The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, has joined the 2023 presidential race on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Nwajuiba while accepting the presidential form purchased at the sum of one million Naira by a coalition of youths from across the six geopolitical zones under Project Nigeria Group (PNG) on Wednesday in Abuja, noted that it was an opportunity to help run affairs of the country even though it was not as easy as it seems.

The minister said: “They have gathered resources from every part of the country and purchased the form for which the APC will nominate a candidate to fly its flag in the Presidential Elections in February 2023, they have now presented this to me.

“I now solemnly accept to run for us all, and bear our Party’s Flag into the elections and become our next President. I do this recognizing that in the last 7 years, President Muhammadu Buhari has performed extraordinary feats in ensuring that our progressive ideas have been established; physical infrastructure of every type, and inclusive policies reaching out to our poor and less privileged. As we strive to uplift Nigeria and Nigerians into a developed state.

“A lot still is outstanding and needs to be done. Many of our citizens are still outside, hungry, unemployed. Many more are threatened by unwarranted and unnecessary internal security and economic challenges.

“Our calling today invites me to; take up a work path that builds on the solid foundations that have been laid thus far. Provide different paradigms for new challenges and provide the platform for a vista that accommodates subject experts to pull together forces to meet our nation’s challenges.

“This is the path I propose to thread, having been properly schooled, experienced, and tested in the last 30 years of active politics.

“I, therefore, invite our dear party and its great men and women, to forge that trust in me, as their new symbol of unity, growth, and regeneration as we step into the future with renewed zeal and optimism.”

Speaking on the ongoing strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the minister urged the union to return to classes while the Federal Government continue to work on meeting their demands, in order to ensure students were not left at a massive loss.

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While noting that it behooves on government to give life to the 2009 agreement signed with the union, he however raised concerns that the Federal Government was constrained by limited funding due to the challenges of insecurity and as such, resorts to borrowing in order to meet the lecturers’ demands.

Nwajuiba said: “However, Federal Government has continued to contain this and pay the salaries. The quirk of some of the items that are initially included in the demands is the use of IPPIS instead of UTAS developed by ASUU.

“They are in a contractual relationship with the Federal Government of Nigeria. Their salaries are paid from the IPPIS headquarters at the accountant General’s Office. So whatever the results have to be resolved at that level.

“So what we have done as a country is to appeal to our children who have been home for nearly three months. There is nothing that ASUU wants that we have not agreed to.

“We would like them to return to classes so that our students can go back to the classroom. As the nation makes money, it will get money. What we don’t want is our children to miss the opportunity of their own time, because there is a timeframe for them to grow. The child cannot wait. It is important that ASUU return to class,” the minister stated.

A member of PNG, Dr. Ndubuisi Ugochukwu, said the decision to purchase the form was born out of the desire to have a President who was competent, detribalised, speaks the language of technology innovation and has the capacity and ideas of 21st-century new economy but most importantly, a person who understands the feelings of the citizens.

The Star