Education and the provision of potable water are two critical needs for many Nigerian children in various homes across the country, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election has said.
Obi said that while these are critical needs in millions of homes across the country and the challenge of bridging the gap by government alone was impossible within a short time, he asked wealthy Nigerians, including himself, to step in and reduce the challenge for humanity, particularly the Nigerian family.
He said that out of the population of about 200 million people, which has been projected for the Nigerian population, 1% of the population that falls under the category of those who control the wealth in the country should add to their social responsibilities and interventions in these two key areas.
According to Obi, research in these areas has revealed that Almajiri children in their Qur’anic classes perform so excellently that Western education can be taken to them in their places of learning as they are easily assembled there.
He said further inquiry on the cost of training these children from some of the teachers revealed that the payment of two teachers hired was put at N50,000.
Obi said that he has made calculations of teaching these future lawyers, doctors, politicians, engineers, scientists, etc. at N5 million per facility, where rich men adopt each of these Qur’anic centres and deploy mathematics, English, economics, physics, biology, and teachers of other subjects to them.
Such an effort, he said, would drastically reduce the national challenge and embarrassment of out-of-school children who are primarily in the North by about 5 million.
This, he said, was a significant number to work with where the wealthy pay attention to national development.
He also said that the need for access to potable water in Nigerian homes was very urgent, but the cost of deploying water to homes and reticulating them was enormous and could not be achieved within a short time, in spite of the urgent needs.
Therefore, he appealed to the 1% of the population, whom he said have been graced with enormous wealth, to change the stories of many homes across the country.
He said with an average cost of N5 million to a borehole, deploying these to various communities and committing to ensuring they are working.
Obi said this measure would, in the short term, provide water for Nigerians as it addresses some development issues that would equip them for healthier living and educated children ready to contribute to national development and the economy.
He said he has built about 10 boreholes and has gotten reports that two are bad. The LP presidential candidate said he would ensure those two are back up to work and enjoying the rich to help the nation improve the lot of the downtrodden.
According to him, Nigerian people should be concerned about development and play less politics when the election period is over.
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