on the people we are supposed to spend it on.”