Former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof Chidi Odinkalu, has asserted that President Bola Tinubu cannot name any teacher who taught him in school and cannot name the schools he attended.
Speaking in an interview with Channels Television, Odinkalu made this assertion when he was asked to explain the background to Section 145 of the constitution on conferment of presidential powers to the vice president whenever the president goes on vacation.
However, Odinkalu sought permission to first comment on education, which was the topic at the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York. He said he knows the secondary school and schools he attended, noting that both his parents were teachers, and he is a teacher so education means a lot to him.
He said the world is discussing education while Nigeria is facing a crisis over unity schools following the concessioning of King’s College. He said there is no policy on concessioning of publicly owned schools and the move on concessioning was drawn out of a hat.
He said the current administration does not have a policy on education, adding that the last policy on education was done by Adamu Adamu when he was the Minister of Education in 2017 and the present government has not bothered to read or update that policy.
He said the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria is skyrocketing and the country cannot even present a policy on education at the United Nations.
In his statement, “The numbers of out-of-school children are skyrocketing in the country. We can’t even go to the United Nations and say oh you know this is our education policy. That’s how bad it is.”
“And sadly the president does not have a calling card on this because he cannot name any teacher who taught him he cannot name the schools he went to. Do you see the credibility crisis we are running attending an education summit at the United Nations general assembly?
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