N39bn ICC renovation, a misplacement of priorities – Obi
…donates to Chibok Girls Secondary School
By Tunde Opalana
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, has condemned the Federal Government’s spending of N39 billion on the renovation of the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
He described it as misplacement of priorities by the government to favour the rich while the poor are dying in droves for lacking basic things like food, education and healthcare.
The renovated edifice renamed Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre facilitated by the Federal Capital Territory Administration led by the FCT minister, Barrister Nyesom Wike was on Tuesday commissioned by President Tinubu.
According to a statement by Ibrahim Umar, spokesperson of the Peter Obi Media Reach (POMR), Obi, spoke in Abuja while announcing the facilitation of three projects, to the tune of N6 million plus some computers in Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.
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He noted that anything done to promote education is not donation but investment.
The former Anambra State governor donated the sum of N6 million 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 renovation of the conference as a wasteful venture, urged the federal government to always invest in ventures like education that would be profitable to the youth in future.
“FCTA could afford to claim that it renovated a structure that is in good shape with N39 billion,” he lamented.
He described it 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.
According to Obi, ” the N39 billion 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.
”N39 billion 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.
Obi said that the donations would have been done in the Chibok community, but was warned that it is security risky to do so because of the security situation in the area.
“If a section of the country is not safe to visit, the whole country is not safe.”
The facilitator of the donations, and an activist for the free Chibok girls, Mrs Alisha Yusufu, said that 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.
The leader of the Chiboku community who received the ten computer laptops, two Laser printers, Dauda Iliya pledged to ensure that the items were put to use for the maximum benefit of the students.
