The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, says his administration would be driven mostly by youths and women if elected as president in the 2023 general election.

Obi said the old people would be his administration’s advisers, stressing that the youths would spearhead his government.

The LP presidential flag-bearer said this at a townhall meeting with youths and students in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital on Thursday.

“This government is going to be youth and women government. The old people will be there as advisers, they will guide us, we will respect them but the youth will spearhead it,” Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, said.

He further promised to increase education funding and grant autonomy to universities in the country.

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The former governor also vowed to grant loans to students and ensure that strike in the education sector is nipped in the bud, adding: “A government that refused to recognise the impact of education to development is doomed.”

Speaking on the promise to fund education in his campaign manifesto, Obi said: “I said we will fund education, we will increase the funding. We will invest in education because the greatest investment any society can do is education. The more educated a society is the more developed they are.

“We continue to talk about physical infrastructure in this country when we have not built the human infrastructure, which is education. So we will fund education at tertiary level through collaborations, government will bring the money and we can also get some corporations to support and we will give students loan. Universities should be able to manage their resources, so they don’t have to shut down.

“So many things are not adding up but I will sit down with ASUU and we will discuss.

“I will not allow them to make you to stay 8 years for a 5 years course. 5 years will be 5 years. If I have a problem with ASUU it is between me and them. You shouldn’t suffer for our disagreement,” he stated.

Obi said as Nigeria’s President, he will participate in the running of the universities.

“I assure you that when I become president, I will visit at least 10 universities in a year. I visited over 500 secondary schools when I was a governor in Anambra. And all their school prefects have my phone number and I deal with them directly,” the LP presidential candidate added.

Obi stated that the system would be repeated if elected as president in 2023 “because that will be the reason for electing me; to make universities work. So I am going to visit the universities and make them work.”

The Star