Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan claimed on Thursday, December 2, that several Nigerian governors were dissatisfied with the Almajiri schools he created, characterizing them as a ticking time bomb.
According to a report by Daily Trust, Jonathan made the comment while delivering a graduation speech at the National Institute for Security Studies (NISS) in Abuja.
It was reported that during Jonathan’s presidency, 35 Almajiri schools were established in his first two years in office.
The former president went on to say that in order to address a wide variety of security issues confronting the country, he requested the governors of the country’s 19 northern states to change the Almajiri educational system.
He said:
“When I was in office, I had to step in at a time, to even attempt to build Almajiri schools. I know that some of the governors probably were not happy but then, they didn’t tell me they were not happy, it was when I left office they said they weren’t happy.
“We used the federal government’s money from Universal Basic Education. It was just to partner with the State governments to create these learning environments, and I did that because of my knowledge about the ethno-religious crisis.”
According to him, Nigeria doesn’t spend money on developing the youths in order to give them functional education.