Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has called on the National Assembly to address the refusal of state governments to make counterpart contributions to the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Fund as required by law.
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In a statement, Falana noted that section 2 of the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act mandates state governments to counterpart federal contributions to the UBE Fund. However, many states have failed to do this over the years.
Falana urged the legislature to amend the Constitution to empower the Accountant General of the Federation to deduct counterpart UBE Fund contributions directly from state governments. This will compel states to fulfill their funding obligations.
His call comes after the House of Representatives and Senate passed resolutions and a bill respectively to reduce out-of-school children and sanction parents who fail to enroll their kids in school. Falana said lawmakers seem unaware that the Child Rights Act and UBE Act have made basic education free and compulsory already.
Over 18 million Nigerian children are out of school – the highest globally. But Falana stated that simply amending the UBE Act to increase fines on parents will not work in an impoverished environment.
Rather, he emphasized that the problem is the lack of political will at federal, state and local levels to implement free compulsory education guaranteed by Nigerian laws. State governments must be compelled to pay their counterpart funding by deducting it directly from federal allocations.
Falana said it is the joint duty of all tiers of government to enforce free education laws and provide the needed funding. He urged the National Assembly to focus on getting states to contribute to the UBE Fund to support the delivery of accessible basic education for all Nigerian children.
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