Despite an ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU), the 2019 general election will gulp N10.24 billion from the N651.23 billion earlier earmarked for education in the 2018 budget, Daily Trust has gathered.
This leaves the Federal Ministry of Education with only N640.99 billion to take care of its expenditure for the 2018 fiscal year, including perhaps the N1.1 trillion ASUU’s demand.
The cut was part of the N121 billion to be sourced from 30 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), as approved by the National Assembly recently, in keeping with President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for a virement of N242 billion to fund next year’s elections.
Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Mustapha Dawaki (APC, Kano) had prayed “that the House do consider and approve the virement/supplementary budget for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies for the 2019 general elections.”
In particular, the cut from the education budget is coming at a time of special concern over an ongoing strike by ASUU, which is demanding an increased funding for public universities.
However, some stakeholders in the education sector, as well as ASUU leaders, have questioned the rationale behind the cut from the education budget in the face of noticeable challenges confronting the sector.
For Professor Joy Ezeilo, Dean of Law Faculty, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, the cut amounts to “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
“Sincerely, education is not the right place to cut money to fund elections. First, we are not even meeting the UNESCO or world standard for education funding.
“Election is important but education is the most important of all sectors, and it is already grossly underfunded in Nigeria,” she said.
Dr. Deji Omole is the University of Ibadan ASUU President, who says the cut is coming at a “wrong timing,” which he maintains, “shows government insincerity and insensitivity to education, especially tertiary education.”
In his words, “The virement of over N10 billion from the Federal Ministry of Education budget to fund 2019 elections is a very sad development, which shows how much our lawmakers value education.
“They are only playing politics by blaming the federal government over the ongoing struggle by ASUU to save our public universities.
“If they are truly patriotic, why didn’t they cut the National Assembly budget to fund the elections? Why from the MDAs budgets? They are as culpable as the executive, which has not shown enough good will for us to take them serious,” Omole said.
Dr. David Ajayi of the Department of History, University of Ibadan, questioned why a developing country like Nigeria should place more emphasis on election “over and above education, which is key to growth and development.”
“What that means is that education in Nigeria has been stifled, as such huge funding deficit, not only runs counter to global best practices but also pose serious challenges to the future generation,” Ajayi warned.
Available statistics indicate that in the last five years (2014-2018), only N2.45 trillion, representing 7.62 per cent of Nigeria’s N32.15 trillion budgets, was allocated to education.
“The implication is huge and you can see that in the ranking of Nigerian universities, dearth of research, brain drain, capital flight and of course, the spiralling youth unemployment,” Ajayi added.
In the 2018 Webometric World University Ranking, released in July 2018, none of the 36 federal, 44 states and 66 private universities in Nigeria, made it to the first 1,700 in the world.
While the University of Ibadan featured in the first 2,000, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Obafemi Awolowo University, Covenant University and Ahmadu Bello University, all trailed behind in that order.
Recall that the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) had on November 5, 2018 declared a “total, comprehensive and indefinite strike,” that “will remain until government meets our demands.”
According to ASUU National President, Professor Abiodun Ogunyemi, the union is seeking federal government’s release of outstanding N1.1 trillion “revitalization fund” in the 2009 Agreement.
“The 2009 Agreement is the originating document with four major issues, namely funding, academic freedom, university autonomy, and conditions of service. The government agreed to inject N1.3 trillion into the system. They only paid N200 billion in October 2017,” Ogunyemi submitted.
Even as Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has urged the federal government to honour its agreement with ASUU, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu said the government lacked the financial power to meet ASUU’s demand.
“Let me begin by saying that the issues necessitating this strike date back to 2009. However, the international oil prices crashed in subsequent years and threw the country into economic hardship,” Adamu told journalists in Abuja recently.
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