Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, has faulted the federal government’s policy setting 18 as the minimum age for tertiary institution admissions, saying the policy belongs in the stone age.
Atiku said in a statement that the policy is “an absurdity and a disincentive to scholarship,” and contravenes the notion of “delineation of responsibilities” in federalism.
According to him, the Nigerian constitution puts education in the concurrent list of schedules, in which the sub-national government enjoys more roles above the federal government, which makes it extra-constitutional for the federal government to legislate on education in a manner similar to a decree.
“The best global standard for such regulation is to allow the sub-national governments to make respective laws or rules on education.
“It is discouraging that even while announcing this obnoxious policy, the government inadvertently said it had no plan to cater for specially gifted pupils.
“The irony here is that should the federal government play any role in education, it is to set up mechanisms that will identify and grant scholarships to gifted students, not minding their ages before applying for admission into tertiary institutions,” Atiku said.
The former PDP president candidate said the policy should be roundly condemned by everyone who believes in intellectual freedom.
