Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticized President Bola Tinubu over the 18-year age requirement for admission into tertiary institutions, accusing him of acting like a lost sailor at sea.
Salient Times report that recently, Minister of Education Prof. Tahir Mamman affirmed that the age limit for candidates sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), administered by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), remains 18 years.
In response, Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, expressed his disapproval on X, referring to the policy as outdated and a hindrance to academic progress.
He posted: “The policy contradicts the principle of delineation of responsibilities in a federal system of government and illustrates how the Tinubu government behaves like a lost sailor at sea.
“How is such an anti-scholarship regulation the logical next step in addressing the myriad of issues facing our educational system?
“To be clear, the Nigerian constitution places education on the concurrent list of schedules, giving sub-national governments a larger role in education than the federal government. Therefore, it is unconstitutional for the federal government to impose education regulations as if they were decrees.
“The global best practice is to allow sub-national governments to establish their own laws or rules on education.
“It is discouraging that, while announcing this policy, the government also stated it had no plans to support specially gifted students. This statement embarrasses the intellectual community in Nigeria, making it appear that gifted students are undervalued.
“The irony is that if the federal government plays any role in education, it should be to create mechanisms to identify and offer scholarships to gifted students, regardless of their age.
“This controversial policy is outdated and should be condemned by everyone who values intellectual freedom and accessibility.”
