Sowore pledges to make education free, says 1999 constitution ‘fraudulent’

Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), says he would provide free education at all levels for Nigerians if elected president.

Sowore spoke on Sunday during an interview on Channels Television.

Presently, education at all levels in Nigeria is not entirely free but to some extent subsidised by the federal and state governments, especially in public institutions.

Speaking on his manifesto, Sowore said the country has enough resources to provide free education at all levels for the citizens.

The Sahara Reporters publisher said his experience in the civil space helped him discover that the country’s resources are being used for the benefit of a few.

“Free education to every level. The money is there,” he said.

“I keep saying this to Nigerians with the knowledge of how they manage the Nigerian economy as a journalist and individual who has fought corruption for the last sixteen years, I can tell that what is being taken out of the Nigerian treasury is enough to support free education in this country or to support it for another 50 or 100 years ahead of now.

“In a video I shared on my Facebook timeline, it is talking about the United Arab Emirates, particularly in Dubai, they provide free education for everybody.

“They even pay people to get married. It is the same oil that we are selling. So what we have been doing in Nigeria is corporate welfare and individual powerful people welfare.”

Speaking on restructuring, Sowore said if elected, his first agenda is to “jettison” the 1999 constitution, which he said was imposed on Nigerians by the military government.

The AAC presidential candidate added that Nigerians must decide whether they need a new constitution.

“Our own democratic restructuring is different from the one you hear, nobody can even tell you what they mean by restructuring,” he said.

“The first restructuring Nigeria needs that we should not shy away from is to jettison the 1999 constitution.

“It wasn’t a constitution made for the Nigerian people. It was a fraudulent document imposed on Nigerians by the military.”