By Aloysius Attah
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has given assurances of the commitment of his administration towards revamping the education sector with a view to improving quality and accessibility of sound education to every Nigerian.
Speaking while delivering the Visitors address at the 19th Convocation ceremonies of Nnamdi Azikiwe University on Friday in Awka, President Tinubu represented by the Vice Chancellor, National University of Science and Technology, Abuja, Prof. Joseph Ahaneku, said, the federal government has taken various measures to achieve the target which included the increment of budgetary allocation to the Education sector.
He disclosed that budgetary allocation to Education was increased from N923.79 billion in 2022, representing 5% of the budget, N1.09 trillion in 2023 to N2.18 trillion representing 7.9% of the budget in 2024 and N3.52 trillion in 2025 representing 7.3 % of the total budget.
He said the thrust of the 2025 budget is infrastructure development noting that through TETFund, staff development and research have improve tremendously in federal government tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
He said that beyond budgetary allocations, other measures to improve the quality and accessibility of education have been carried out which included the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) and the Data Repository , Out of School Children Education Teacher Training and Development , and Skill Acquisition , known by the acronym as DOTS have been launched with the intent to evolve a system –wide comprehensive review of the education sector to improve learning and skill development , increase enrolment and ensure the academic security of the nation’s children.
“We expect educational institutions, particularly universities that enjoy some degree of autonomy, to complement our efforts through good governance and the judicious use of scarce resources to promote teaching-learning and research. It is fairly obvious that what distinguishes universities from other tiers of education is research. I therefore urge universities to do more in the areas of research and innovation, for therein lay veritable platforms for socio-economic development” he stated.
The President also charged all administrative organs in the universities –the Governing Councils, Senate, the Principal Officers to always conform to the acts setting up the universities as the government will not allow its efforts at revamping education in the country to be marred by rascality in any of its agencies.
“This was why we had to recently dissolve the Governing Councils of some Universities and the Federal Government Appointees of the Council were removed for grave breaches of the laws governing the universities and disregard for lawful directives from the Federal Ministry of Education . Let me sound a clear note of warning at this point: Our Government will not tolerate such malpractices from its officials in any agencies of government, in such situations, we shall wield the big stick” the President stated.
Earlier, the Acting Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof. Joseph Ikechebelu in an address pointed out that despite the transient nature of an acting appointment, he applied himself to the office with a work disposition he had bauilt up over the years to give his utmost best in service in every situation.
He disclosed that through his BLESSed UNIZIK administration blueprint, efforts have been made to beautify, light-up, safe and secure, digitize and provide an excellent UNIZIK with a hedge-hog concept of ensuring a Productive Staff and Happy-Progressive Students.
He praised President Tinubu, Federal Ministry of Education, Finance Ministry, National Universities Commission (NUC), and the Tertiary Education Trustfund (TETFund) for their assistance to the university management.
