The former Nigerian Vice President, Mr. Atiku Abubakar, has described himself as a rebel.
Atiku made the remark while urging Nigerians never to allow the word “rule” to be used in the country’s democratic process.
Speaking in Lagos, the Waziri of Adamawa said the term rule should be replaced with “govern” because Nigerians must participate in the process.
According to Atiku, “For me, I am a rebel. Never should the word ‘rule’ be a term in our democratic process.
“You all must be governed because you must participate in that process. For me, I will not accept to be ruled, but I will accept to be governed.”
Atiku also contended that the educational system Nigeria operated in the first republic provided students the opportunity to either go to the universities, polytechnics, farming, or whatever they wanted to do.
He said, “Suddenly, Nigeria moved away from that system of education, to a system where you train only job seekers.
“They don’t know how to do anything else other than to seek for job. So, what I am trying to say is that my Nigeria is possible, and your Nigeria is also possible.
“The United Nations projected that by January 2018, Nigeria would have more people in poverty. Can you imagine that! What can we do to combat this challenge? My submission is that education, entrepreneurship, foreign direct investment.
“Currently Nigeria’s out of school population is projected at 10 million while that of India is projected at 1.8 million, even though they have eight times our population. Why is it so?”