The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora and Foreign Affairs, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has cautioned parents against sending their children to volatile and hostile countries in the quest to study abroad.
Dabiri-Erewa spoke against the backdrop of some Nigerian students who were either detained or deported from Turkey over their alleged link to its failed coup.
The presidential aide told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Abuja that the present administration was working toward ensuring that the Nigerian education sector was re-positioned to meet world standard.
She advised parents to avoid risking the lives of their children in their quest to study in countries where their lives were not safe.
“Where you are running to is worse off than where you are running away from.
`You are taking your children to some hostile countries, and you don’t need to, what you are looking for is actually here in Nigeria.
“There are private universities here in Nigeria and are better than those over there. These are hard times. We have a president who is laying a solid foundation that cannot be broken.
“We need to join hands with him to achieve his set goal”, she said.
Dabiri-Erewa said her office would work with the Ministry of Education to provide information about unsafe countries and schools.
“Why do you want to go to where your lives are not safe as students? You don’t need to, and if you must, why won’t you go to a better place?
“We have an administration that is working to improve standard of education in Nigeria. We are not there yet but we will get there. So, we need to support this administration.
“We need a data base of universities that you should not even go to; why would you go to a place that is worse than where you are coming from?”
According to her, the Buhari administration is determined to take care of the welfare of all Nigerians at home or abroad.
She was optimistic that with the Buhari administration tackling corruption, insecurity and economic recession, parents would not need to send their children out for education.
“Hopefully, by the time we are through, people will be coming to Nigeria for schooling rather than Nigerians going out to seek better education abroad”, she said.
