I was not invited to Eagle Square –Atiku

Former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar says he was not at the Eagle Square, venue of the 50th independence anniversary celebration in Abuja last Friday because he was not invited to the occasion. Atiku who spoke with newsmen in Jos yesterday at the national preaching and appeal fund launch for N139,300,000 by the Jamaatu Izalatil Bdi’ah wa Ikamatis Sunnah (JIBWIS) said even as a former vice president, he could not gate-crash into the occasion unless he was invited.

“Of course I could not go unless I was invited”, he said when asked if as a former vice president he still needed a formal invitation to attend the independence anniversary.

Atiku at the launch commended the JIBWIS for trying to renovate some of the burnt schools in Jos, stressing the need for quality education. He said that was why he personally made several commitments to the development of education in the country by setting up schools to the university level. He denoted N20 million and urged JIBWIS not to relent in its effort to develop education in the country.

Former President Ibrahim Babangida who was represented by former minister of state for information and Communication, Alhaji Dasuki Salihu Nakande, harped on the need to sustain a learning culture among the youths in the country, saying education forms the bedrock of the development of the human mind. He said what JIBWIS had set out to do was commendable because it went to show that it appreciates the value of education in human development, adding that his doors would always be open to any idea that would move education forward in the country.

National chairman of JIBWIS Sheikh Mohammadu Sani Yahaya Jingir, said though his organization had made tremendous progress in the area of education by establishing 5,242 schools with over 8 million students studying in them, the organization was bothered by such problems as kidnapping, secret societies and cultism. Sheikh Jingir also described the activities of the Boko Haram sect as devilish, stressing that JIBWIS was worried by the activities of the sect as well as the security problem in the Niger Delta and Plateau State. He called on the Federal Government to prosecute those found to be behind the Jos crises and take further measures to protect schools and other public institutions from destruction in times of crisis.