By: Odeh Favour Adiya
The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress and former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, has defended his record on education and support for vulnerable children following an online confrontation with a social media user.
The exchange began when an X user, @Oluwabunmi63697, shared a photograph showing children holding begging bowls, questioning what the former VP accomplished regarding street begging during his eight-year tenure.
“Have you ever addressed this, sir? You were VP for 8 years, these innocent children are in your region and you couldn’t do anything to stop this calamity,” the user wrote.
Reacting to the criticism, Atiku acknowledged the severity of the situation, maintaining that the issue of out-of-school children demands national concern.
“I understand your concern. The sight of children begging on our streets should trouble every Nigerian,” Atiku wrote.
He explained that establishing the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola, Adamawa State, rather than in commercially lucrative centers like Lagos or Abuja, was a strategic effort to uplift the region’s educational landscape.
“I established the American University of Nigeria as a practical investment in education and the development of the North,” he stated.
“If profit had been my primary motivation, I could easily have located the university in Abuja or Lagos, where the commercial advantages would have been greater,” he said.
Atiku emphasized that his decision aimed to bridge educational disparities in the North-East zone.
“I chose Yola because I wanted to invest in my people, create opportunities, and bring world-class education closer to a region that had long needed greater access and development,” he added.
Addressing misconceptions about the institution’s ownership structure, the ADC standard-bearer clarified that he has formally relinquished private ownership of the university.
“And as I have publicly stated before, this university is not my personal property or that of my family. I have already signed a deed of gift transferring it to the community. AUN belongs to the community it was established to serve,” he said.
Highlighting specific community interventions by the university, Atiku referenced the ‘Feed and Read’ programme, designed to provide street children and Almajiri youth with daily sustenance while teaching basic literacy and numeracy.
He further pointed to the university’s ‘Technology-Enhanced Learning for All’ initiative, which utilized educational radio broadcasts to reach more than 20,000 internally displaced children across the region.
Atiku also recalled the institution’s humanitarian response following the 2014 Boko Haram insurgency, where 15 young women who escaped the Chibok schoolgirl abduction were granted full academic scholarships to rebuild their lives.
“Following the Chibok tragedy in 2014, seven years after I left office, AUN awarded scholarships to young women who had escaped Boko Haram, giving them an opportunity to rebuild their lives through education,” he said.
Reaffirming his commitment to child welfare and educational access, Atiku stated that his position on vulnerable youths has remained unchanged.
“My conviction remains simple: every child belongs in a classroom, not on the street with a begging bowl. Whether in government or outside it, I have always sought to turn that conviction into practical action,” he said.
The online debate comes on the heels of Atiku’s recent critiques regarding Nigeria’s ongoing economic hardship, where he lamented the rising costs of basic commodities, transportation, housing, and healthcare.
In his earlier statement, he criticized severe economic desperation among the youth, declaring, “Young Nigerians should be selling dreams, ideas and innovation, not their body organs.”
