Unacessed UBEC 60bn funds: SAN to drag FG, State govt to court

By Omolola Dede Adeyanju

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana has disclosed that there will be a court hearing at the federal high court in respect to the 60 billion naira lying fallow with the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC as the state governments have refused to access it to ensure out of school children are taken off the streets and enrolled in school.

Falana revealed this at the IA Foundation charity ball and fundraising annual event, themed: ‘Panacea to a Menace’ which was held on Saturday. He reiterated ‘In September last year, UNICEF disclosed to our utter embarrassment as a nation that Nigeria has not less than 20.2million out of school children, it is a sad development, having regards to our enormous resources. The task before all of us is to intensify efforts to remove the children from the streets and have them enrolled in school.

‘We will be going to court as regards the disclosure that 60billion naira is lying fallow in the hands of the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC because state governments have refused to access the money to educate the children of the poor, hence we are going to the federal high court to compel the state governments and federal government to ensure that out of school children are taken off the streets and enrolled. This is the beauty of this program as the IA foundation is alerting and challenging all of us to take education for the children very seriously, especially for the elite, if we fail to do that, children of the poor are going to harass them, it’s already happening, talk of area boys syndrome, terrorists and other criminals.’ he submitted.

However, the founder IA Foundation, Ibironke Adeagbo, FCA FCCA in her speech examined the relevance of the foundation’s drive to taking children out of the streets. She said, ‘I commend the IA foundation for the tenacity and drive over the last 5 years to shine a light and push for correction on this deep darkness that plagues our land.’ she revealed that Pakistan Indian and Nigeria are the three Nations on comparative basis with the most out of school children in the last 5 years. The United Nations agencies put the record of out of school children for the 6 to 18 years age brackets in India at a little above 52 million while Nigeria and Pakistan are closer to the 20 million Mark.

Adeagbo added, ‘The situation is escalating to a dangerous position, we need to begin remedial actions, we need to plan and design solutions based on collaboration, we need to create strategies, have accurate data, pp CEO Nigerians in the Diaspora commission (NIDCOM), Dr. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, highlighted the achievements of the Federal government in relation to ensuring education of children. She said, ‘The Federal government recently established the national commission for Almajiri out of school children to address this issue; development partners and some non-government organizations also strive to reverse the trend which could further worsen the socio- economic problems of the country. This is why the initiative of IA Foundation is highly commendable and should be supported as a means of complementing government efforts aimed at addressing these problems and ensuring that out of school children have access to quality education’

One of the Bursary beneficiaries, Faridah Yusuf, in appreciation to the foundation for sending her back to school, paying her school fees and providing learning materials. She said, ‘When I came back to school I could not read nor express myself. I have stayed at home for too long but now I have improved and I am making progress in my school work.’ She acknowledged.