I Built American University to Address Almajiri Crisis: Atiku Claims
- Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar said he founded AUN in Yola, not Abuja or Lagos, specifically to develop the North
- Atiku said he has already signed a deed of gift transferring ownership of AUN to the community, not his family
- AUN's programmes have reached over 20,000 displaced children and provided scholarships to survivors of Boko Haram
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Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said he established the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola primarily to tackle the crisis of out-of-school children in the north, including Almajiri children who beg on the streets.
Atiku, the 2027 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, made the claim in a personal statement in which he described the sight of children begging as something that "should trouble every Nigerian."
Source: Twitter
Why Atiku chose Yola over Abuja or Lagos
The former vice president said he deliberately located the university in Yola rather than in more commercially attractive cities because he wanted to invest in his people and bring world-class education to a region that had long lacked access and development. He said profit was never the primary motivation behind founding the institution.
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He also addressed questions over ownership of the university, saying he had already signed a deed of gift formally transferring AUN to the community it was built to serve. "AUN belongs to the community it was established to serve," he said.
Programmes targeting displaced and vulnerable children
Atiku pointed to two specific AUN initiatives as evidence of the institution's social mission. The first, called Feed and Read, provides vulnerable Almajiri children with daily meals alongside lessons in literacy and numeracy. The second, the Technology-Enhanced Learning for All initiative, used educational radio programmes to teach more than 20,000 internally displaced children how to read.
He also noted that in 2014, seven years after he left office as vice president, AUN awarded scholarships to young women who had escaped Boko Haram following the Chibok abductions, giving them a path to rebuild their lives through education.
"My conviction remains simple: every child belongs in a classroom, not on the street with a begging bowl," Atiku said. "Whether in government or outside it, I have always sought to turn that conviction into practical action."
See the full statement of Atiku on X here:
Tinubu paid school fees of Chibok Girls in Atiku's varsity
Legit.ng earlier reported that President Bola Tinubu has reportedly approved the payment of the rescued Chibok Girls' schooling at the AUN in Adawama, a university owned by the ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Tunji Alausa, the Minister of Education, explained that the government has continued to pay Atiku's university despite the former Vice President's criticism of Tinubu's administration.
President Tinubu approved N1.8 billion to complete the intervention programmes for the 108 rescued Chibok Girls.
Source: Legit.ng
