The Federal Government has been tasked to increase funding for education in Nigeria or risk further stagnation in the sector and in the development of the country.
At a national dialogue on education and good governance in Abuja with Oby Ezekwesili, a former Minister of Education and H.E Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto in attendance, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Former Vice President of Nigeria said Nigeria risks being left at the lowest rung of development with the unchecked decay in the sector.
Statistics from the Ministry of Education indicate that of the 61 million children out of school globally, 31 million are in sub-Saharan Africa and out of that number 10.3 million are Nigerians.
Recent UNESCO data also shows Nigeria ranking last out of 136 countries on the list for public spending on education.
Improper funding of the sector led to the closure of public universities with the industrial action by the Academic Staff Union Of Universities (ASUU), and the situation has graduated to a worrisome state for Nigerians, hence the move to capitalise on the strike action as a platform to sanitize the nation’s education sector as the starting point for the sanitization of the sector which has brought key players and products of Nigerians post-colonial education system together to brainstorm on ways to salvage the sector.
They however challenged Nigerians in all sectors to get involved in making informed demands on government, make valuable contributions that will lift the education sector and future of Nigeria out of the doldrums as quality and good education at all levels in Nigeria is no longer a federal government business alone.
