Nigeria Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Thursday decried the alleged diversion of funds meant for the provision of compulsory primary and secondary education by benefiting states.
Atiku spoke at a one day public hearing on the Modibbo Adama University Yola, Adamawa State, (Establishment etc), Bill 2019 and the University of Agriculture and Technology Funtua, Katsina State, (Establishment, etc), Bill 2019, organized by the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, at the National Assembly, Abuja.
He called on the National Assembly to amend the relevant laws to ensure that states found to have misappropriated such funds are penalized by sending the money directly to institutions concerned.
Atiku said: “When we were in office, we passed the compulsory education from Primary to Secondary school law. We also imposed taxation on education.
“I would appeal to you, members of the National Assembly, to look at that law again because there is a disconnect in the sense that monies or funds being given to states to develop education are being diverted.
“There is need for you to look at the law so that you can amend a section that if a particular state refuses to deploy all the resources sent to it for education, it is penalized by making sure that government at the federal level sends it directly to universities.
“This is one law I will appeal to you to take and look at for review again,” he said.
Also on Thursday, Atiku, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mohammed Bello, Vice Chancellor of the Modibbo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH), Professor Abdullahi Liman Tukur backed the proposed conversion of MAUTECH to a conventional university.
Other stakeholders who supported the proposal included the Lamido Adamawa Muhammadu Barkindo Aliyu Musdafa, represented by Galadinma Adamawa, Mustapha Aliyu and ex-Minister of Education, Dauda Birma and ex-Minister Aliyu Idi Hong.
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