House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Basic Education and Services, on Tuesday, warned state governors to give priority attention to basic education or risk facing the consequences of its neglect.
Chairman of the committee, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, gave this warning in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, at the end of a two-day oversight visit to inspect completed and ongoing UBEC-SUBEB projects in the state.
Ihonvbere said it’s in the interest of the various state governors in the country to take the provision of basic education seriously as employing bullet proof cars and guard dogs won’t be enough to protect them in the nearest future against the wrath of the children now being denied educational rights and marginalised by their actions.
“I would like to advise state governments to take basic education seriously in their own interest. Bulletproof cars, dogs and barbed wire cannot save them from the anger of uneducated, abused and marginalised children in the consequences,” the lawmaker said.
The Committee chairman stressed that no efforts would be spared in sanctioning the states found to have diverted the UBEC grants.
He said, “There are penalties for states where UBEC allocated critical infrastructure to some state governments but were abandoned. We are amending the UBEC Act so that UBEC can retrieve such facilities and put them to public use.
“We are looking at ways to compel compliance with the law of the land; a situation whereby states that have not accessed the marching grant or have accessed it but used it wrongly will face some penalties.”
Ihonvbere also hinted that state governments that comply with UBEC’s action plans will be rewarded with more support to encourage them to do more.
“At the level of the committee, the National Assembly and the UBEC, states that utilized UBEC grants perfectly like Kwara will get additional support as a reward, so that it will encourage them to do more,” he said.
The committee, however, commended Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for “quality service delivery seen in the management of the Universal Basic Education Commission matching grants.”
He said the state deserved accolades for the quality of the schools and other facilities funded from the money so far accessed.
“What we have seen so far in Kwara is of high quality and satisfactory. There is evidence of focus and commitment, and a clear interest in promoting basic education and empowering our children to survive in an increasingly complex technology driven global system,” he said.