Obi Decries N10bn Budgeted for Car Parks, Recreational Facilities at National Assembly

•Says N1bn allocated for hostels in 12 tertiary institutions abnormal

•Insists untrained youths will be Nigeria’s future problem

Chuks Okocha in Abuja and David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka

The Labour Party (LP) 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi has once more expressed dissatisfaction over what he termed as misplacement of priorities in the allocation of funds by the federal government.

Obi described as unacceptable the continued deployment of public resources to non-essential areas of development.

The LP standard’s bearer highlighted the poor and embarrassing position of Nigeria in the global average in school enrollment, arguing that yet the government was budgeting a paltry N1 billion for the construction of hostels in 12 tertiary institutions in Nigeria while N10 billion was allocated for the building of car parks and recreational facilities.

Writing on his X platform the former Anambra State Governor said: “As the giant of Africa which we are, I remain concerned about our fiscal indiscipline as a nation.

“Imagine the situation in our education sector where the global average of secondary school enrollment is above 80 per cent, while Nigeria is 28 per cent.

“The global Average of Tertiary School enrollment is above 55 per cent, while Nigeria is less than 15 per cent. Yet our budget for the National Assembly Car Parks is N6 billion.

“The budget for the National Assembly recreational facilities is N4 billion; approval for the construction of hostels in 12 tertiary institutions is just N1 billion.

“It is time for us to stop this financial indiscipline and embrace financial discipline by prioritising the allocation of resources to the critical areas of human and national development.”

Meanwhile, Obi has said an untrained youth would constitute problem for Nigeria in the future.

Obi, stated this yesterday during a visit to College of Nursing Sciences, Adazi Nnukwu, Anambra State, where he donated N10million for the maintenance of its facilities.

He said: “I have heard all the challenges you people listed, and I assure you that aside our coming here today, we will come again before the year runs out.

“We will continue to do more despite what we have done before. The work you do here preparing nurses is critical because nurses represent the critical part of our health sector.

“I have been going all over the country to put smiles on the faces of people and invest in them and give them hope because the people we fail to train today will be a problem to us in the future.

“We must invest in our young people. See the number of people you have as students here, and you are training them to become useful. If you don’t train them, the will be one a problem to the society tomorrow.”

He also thanked the college for its dedication in churning out qualified nurses and midwives.

“I remind you, my dear nursing students, that nursing is a noble profession in which you will find fulfillment by serving society. I wish you well and urge you to continue to work hard as nurses as we unite our efforts in building a New Nigeria.

“Through many decades of producing qualified nurses and midwives, the College of Nursing Sciences, Adazi-Nnukwu, has contributed immeasurably to the growth of our health sector and the development of our human infrastructure.

“By your labours and sacrifices, you have continued to produce well-trained nurses who make positive impacts both within the nation and in the international health sector,” Obi said.

Earlier, the institution’s head of department of nursing, Mary Michael-Ezenwuba, applauded Obi for several other gestures he had extended to the institution, including construction of two lecture halls and two student hostels.