Investigation: States Got N216bn For Basic Education

Thirty-six states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have received over N216billion from the federal government through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) for the improvement of basic education in nine years, from 2005 -2014.

This was revealed in a document exclusively obtained by LEADERSHIP, which also put the matching grant allocations to the states at over N7billion by February 17, 2015.

For instance, the 36 states received N38, 345,999,949.38 billion in 2005-2006, N55, 509,995,087.00 billion in 2007-2008, and N42, 383,041,745.18 billion in 2009-2010.

In 2011, they received N31, 017,753,337.05 billion, while in 2012 they got N23, 882,227,989.76 billion. In 2013, they received N20,604,886,955.65 billion while in 2014, the accessing rate nosedived as they received only N5, 237, 635, 135, 16 billion.

Executive secretary of the commission, Dr Suleiman Dikko, shed more light on the matter in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP.

According to him, in 2004, the federal government decided to do a reinforcement for basic education after which it met with state governors and both parties jointly agreed that annual assistance be provided for state governments.

“From then to date, each state has over N7billion as intervention from the federal government,” he stated.

So far, from 2005 till February 17, 2015, only six states have accessed theirs after providing counterpart funding and plans for execution. The states are Adamawa, Gombe, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto and Taraba States.

States ranking low are Ebonyi, Benue, Cross River, Abia, Enugu, Kogi, Nasarawa, Ogun and Oyo with the worst being Ebonyi whose last year of accessing was in 2011, and has a balance of over N4billion to claim towards boosting basic education.

The commission’s helmsman faulted state governors who had claimed, in earlier reports, that they were unaware about such interventions from the federal government, with some claiming that their SUBEB chairmen/chairpersons did not carry them along.

He described such claims as untrue, as the chairmen always fed their state governors with the necessary information on basic education, and accused them of lacking the political will needed to push education forward in their respective states.

“The governors were aware of this intervention. Some are accessing the funds annually‎. There is a fora where we visit the governors and keep reminding them of their responsibility to access these funds. There is lack of political will by some of the state governors. They wouldn’t like a project which is done in their state to be inscribed to be for the federal government. That’s why they have refused to access (the funds),”he said.

“Others have refused to access because they don’t look at basic education as a priority in their administration and they don’t look at education as a right to their citizens; so they have a nonchalant attitude. Some of them will tell you they have other things to do and why should they invest N1billion in education.

“I would have agreed with the state governors if they did not access the funds at all. A governor will call me and ask, how much is there and I will explain how much they have accessed and how much is left. So if he is not aware, how will he call and ask me this? And we didn’t say these states are not accessing at all, but the speed and rate at which they are accessing is unappreciable and disheartening. They only access when they have a need.”

On the relationship between the governors and their SUBEB chairmen, Dikko said: “We expect that the chairmen should know everything because we interact with them and assume that they are answerable to the state governors and feed them with the necessary information, because we have quarterly meetings with them and we assess the performance of their state governors.

“We have written letters reminding them of this and we even write the total amount of money waiting for them per year. We even publish them in dailies and announce it over the radio and television for all to see and hear. So to say the state governors do not know is not doing justice to their state SUBEB and to us.

“We got many complaints from the chairmen stating that the governors were not allowing them to access the funds and when they talk to their commissioners of education, some of them will not convey the message to the governors. So you can see.”

LEADERSHIP made concise efforts to get comments from the various commissioners of education but was unable to get any, as all of them were yet to be appointed by their respective state governors. Also, none of the permanent secretaries accepted to speak on the account that they were not permitted to speak with the press without directives.

 

Investigation: States Got N216bn For Basic Education