Our Reporter, Abuja
Former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, has intervened in the ongoing accreditation crisis facing the Dentistry Department of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), with a ₦15 million donation aimed at supporting the department.
Obi disclosed this in an X post on Friday, revealing that earlier in the week, he received a letter from the University’s Dental Students Association appealing for urgent support of about ₦40 million to upgrade their laboratory and increase the department’s graduation and induction quota.
“Out of respect for the national mourning following the passing of our former President, I refrained from making any public statements during that period. Now that the mourning has officially ended, I felt it was important to act without delay,” Obi said.
The former Anambra State governor emphasized that he visited the institution personally to lend his support, stating, “We cannot, in good conscience, continue to allow our young people to suffer due to leadership failure.”
He described his ₦15 million donation as a modest contribution to support the dental students’ continued education, reiterating his longstanding commitment to improving education and healthcare across Nigeria.
Obi also used the occasion to condemn what he termed a national tragedy of misplaced priorities, questioning the country’s recurrent failure to invest in critical development areas.
“I continue to question the kind of country we are building, where our leaders and public servants spend millions on luxury cars and ignore critical areas of development, health, education, and pulling people out of poverty,” he said.
He stressed that failing to prioritize education, healthcare, and poverty alleviation while spending billions on non-essential infrastructure like conference centres and bus parks, amounts to a betrayal of Nigerian youth and a threat to the nation’s future.
