UBEC: Abandoned N55 billion by 27 states

IN a clear case of absurdity, many states with dilapidated public schools have refused to access the N55 billion intervention fund provided by the Universal Basic Education Commission stretching back to 2010. Instructively, the delivery of free and functional education was part of the campaign promises of governors of some of these states during the last general election.

The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dikko Suleiman, in his recent response to an enquiry from a Lagos-based lawyer, Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, on how the funds are disbursed, in the exercise of his right to know under the Freedom of Information Act, reminded us once more of this remiss in governance. According to him, states that are up to date in accessing the funds are Adamawa, Anambra, Borno, Imo, Gombe, Katsina, Sokoto and Taraba.

Out of the urgent need to help the states provide quality basic education, the Federal Government set up the fund in 2004, financed with two per cent of Consolidated Revenue Fund, with UBEC as the coordinator for its implementation. Each state contributes a counterpart-fund to the scheme, to qualify to access the fund, in addition to meeting other due process requirements.

Between 2005 and 2009, the fund was used to construct 41,009 new classrooms, renovate 59,444 others; provide 1,139,196 pieces of furniture for pupils and teachers; construct 14,769 toilets; sink 996 boreholes; and provide 1.7 million library materials and 16.3 million English, mathematics and science textbooks in Junior Secondary Schools, among others.

Leading the defaulters is Ebonyi State, whose last counterpart contribution was in 2010. Also, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Ekiti states stopped their contributions in 2012, just as Bauchi, Bayelsa, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Osun, Plateau, Rivers, Yobe, Zamfara and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, accessed the fund up to 2013, when they last paid their dues.

None of the 36 states and the FCT in 2015 has paid any counterpart fund, while the Federal Government has so far paid N8 billion for the month of May only, in spite of the statutory nature of its obligation to the fund. The FG might rationalise its dereliction with the fall in revenue as a result of the crash in global oil prices, but what do we make of the failure of 27 states to contribute to the scheme, and thus, deny themselves its benefits, during the oil boom years?

Clearly, many of these governors distanced themselves from the pool because of accountability and transparency obligations, which they are not accustomed to, evident in how they abuse the management of the State-Joint Account with the councils. UBEC tracks the utilisation of funds released to each state, including the counterpart component.

The abuse of public funds at all levels, unfortunately, appears to have become the essence of governance, a point amplified in the trial of 10 former governors that left office in 2007. The diversion of UBEC allocation is one of the charges against one of them from the North-East.

In all, the society is the loser. Many of our so-called future leaders today learn under dehumanising conditions, ranging from congested classrooms, sitting on bare floor, classrooms with blown-off roof tops to lack of potable water, toilets and qualified teachers. In fact, none of the states is spared the ugly spectacle of schools without caved-in roofs, cracked and collapsed classroom walls, evocative of criminal abandonment or seeming ravages of war.

This was the sad tale from Sadi Maigari, the village head of Kamfani Mailafia in Katsina State in April, on the condition of the primary school there. He said, “For a long time, the community has sought the assistance of the local council to no avail; three regimes have come and gone with none interested in coming to our aid. Our children have resorted to sitting on (the) floor, mats and sacks to learn… we wrote over five complaint letters and reminders, which seem to have fallen on deaf ears.”

Pupils learning under these conditions might be alive to tell their story, but not Lawal Buhari, a seven-year-old boy who fell into a pit latrine and died, at a dilapidated public primary school at Alapere, Lagos in 2011. With over 10.5 million of out-of-school children, according to a UNESCO 2013 report, Nigeria is trudging on in the 21st century with a huge illiteracy burden. The picture has degenerated with the destruction of schools in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states by terrorists. What this means is that the future is not assured; and this is scary.

Without question, Nigeria cannot key into the global grid of economic development and progress without a sound education, which begins at the basic level. As the country annually churns out primary school leavers, who are neither literate nor numerate, the situation calls for a serious soul-searching.

We had got it right in the remote past when school leavers were so functional that some of them were employed as teachers; while those with the hunger for higher education studied on their own and passed in flying colours. A reincarnation of the system that guaranteed this has become imperative now, for a better tomorrow.

The United Nations in 2014 launched the “Education First” initiative, to draw attention to its inevitability. Therefore, the states that have lagged behind in utilising UBEC funds should wake up. It is even more embarrassing for 13 of them on the list posturing as devotees in the cult of progressive politics.