Former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar said he nearly cried during his visit to Daura, Katsina State.
Diaspora Digital Media (DDM) gathered that he described the emotional impact of the experience.
Atiku said he saw disturbing numbers of young Almajiris lining the roads from Katsina Airport to Daura.
He described the sight as heartbreaking and a painful reminder of northern Nigeria’s growing educational crisis.
“This region was once a hub of learning; now it’s filled with hopeless youths,” Atiku stated.
He added that groups of Almajiris, 20, 30, sometimes 40, lined the roads, creating a painful contrast with the past.
“From the airport to Daura and back, it was the same heartbreaking image,” he emphasized.
Atiku pointed out the irony of educational collapse in a place that once produced Nigeria’s First Republic leaders.
“This is where Katsina College once stood, educating national heroes. Now, it’s overrun by street children,” he said.
He called the situation deeply troubling and urged Nigerians to take it as a wake-up call.
Atiku stressed that the issue affects not only this generation but future ones as well.
He said, “I tell my children, ‘I’ve lived my life; now it’s about your future and your children’s.'”
He recounted efforts made during his vice presidency to reverse educational decline in the North.
Atiku said he sought President Obasanjo’s support to create an educational reform panel focused on northern states.
He appointed an international economist to lead the panel, which produced a detailed action blueprint.
All northern governors were summoned to Kaduna, where the blueprint was presented for implementation.
He said most of them failed to act, allowing the crisis to worsen over time.
Atiku also highlighted policies such as the Universal Basic Education (UBE) program introduced during his tenure.
The UBE made education free and compulsory up to secondary school, alongside an education tax for funding.
“We passed the tax to the states, but look what they did with it,” he remarked critically.
Atiku concluded by warning that failure to act will doom future generations to even worse conditions.
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