Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, says the renovation of the International Conference Center (ICC) by the Tinubu administration is a misplaced priority.
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, had taken charge of the renovation, renaming the facility after President Bola Tinubu.
Wike disclosed that the renovation gulped N35 billion.
But Obi, in his reaction, accused the Tinubu administration of favouring the rich while the poor are dying in droves.
The former LP presidential flagbearer, who spoke on Wednesday in Abuja while announcing the facilitation of three projects to the tune of over N6m and some computers to the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, said that anything done to promote education is an investment.
He donated N6m for the sinking of a borehole, provision of solar and a laboratory in the secondary school where school girls were kidnapped in 2014 by the Boko Haram terrorist group.
Obi described the ICC renovation as a waste and misplacement of government priority, whereas there are schools in the country where such funds should have been invested for the welfare and educational benefits of children.
He said, “The N39bn used to renovate the international conference centre would have been better used to issues that would benefit the school children who are in dire need of such investment.
”N39bn would have been used to procure thousands and thousands of computers that would have benefited the schools because the children who are leaders would have benefited from it. They are the leaders of tomorrow.
”As we talk, teachers in the Federal Capital Territory are on strike for three months, protesting months of non-payment of salaries. This was one of the things I did when I was the governor of Anambra State, I made it to the extent that students use the computers, ten students to one computer.”
He said that the donations would have been done in the Chibok community, but was warned that it is risky to do so because of the security situation in the area, lamenting that if a section of the country is not safe to visit, the whole country is not safe.
Earlier, the facilitator of the donations, and an activist for the free Chibok girls, Mrs Aisha Yesufu, said the Chibok community got in touch with her, soliciting help to improve computer literacy in the school on May 31 this year, and she immediately got in touch with Obi, who quickly obliged.
Also, the leader of the Chibok community who received the 10 computer laptops and two Laser printers, Dauda Iliya, pledged to ensure that the items were put to use for the maximum benefit of the students.
