Online universities critical to Nigeria’s development, says Peter Obi

Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, says online universities are critical for Nigeria’s educational development. 

Speaking at Nexford University‘s convocation ceremony on Saturday, Obi noted that online universities are a critical alternative to traditional higher education institutions in the country.

He said countries like Pakistan, India, and Turkey have seen significant success by leveraging online education, with some of their universities enrolling more students than all Nigerian universities combined.

He explained that online education is the next stage of development, stressing that a nation’s educational level directly correlates with its overall development.

“It (online education) is very critical. I give you an example, because of not having online education you have countries like Pakistan, India, and Turkey where they have universities that have more students than all our universities put together. And you could see the critical impact of it. So, it is the next stage,” Obi said.

“We need to massively educate the people because education is one most important tools of development. It has been proven that the more educated a country is the more developed. So, whatever you can do to accelerate that, it is critical.

“We have to combine all of them. This is a huge country. I have just given you an example, countries that we have more population than or similar population are doing this.”

The former governor of Anambra also highlighted the need for leadership with compassion to support these educational initiatives.

“Leadership is the most important; you have to have the right character and compassion. You have to care about others to be able to lead,” Obi added.

”If something is happening today, we do not have people who care about the society. It is about selfish interest.”

In addition, former education minister Obiageli Ezekwesili, who was also present at the ceremony, urged Nigerian youths to acquire skills such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) to remain competitive in the global job market.

Ezekwesili, a board member of NXU, said AI will revolutionise the future of work globally.

Fadl Al Tarzi, the CEO of Nexford University, also congratulated the graduating students for their resilience in developing real-time solutions that could change the world.

He shared the vision behind Nexford, which aims to enable global economic mobility without the need for people to leave their home countries.