The Presidential candidate of the Africa Action Congress, ACC, Omoyele Sowore, says the fund used for the redesign of the Naira notes should have been used to resolve the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) crisis.
Sowore stated this during an interview on Channels Television, on Wednesday.
He said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) spent N218 billion to redesign the naira notes.
Sowore criticised Nigerian leaders for not addressing the welfare of Nigerians but was only concerned about the naira redesign.
“These are issues you get from leaders who are concerned about the welfare of the people of the country, not the redesign of the naira which cost us N218 billion. We should have given that money to ASUU,” he said.
According to him, the intervention fund will help prevent strikes as well as help improve the state of the nation’s tertiary education sector.
Accusing the Federal Government of not running the tertiary education system well, Sowore is however against the idea of privatising the sector.
The presidential hopeful insisted that if elected as President in the 2023 general elections, he would ensure free and qualitative education to all Nigerians.
He also pledged to cater for the needs of the over 1.7 million Nigerian students in tertiary institutions, noting that each will get N100,000 per semester.
“They are not running anything well; I will never be part of those who ask the private sector to run. It will be a publicly run education programme.
“We are focusing on free education. Every student in Nigeria who is in a higher institution will get at least N100,000 per semester as a study grant from the Federal Government,” Sowore added.
When asked where he would generate such funds to pay the over 1.7 million Nigerian undergraduates, the AAC candidate said his administration will plunge the loopholes in government and channel such into key priority areas like education.
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