The Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s decision to offer scholarships to students in Saint Lucia while many Nigerian children remain out of school, particularly in the nation’s capital.

President Tinubu, during his official visit to Saint Lucia, announced a scholarship initiative for students from the Caribbean country and others in the region to study in Nigerian universities. The gesture, however, has drawn sharp reactions from Obi, who called it “heartbreaking” and “a betrayal against Nigerian children.”

Obi pointed to the ongoing strike by primary school teachers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which began in March over unpaid salary arrears and the non-implementation of the N70,000 minimum wage. As of June 30, the strike had entered its 100th day, leaving public primary schools across the six Area Councils in Abuja shut and thousands of pupils at home.

“It is heartbreaking that our President, who is the leader of a country with the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, and with the students in the capital of his own nation, Abuja, presently not attending schools, would travel to Saint Lucia and offer scholarships to children there,” Obi said.

Citing United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) statistics, Obi reminded Nigerians that over 20 million children are currently out of school in Nigeria, the highest figure globally.

Obi also compared Nigeria’s performance in global development rankings to that of Saint Lucia, noting that the Caribbean nation has higher Human Development Index (HDI) scores, including literacy rate and life expectancy.

“So tell me, what sense does it make that a president of a country with such terrible and dire statistics would travel to a country with better indexes of development—especially in education—and still offer them scholarships funded by Nigerian taxpayers?” Obi queried.

He said the gesture reveals a contradiction in Tinubu’s priorities: “By offering Saint Lucian students scholarships, Mr. President shows he understands the value of education, yet he deprives Nigerian students of that same opportunity.”

Obi concluded by calling on the President to redirect national resources to address the worsening state of education in Nigeria before seeking to extend such assistance abroad. (The Guardian)