2018 Budget: Muslim Group Slams Buhari’s 7% Allocation To Education

For his 7 per cent microscopic allocation to education in the 2018 budget, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has strongly criticised President Muhammadu Buhari over his alleged unenthusiasm for that sector.

MURIC’s President, Ishaq Akintola, in a statement on Wednesday, said President Buhari’s “tight-fisted allocation” to education will see a surge in the number of idle Nigerian youths who are unable to gain university admissions due to insufficient tertiary institutions.

Buhari, in his budget proposal presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday, allocated only 7.04% of the 8.6 trillion 2018 budget to the education sector.

The statement by MURIC reads partly:

“The security implications are serious and this is what the nation faces year after year. It simply means Nigeria needs more universities, more polytechnics and more colleges of education. Can this tight-fisted allocation take care of the problem?.

“The May/June WAEC examination results have been revealing mass failure in core subjects like English and mathematics for some years now. Only 38.81% passed in 2012, 36.57% passed in 2013, 31.28% of the candidates passed in 2014 while 39% made it in 2015. Although more than 50% passed in 2016, this should be treated as an isolated case.

“This mass failure is a reflection of the failure of successive governments at both federal and state levels to invest properly in education. Whereas the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recommends the allocation of 26% of total budget to education, Nigerian governments have been consistently underfunding the sector and strangulating it almost to the point of death.

“No government of this country has deemed it fit to raise the allocation to 26% as recommended. Although the Second National Development Plan (1970 – 74) raised the allocation to 13.5%, it fell to 7.5% in the Third National Development Plan (1975 – 1980). Although it rose again to 17.3% in the Fourth National Development Plan (1981 – 85), it has not been higher than 13.5% since 1990 except in 1997 when education was given 17.5%.

“Although it is higher than the 6% allocated to it in the previous budget (2017), MURIC is constrained to reject the infinitesimally small percentage (7%) allocated to education in the 2018 budget because it still cannot scratch the surface, talk less of reaching deep down to make the necessary impact where it matters.

“How can we attain technological breakthrough without qualitative education? Pupils in primary schools sit on bare floor. Secondary school students learn under the tree. Roofs are leaking and students are soaked whenever it rains. Was this how our leaders were educated? Are their children in Nigerian schools?

“MURIC is asking FG to tell us who did this to Nigeria? Who is responsible for the colossal tragedy and monumental calamity in the education sector? We charge FG to do a quick, sincere and radical inward search. An emergency must be declared in the education sector. Government officials must be banned from sending their children abroad for education and this should include anyone voted into any position in the country,” it read.