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The Commonwealth Youth Council chairperson, Ahmed Adamu, has urged Nigeria’s president elect, Muhamudu Buhari, to abolish foreign scholarships in country when he assumes office May 29.
According to Adamu who holds a PhD in economics, close to N100 billion is spent on foreign scholarships annually by Nigerian government which he claimed has caused over supply of Nigerian currency, triggering the continue decline of the value of the Nigerian Naira.
“This figure is extremely higher when adding the cost of other self-sponsored foreign education and I am using this medium to call on the Nigerian president elect to consider this as one of the immediate policy he will adopt in the first 100 days in office”.
He, in a statement issued on Saturday from London said Nigerians and other internationals studying in UK contribute 2.3% to the GDP growth in UK and their patronages contribute 2.6% to the overall UK employment and maintained that the funds injected into foreign economies should be invested in Nigeria.
“How different are foreign Universities are from Nigerian Universities, you will talk about access to energy, IT, resources, facilities, conducive atmosphere, and efficiency. All these can be provided in all Nigerian Universities with the savings that will eventuate from abolishing foreign scholarships. If you divide N100 billion by the number of federal universities, you will see that each university will get N2.5 billion a year”.
He held that Nigerian universities can perform to the international standard if for five years N2.5 billion is injected in them annually and that those who were already trained abroad can teach in Nigerian universities.
The economist also said Mr. Buhari must cut down government expenditure by 50% in one year, increase bank rate and taxes and the extravagance and wastages during the political campaign had caused unnecessary inflation in Nigeria, which he claimed is now at 8.6% from 7.9% in November.
“The money in circulation must be controlled. It is commendable that the president-elect has proposed to reduce government overheads by proposing to scrap unnecessary political appointments.
“All the money saved from the austerity measures should be invested in manufacturing and industrial sectors as well as education, science and technology. Small skills labourers should have a coordinated wage system, so that cost of production can be predicted, and small skill labourers who contribute immensely to the economic growth will not be underpaid” he stated.
