NLC bemoans state of nation`s education sector

President of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Ayuba Wabba has attributed the decline in the country’s education sector to poor funding and crisis caused by government’s penchant for not honouring collective agreements.  Wabba stated this in his 2017 May Day address entitled: ‘Labour Relations in Economic Recession: An Appraisal.’  He  said that the persistent industrial actions […]

President of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Ayuba Wabba has attributed the decline in the country’s education sector to poor funding and crisis caused by government’s penchant for not honouring collective agreements. 

Wabba stated this in his 2017 May Day address entitled: ‘Labour Relations in Economic Recession: An Appraisal.’ 

He  said that the persistent industrial actions by the unions in the university setting, over the years, is traceable to the characteristic habit of government in reneging on agreements that it freely entered into with the unions.

“Today, tens of thousands of Nigerian youth are going to other shores- in Africa and beyond to pursue their university education. The foreign exchange the country loses to this venture is considerably high. The problem of underfunding in our education system is such that we have in all the 57 years of independence not been able to, as a nation, meet the UNESCO target of spending 26% of our annual budget on education,” he said. 

 The NLC president accused   the Central Bank of Nigeria of having  in its custody  billions of naira, funds representing the Federal Government’s share of the Universal Basic Education Fund, which state governments are expected to draw from by paying their own counterpart funding. 

He noted that the huge progress made in Asia, and in the advanced countries of the world are due to the investment in the education of their youth and adult population. 

“Unless we change our attitude and pay more attention through adequate funding of our education and research institutions, we will not be able to move from our state of underdevelopment,” he added.