By The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi,who spoke at the televised town hall meeting organised by Arise TV in Abuja on Sunday night said northern children’s ability to master the Islamic holy book indicated they would be able to master skills to hike out of poverty.
“If they can learn the Quran, it means they are intelligent,” Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra, said as part of a broad response on tackling education. “I will meet them where they are learning the Quran” and let them know they can have skills.
“What we need to do, other than increased investment in education, is also to have increased inspection across state and local government,” Mr Obi said.
According to UNICEF, education in northern Nigeria has lagged behind the rest of the country for decades, with a substantial majority of the country’s out-of-school children being from the region.
