Kwara Governor Abdulfatah
Group
Kwara Governor Abdulfatah
Group Charges Kwara Govt on Basic Education
A Kwara state-based Civil Society Organization, Elites Network for
Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), has again called on the Kwara
State Government to prioritize funding of Education in the State
even at the period of financial constraint. ENetSuD had, through a
series of press releases on the poor condition of schools in Kwara
State, berated the State Government over its negligence to the
deplorable condition of educational infrastructure across the
state.
Dr. Alagbonsi Abdullateef, the Coordinator of the group, in a
statement emphasized the need for the state government to urgently
access the UBEC matching grant still available to the state,
arguing that the state government’s lack of commitment towards
providing conducive learning environment for children in the state,
has resulted in monumental decay in education infrastructure in the
state.
“We launched #FundKwaraEducation campaign and examined
substantial number of schools in the 3 senatorial districts of the
State. We took pictures and videos of the current condition of many
schools we visited, and made a documentary of them. We have called
the Kwara State Government attention to the pitiable condition of
many public schools in the state oftentimes, so that a state of
emergency on Kwara education can be declared by the State
Government. We referred the State Government to the Five Billion,
One Hundred and Thirty Nine Million, Nine Hundred and Eighty
Thousand, Four Hundred and Ninety Six Naira (N5,139,980,496.14)
UBEC Matching grant that had not been accessed by it as at 11th
September, 2018. We argued that, if this money is accessed by Kwara
State Government, the current poor educational infrastructure could
be adequately fixed to improve the state of education in the
state”.
Reacting to our queries, the State Government disclosed that the
drop in the Federal Allocation coming to Kwara had made it
impossible for the state to Access the UBEC Matching grant that is
meant for the funding of Basic School Infrastructures. Our fact
check with UBEC (which was also corroborated by the SSA Media and
Communication to the Governor of Kwara State) shows that Kwara
state has not accessed the UBEC Matching grant since 2013.
Dr Alagbonsi further faulted successive governments in the state
for promoting illiteracy by not adequately funding basic education
in Kwara state. From our findings we also observed that ebbing
appropriation is not the major problem associated with poor School
infrastructure in the state but also lack of diligent prioritizing
by the Kwara State government. For instance, the sum of Two
Billion, Eight Hundred and Seventy One Million, One Hundred and
Twenty One Thousand, One Hundred and Twenty One Naira
(N2,871,121,121) and Two Billion, Six Hundred and Thirty One
Million, Sixty Three Thousand, Three Hundred and Ninety Eight Naira
(N2,631,063,398) were respectively approved as the estimate for the
State Counterpart Fund to access the UBEC Grant in the 2017 and
2018 Appropriation Law (Approved Budget), but these sum had not
been released to access the accumulated funds since 2013, leaving
the School infrastructure across Kwara State in shambles.
The coordinator of the group, Dr. Alagbonsi Abdullateef, further
described as untenable, the state government’s excuse of dwindling
federal allocation as the reason for not accessing the UBEC grant.
“In order to evaluate the excuse given by the State Government for
not accessing the fund, we made a comparison of the State Total
Revenue from 2012 (the last time that the grant was accessed by
Kwara State) till date. Our thorough analysis of the figures shows
that there is no obvious reason not to have accessed it in 2013
(which had the highest revenue). Moreover, there was no significant
difference between the revenue of 2012 and 2014. At least, before
the drastic drop of revenues by 2015, the State Government ought to
have accessed the grant of 2013 and 2014 if it had prioritized the
Funding of Educational Sector in the State. Though the revenues in
2015 and 2016 were comparably low, it is interesting to note that
2017 revenue substantially improved, and we are of the conviction
that there will be significant improvement by the end of 2018. We
expect that a government that prioritizes education will not find
it difficult to make monthly savings of small amount that will
aggregate to a substantial amount over the year to pay the
counterpart fund and access the UBEC Grant.”
We are aware of the fact that there are many expenses that
government has to make from the little resources available. We also
acknowledge the fact that Education is not the only sector in the
economy that needs funding. It is sad to note that 24 states in
Nigeria have not been able to access UBEC matching grant due to
their financial constraint. In the light of this, we have joined
the call to the Federal Government to review the UBEC Act and
reduce the percentage of the State Counterpart Fund from the
current 50% to a percentage that will be agreed upon and affordable
by the States in Nigeria. However, since the Federal Government is
yet to do this, immediate solution to the current shameful state of
our basic education must be provided. Out of the limited resources
available with the Kwara State Government, we are urging her to
immediately make provision for the Counterpart fund to access the
matching grant with UBEC, so as to urgently fix the School
infrastructure across Kwara State.
According to Femi Falana, SAN “countries are run on Tax and we
must go back to era of running the country on the basis of tax”.
Considering the unique importance of Internally Generated Revenue
to the economic viability of a state (especially in the era of
unstable Federal Allocation), responsible and patriotic citizens
are expected to play their role in growing the economy by paying
their taxes regularly. While commending the Administration of Alh.
Abdulfatah Ahmed on the effective taxation system towards boosting
the revenue base of the state, we are also encouraging the Kwara
State Internal Revenue Service to improve their citizens-friendly
tax mechanism and provide values for the tax-payers money.
Due to the unique importance of Education to this world,
adequate funding of education must be prioritized by everyone,
particularly the government. As a result of our disappointment with
how the appropriated sums for Education Funds in the successive
budgets since 2013 have not been released by the State Government,
we are calling on the Kwara State House of Assembly to urgently
look into making a law that will statutorily set aside a percentage
of the State Annual Consolidated revenue to Fund Education, the way
it has commendable done so for the State Health Insurance Scheme.
This will provide a lasting solution to the poor funding of
education in the state.
We are highly pleased with the Federal Government disclosure to
pay N71,292,316,082.84 billion directly to UBEC as the outstanding
counterpart fund of States. In a statement made available by the
Executuve Secretary of UBEC in an interview with News Agency of
Nigeria on 2nd November, 2018 in Abuja, he disclosed that Federal
Government will deduct the entire outstanding counterpart fund of
all States from their Paris Club Refund account. He concluded that
the issue of funds not accessed in UBEC by states will soon come to
an end at least for 2018.
We commend the Federal Government for this form of bail out to
the states, which will enable them to get the UBEC Matching grants
and fix the School infrastructures that are already dilapidated and
improve the standard of Basic education across the country. This FG
initiative to assist the States in accessing the grants is very
timely, especially at a time that they are complaining of dwindling
revenue and inability to pay for the counterpart fund. We call on
states, particularly Kwara State government, to use the money for
the improvement of the infrastructure of schools across Kwara
state, which is the purpose that it is meant for.
Alagbonsi Abdullateef
Cordinator