Peter Obi, the 2023 Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, held a closed-door meeting with chairpersons of the South-east caucus of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on Tuesday.
Martins Ugwu, head of the ADC media team in Enugu State, said the meeting was a “calculated show of regional alignment toward consolidating regional party structures.”
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He said the meeting was Mr Obi’s first with the newly elected South-east chairpersons of the ADC in Enugu.
The meeting was connected to Mr Obi’s aspiration to contest the forthcoming ADC presidential primary and to strengthen cohesion, align leadership priorities, and deepen grassroots engagement across the South-east region.
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Mr Ugwu said the meeting focused on reinforcing internal party democracy and harmonising state-level operations.
Among those present were the Enugu State Chairman-elect, Augustine Akubue, alongside counterparts from Imo, Abia, Anambra, and Ebonyi states.
In a related development, Mr Obi held a breakfast meeting with foreign diplomats in Abuja on 15 April.
He disclosed this in a post on X.
“Today in Abuja, I had a breakfast meeting with some diplomats that included, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria and his colleagues from European Union, Germany, Canada, and France.
“It was an enriching discussion on relationships,” he stated.
Obi advocates Nigeria’s investment in education
On Tuesday, 21 April, Mr Obi was at the Coal City University Enugu, where he made a case for Nigeria to invest more in education.
“No nation rises above the quality of its education system,” Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, stated in a lecture he delivered at the university.
“Nigeria’s current low Human Development Index (HDI) score of 0.548 and persistent high unemployment are clear symptoms of chronic underinvestment in education and human capital development.
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“The data is equally revealing. Nigeria allocates less than 10% of its budget to education, far below the 15–20% global benchmark. Youth unemployment and underemployment exceed 30%, while life expectancy remains among the lowest 50–55 years. Literacy levels hover below average 59% and 65%, all of which point to deep structural weaknesses in our development trajectory.
“In contrast, comparable countries such as Indonesia and Egypt, and South Africa have high HDI levels with HDI scores of 0.72–0.75. They all have higher life expectancy of above 65 years, higher literacy levels and higher per capita incomes of $3,500 above, while Nigeria is about $1000. This stronger progress was through sustained and deliberate investment in education, healthcare, and broader human capital development. The difference is not in talent, but in priority and policy consistency.”
Mr Obi called for a total review of Nigeria’s education funding model to usher in stronger public-private partnerships, and more inclusive policies that recognise the role of both public and private institutions in educating Nigerian students.
“We must move beyond rhetoric and confront these realities with urgency.
“It is difficult to justify excluding private universities from intervention frameworks like TETFund when they are actively contributing to national capacity building,” he said.
(NAN)
