ABUJA – Human rights lawyer and activist Femi Falana is calling on Nigeria’s National Assembly to intervene in the country’s acute out-of-school crisis. He made the appeal while delivering a speech at a summit focused on this issue in Lagos.
According to a new release by News Agency of Nigeria, Falana pointed to the failure of state governments to make the required counterpart contributions to the Universal Basic Education Fund as a significant hindrance to basic education in Nigeria. He emphasized the urgency of the situation, highlighting that according to a 2022 UNESCO report, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has approximately 20 million children out of school.
Falana elaborated on the responsibility of the National Assembly to act swiftly. He argued for amending the constitution to empower the accountant-general of the federation to automatically deduct the counterpart funds owed by each state government. This comes in light of a continuous lack of commitment from the states to invest in their basic education systems.
Last year, the Universal Basic Education Commission’s Executive Secretary, Mr. Hamid Bobboyi, expressed concern over the states’ failure to use around N110 billion from the UBEC intervention funds in 2021. These funds were left untouched in the accounts of State Universal Basic Education Boards.
Falana also mentioned a past initiative where the Federal Government decided to refund state governments for contributions made to meet London Paris Club obligations. At that time, Falana and others convinced the government to instead direct those funds into the Universal Basic Education Fund, resulting in a total of N142.6 billion allocated for public primary and junior secondary schools.
Further, Falana emphasized that since each of the 36 states had adopted the Child’s Rights Act and enacted a Child’s Right Law, it is now a collective responsibility to ensure free and compulsory education for every Nigerian child. Laws guaranteeing free education for persons with disabilities have also been enacted but are not being adequately implemented.
According to Falana, the legislative and executive organs of government must recognize the severe implications of having the highest number of out-of-school children in the world. He argued that making the Compulsory Free Universal Basic Education Act more stringent would not suffice in a country grappling with widespread poverty.