President Muhammadu Buhari said Monday that he has no plans to groom anyone to take over from him 2023.
The president said this when he received members of the Progressive in Academics (Pro-Acad) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He said naming a successor now would create problems for the beneficiary and those making “To me this is very funny. I think if I identify anybody I’d create more problem for him or for her. So, I’d rather keep my mouth shut. Let those who would want to be president try as much as I did. And I believe that those who are interested know that I tried three times. And the first time, I thank God and technology, PVC. Before, they just go to the television and they read the results. They say anybody who disagreed should go to court.
“And most of my supporters are looking for next day’s meal. They don’t have money to give to lawyers. So I said God dey. So, the first time God and technology came along , PVC they couldn’t rig the election so I won. This time around…I tried to work hard but I think you have a lot more to do you as intellectuals so that you correctly document Nigeria’s political development. It’s very important for the next generation.
“A lot of our young chaps are taking things for granted. Imagine to contest election three times ending up in Supreme Court three times. It needs a lot of conviction you know, and hard work. But people take success for granted. They say, ah, he’s the president. They think I just closed my eyes and I got it?,” he said.
The president also blamed state governments for the current poor state of Al-majiri system of education in the country.
He said education remains the top priority of government, stressing that over N1 trillion was injected into education through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund) and needs assessment interventions in the last four years.
“We also released N25 billion to public universities to pay earned academic allowances to lecturers. Of course, you are all aware of the rot we uncovered at JAMB and many other institutions.
“Our home grown school feeding programme covering more than 10 million children couple with our social investment initiative has encouraged many parents to send their children to school and also pay for more teachers in classrooms.
“In the next four years we shall continue with the work to transform the sector bearing in mind our high population growth rate, financial challenges and security issues especially those grossly affected areas. Simply put our focus and agenda can only be sustained if we have educated and secured society. “Therefore, we have no choice but produce more engineers, technicians, doctors, nurses and the teachers. To achieve this, we shall continue to seek your advise and guidance. I am pleased to note some of the ideas you proposed, this submission is timely as we prepare for the next level,” he said.
