Atiku decries $100bn annual foreign school fees by wealthy Nigerians

Atiku Abubakar

Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Thursday, expressed worry over alleged $100 billion been spent yearly by wealthy Nigerians to send their children to schools abroad.

Atiku, who made presentation at the National Assembly for the repeal of the act establishing
Modibbo Adama University of Technology, MAUTECH, Yola, assured that the legislation, if passed, would open more opportunities for the children of the poor to be admitted into Medicine, Pharmacy, Law, Social Science and management courses.

Flanked by the Vice Chancellor of MAUTECH, Professor Abdullahi Liman Tukur, he said most of the stakeholders from Adamawa State support the move by the National Assembly to open the university to more science, social science, environmental, art and humanity courses by making it a conventional one.

“I stand here to support the convertion of the University. The Vice Chancellor of the Modibbo Adama University have been doing excellent job and converting the University will help the teaming youths from Adamawa and surrounding states who were denied admision because of the limitation in the act establishing the University.”

“We must invest in education. The population is exacting immense pressure on the country and the more pressure is centre on education. The budget for education has been dropping since 2004. It is now at the lowest epp,” Atiku said adding that many people writes JAMB on yearly basis with only few getting the admission.

Atiku who appealed to the lawmakers to look at education taxation law, said money for education is being diverted.

“The lawmakers should amend the law so that any state that divert education money is penalise. Education sector in the North East is more haculant and risky. Admission into American University has drop,” Atiku said adding that Adamawa was not even affected by the Boko Haram crisis like Borno and Yobe.

The former vice president said if MAUTECH is converted to conventional University, there will be equity adding that it will expand the chance of qualify candidates from getting admission.

In his presentation, the Vice Chancellor of the institution, said he had been teaching in MAUTECH in the last 30 years, adding that repealing the Act establishing it will open more opportunities.

Tukur assured that technological courses in the university won’t be abandoned if the bill is passed and signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“We were running open and distance learning in management but we stop admitting because of the NUC directives. The number of admission into the University drop and we are affected by the running cost. We don’t have the threshold to sustain the University.

“Changing the name does not mean we will abandoned the technology spaces. It will only open opportunity for other courses and more people will get admission.

“If the new act is passed into law, it will give opportunity to the children of the poor to get admission and help in the growth and development of the institution,” the VC said adding that people opposing the repeal of the act establishment MAUTECH are doing disservice to the children of the poor,” he stressed.