Buhari Back Home From UK
BY EDMOND ODOK, ABUJA – President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday returned to the country from London, the United Kingdom after spending few days for his medical check-up away from attending the recent Global Education Summit (GES).
At the Summit, the President had joined other world leaders to make firm commitment towards increased funding of the education sector.
President Buhari left Nigeria for the United Kingdom on July 26, 2021 to participate in the Summit focused on Financing Global Partnership for Education (GPE) 2021-2025.
However, before leaving London back to Nigeria, the President had on Thursday, August 12 visited former Lagos State Governor and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
According to confirmed reports, Tinubu is currently recuperating in the UK after undergoing knee surgery in the United States.
At the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja to welcome Mr President include his Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari; Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammed Bello; Security chiefs as well as a sizeable number of presidential aides.
In a statement by released on July 26, 2021, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina, had explained that President Buhari would meet with his doctors after the summit and would be back in the country the second week of August.
The Global Education Summit (GES), co-hosted by British Prime Minister, Mr Boris Johnson and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, also saw President Buhari engaging his African counterparts; President Nana Akufo-Addo (Ghana); President Faure Eyadema (Togo); and President Lazarus Chakwera (Malawi).
Importantly, the GES successfully generated about four billion dollars out of the targeted five billion dollars for the transformation of the education sector in low-income countries, including Nigeria.
President Buhari, who actively participated in the activities of the summit, appeared on a panel of discussants with a live audience alongside his counterparts from other African countries.
He also pledged to increase the budget for the education sector in Nigeria by as much as 50 per cent over the next two years.
“We commit to progressively increase our annual domestic education expenditure by 50 per cent over the next two years and up to 100% by 2025 beyond the 20 per cent global benchmark.”, he said.
Reports also said the President held bilateral meetings with British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Baroness Patricia Scotland, at the sidelines of the Global Education Summit.
