MONDAY
QUARTER-BACKING: The 2006 Education Budget for Nigeria - A Forensic
Investigation
By
Mobolaji E. Aluko,
PhD
alukome@gmail.com
Burtonsville
, Maryland, USA
October 9, 2006
INTRODUCTION
Currently, a crisis is
brewing between the Education Ministry in Nigeria and the Nigerian Labour
Congress over moves to "privatize" the 102 federal government colleges,
aka Unity Secondary Schools, in the country. The controversy has led to
the possibility of all staff of such schools going on indefinite strike
[see attached news item] to protest the development. In an announcement by
Education Minister Oby Ezekwesili, she disclosed that while
only 120,718 students and 27,200 staff are in
the 102 federal
Unity Schools – out of a
total national population of 6.4 million secondary school students and
about 300 secondary schools - a whopping 78 per cent of Federal
Government's budgetary allocation to the ministry goes into the Unity
Schools.
If that
were the case, then in fact, there is a serious disequilibrium in
financial resource allocation with respect to these unity schools which
must be looked into and corrected immediately. As a result, a new
public-private partnership might indeed ameliorate the situation.
But what
is the true situation?
I went
looking at the 2006 budget to answer that question.
THE
2006 BUDGET AND EDUCATION
For those
who have the patience, the full 1190 page-budget will be found in:
http://www.budgetoffice.gov.ng/pub/020.pdf
whose
publication on the Internet for any one who cares to read it must be
regarded as one of the dividends of transparent democracy, a legacy left
behind by former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The
summary Appropriation bill approved by the National Assembly in February
2006 will be found in:
http://www.budgetoffice.gov.ng/pub/appbill2006.pdf
However,
Table 1 below is a re-formatted version of this NASS document for easier
reference.
More
specifically, the Education Budget section of the 2006 budget will be
found in:
http://www.budgetoffice.gov.ng/pub/education.pdf
which
again has been summarized in Table 2 below.
SO WHAT ARE THE
TRUE FIGURES?
Table 1 shows a total
2006 budget of N1.9 trillion, out of which the Education sector is N166.6
billion or 8.77%. This is far below the recommended 26% UNESCO
international target, an issue which the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) has been plaintively asking to be corrected for years
now, and which continues to be a sore point between it and successive
Nigerian governments. Thus, in fact, on a macroscopic scale, the
Minister of Education should actually be loudly demanding for a doubling
to tripling of the education budget.
Next, Table 2 shows that
of that N166.6 billion for Education, payroll takes a whopping 69.5%, with
capital projects taking only 22.4% and overhead rounding out the rest. The
Table however shows that Unity Schools take up only about 11% of the total
Education budget., with its own payroll (53.6%) and Overhead (27.9%)
both taking up a Recurrent total of 81.5%, with the Capital project being
about 18.5%..
It is ONLY this
recurrent total of the Education budget that comes ANYWHERE close to the
78% mentioned by the Minister of Education, an observation that needs to
be quickly clarified. One hopes that she has not been misinformed in her
new position as Education minister.
WHITHER THE UNITY
SCHOOLS?
The above disclosures
must be looked at separately from the desirability of the federal
government to give up all of these Unity Schools onto new administration.
Granted that the historical mission of the unity secondary schools has
been to provide an early educational forum in country where young minds
can interact with those from other parts of the country, as well as to
provide models of excellence to other secondary schools, one questions
whether it is ONLY the federal government that can ensure those desirable
outcomes. After all, secondary education is really a remit of states in
our 1999 Constitution rather than the federal government, and states too
understand why unity schools are important.
Thus, rather than give
the unity schools up to PRIVATE persons to manage or to own outright, one
believes that the right of first refusal should be given to STATE
GOVERNMENTS, since the 102 schools mean on average about 3 schools per
state. This additional number of new schools under state administration
will therefore not be an unusual burden to the states, particularly if a
significant take-off fund is provided to the states by the federal
government.
Finally, while we are
discussing a change in management of unity schools, we might as well
discuss reversal of management of mission and other private schools that
were taken over in the fever of over-centralization of the late 1970s and
80s. As many as possible of those too should be handed back to their
former owners by state governments – as has been done by Lagos State and
more recently Rivers State - with possibly five-year transition
agreements worked out so that staff salaries and pensions as well as the
inevitable increase in students' fees will not lead to deleterious effect
on the various stakeholders.
NEWS ITEM: FROM "THE NATION"
NEWSPAPER
|
Privatisation: Unity Schools' teachers begin strike today
9/10/2006
By
Dupe Olaoye-Osinkolu and Kofoworola Belo-Osagie
Academic activities will from today be paralysed in Federal
Government's Unity Schools, This is Labour's reaction to the
proposed privatisation of the colleges.
The Minister of Education Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili said the
privatisation move is to free the schools from total collapse as
"many of them (schools) lack basic infrastructure and have become
sorry sight in the landscape of secondary education."
She also disclosed that 78 per cent of Federal Government's
budgetary allocation to the ministry goes into the Unity Schools
which have a total student population of 120,718.
Not only that, Dr Ezekwesili said: "Our greatest concern, however,
is the fact that the ministry spends an inordinate amount of time
and resources on these schools that constitute only 30 per cent of
the secondary schools in the country. out of 6.4 million scondary
school students, only 120,718 are in the 102 Unity Schools."
Labour said many teachers and non-teaching staff would lose their
jobs in the process of privatisation.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Adams Oshiomhole
described the planned privatisation as "perhaps the most
retrogressive step ever taken in the history of education
administration in Nigeria."
The NLC President believes that the attempt to privatise the schools
was targeted at the poor and the middle-class.
"In the past, Unity Schools have enabled many gifted children of the
poor to break out of the poverty cycle through quality and
affordable public education.
The privatisation of the schools was an escapist, simplistic,
anti-poor and reactionary measure in the face of the problem that
required bold steps," he said.
Oshiomhole also warned the Minister to drop the idea of
privatisation otherwise labour will mobilise Nigerians against the
auctioning.
"We wish to warn the Minister and those invisible forces outside
driving this policy that we will mobilise progressive and patriotic
Nigerians, parents, teachers, the poor, middle-class and indeed all
Nigerians, against the auctioning of these schools," he said.
The Minister, in response to Ohsiomhole's act burst had said the
Unity Schools have already been privatised by poor management and
the inefficiency of some people.
"We are proposing public/private partnership management to restore
the efficiency that is lacking in the schools.
"Mounting propaganda against the proposal would not out of 27,200
staff of the Ministry of Education are employed in 102 Unity schools
is a disservice to the country," she said
The Secretary-General of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of
Nigeria (ASCSN) Comrade Solomon Onaghinan last week appealed to
Nigerians to rise against the proposed privatisation.
"We are calling all well meaning Nigerians to rise up and stop their
action. From Monday October 9 (today), there will be no more
lectures in all the Unity Schools nationwide.
We
are giving parents long notice in order for children until the
matter is fully resolved.
"A
week after (today), there will be no more services in the schools,
there will be no service whatsoever. All the schools will be closed,
so as to give everybody the opportunity to assess what is on ground.
We have not seen any rationale behind what is being done by the
minister. She can tell the parents what she means by wanting to
privatise the schools."
One of the parents whose children are at the Federal Government
College, Ijanikin and who simply introduced himself as Mr Akinola,
told The Nation that " this government does not want the
children of the poor to be educated. They want our children to serve
their (the rich) own children in future."
"Anybody can come to Ijanikin and see the state of the FGC there.
The Parents/Teachers Association (PTA) is doing its best in that
school, so I don't know what the minister is talking about.
"All I know is they should think about God and stop oppressing the
masses," he said .
Meanwhile, parents are set to withdraw their children from the
schools because of the strike that begins today.
Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the Association of Senior Civil
Servants of Nigeria, Mr Solomon Olaghinon, told The Nation on
phone that the strike would likely continue until the issue is
resolved.
He
faulted claims by the Federal Government that allocations given to
the schools are misappropriated, adding that for the past 15 years
funds have not been given to the colleges for development projects.
"All the things the government is saying they are wrong. For the
past 15 years has the government given out money for contracts? They
would allocate money but it would not get to the schools. Where do
they want us to get money to develop the schools? Is it from our
salaries? Let the government tell us which principal, director or
minister carried away the money they allocated to unity schools," he
said.
For the next one week, Mr Olaghinon says teachers would keep away
from the classrooms. He also confirmed that the association would
likely organise rallies along the line.
Dr
Ezekwesili had in a parley with the media held in Lagos recently,
debunked claims of the privatisation of unity colleges.
Rather, she explained that the Federal Government was only going to
franchise the brand to capable private managers but would still
monitor everything that goes on in the colleges.
|
_____________________________________________________________________________
TABLE 1: NIGERIA
'S
APPROPRIATION BILL 2006
(All Amounts Are
in Naira Currency)
For an earlier version
of this Bill, see also:
http://www.nigerianmuse.net/important_documents/Nigeria_Appropriation_bill_2006.htm
SUMMARY
Schedule |
Amount (in
Naira currency) |
Schedule Part A -
Statutory Transfers |
91,610,000,000
|
Schedule Part B -
Debt Service |
289,500,000,000 |
Schedule Part C -
Recurrent (Non-Debt Expenditure |
961,108,775,596 |
Schedule Part D -
Capital Expenditure |
539,233,587,755 |
Grand Total
|
1,881,452,363,351
|
SCHEDULE
PART A - STATUTORY
TRANSFERS
TRANSFEREE
|
2006
APPROPRIATION |
National Judicial
Council |
35,000,000,000 |
Niger Delta
Development Commission |
26,130,000,000 |
Universal Basic
Education Commission |
30,480,000,000 |
Total -
Statutory Transfers
|
91,610,000,000
|
SCHEDULE
PART B - DEBT
SERVICE
NATURE OF DEBT
|
2006
APPROPRIATION |
Domestic Debts
|
220,000,000,000 |
Foreign Debts
|
69,500,000,000 |
Total Debt
Service |
289,500,000,000
|
SCHEDULE
PART C - RECURRENT
(NON-DEBT) EXPENDITURE
MINISTRY/DEPARTMENT/AGENCY
|
2006
APPROPRIATION |
|
|
The Executive
|
-
|
|
|
Presidency
|
36,872,832,040 |
Intergovernmental
Affairs , Special Duties and Youth Development |
17,019,000,000 |
Police
Affairs |
1,552,000,000
|
Police
Formation & Command |
80,648,000,000
|
Women Affairs
|
1,231,143,160 |
Agriculture &
Rural Development |
15,415,828,655 |
Office of the
Auditor-General of the Federation |
1,897,594,082 |
Independent
Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Comm. |
784,739,498 |
Water Resources
|
4,484,529,763 |
Defence/MOD/Army/Air
Force/Navy |
85,752,943,575 |
Education
|
129,232,212,676 |
Federal Capital
Territory |
0 |
Foreign Affairs
|
25,373,344,499 |
Finance
|
5,000,076,329 |
Health
|
67,777,199,998 |
Industry
|
2,596,613,054 |
Information and
National Orientation |
12,805,674,999 |
Internal Affairs
|
33,262,579,038 |
Office of the Head
of Service of the Federation |
2,987,678,379 |
Justice
|
5,023,610,691 |
Labour and
Productivity |
4,391,828,889 |
Power and Steel
|
3,382,764,019 |
Science and
Technology |
6,262,921,919 |
Sports and Social
Development |
3,573,325,483 |
Public Complaints
Commission |
922,150,000 |
Commerce
|
2,345,070,697 |
Ministry of
Transport |
3,549,948,963 |
Petroleum
Resources |
14,922,000,001 |
Works
|
18,281,685,246 |
Communication
|
4,584,013,432 |
Housing & Urban
Development |
5,163,500,001 |
Solid Minerals
Development |
2,765,701,297 |
Aviation
|
1,608,500,000 |
National Salaries
and Wages Commission |
161,686,183 |
Environment
|
3,313,286,129 |
Co-operation and
Integration in Africa |
618,500,000 |
Culture and
Tourism |
4,450,000,000 |
Office of the
National Security Adviser |
12,316,686,404 |
TOTAL -
EXECUTIVE
|
622,331,169,099
|
|
|
|
|
FEDERAL
EXECUTIVE BODIES |
-
|
|
|
|
|
Police
Service Commission |
317,000,000
|
National
Population Commission |
3,211,555,260
|
Federal
Civil Service Commission |
644,750,000
|
Independent National Electoral Commission |
12,170,509,272
|
Federal
Character Commission |
824,896,250
|
Revenue
Mobilisation Fiscal & Allocation Commission |
750,000,000
|
Code of
Conduct Bureau |
617,421,344 |
|
|
TOTAL - FEDERAL
EXECUTIVE BODIES
|
18,536,132,126
|
|
|
THE LEGISLATURE
(NATIONAL ASSEMBLY) |
-
|
National Assembly
Office |
4,805,817,937 |
Senate
|
14,719,767,267 |
House of
Representatives |
21,692,062,193
|
National Assembly
Service Commission |
404,517,612 |
Senate Public
Accounts Committee Secretariat |
75,000,000 |
House Public
Accounts Committee Secretariat |
75,000,000 |
General Services
|
4,268,685,988 |
Legislative Aides
|
3,489,892,586 |
TOTAL -
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
|
49,530,743,583
|
|
|
CONSOLIDATED
REVENUE FUND CHARGES-GENERAL |
-
|
Pension - Pay As
You Go |
82,900,000,000 |
Life insurance for
public servants |
3,100,000,000 |
Transfer to the
Redemption Fund |
15,000,000,000 |
Arrears of 2005
Pension - Pay As You Go |
16,900,000,000 |
|
0 |
SERVICE - WIDE
VOTES |
0
|
Petroleum Support
Fund |
75,000,000,000 |
Public Service
Reform |
43,123,000,000 |
Public Service
Wage Adjustment (including 2006 Promotions) |
10,000,000,000 |
Margin for
Increased Costs |
2,000,000,000 |
Contributions to
International Organisations |
6,000,000,000 |
2003 Arrears of
Monetisation - Balance |
1,400,000,000 |
Contingency
|
4,500,000,000 |
TOTAL OTHER
RECURRENT (NON DEBT)
|
259,923,000,000
|
TOTAL RECURRENT
(NON DEBT)
|
950,321,044,808 |
SCHEDULE
PART D - CAPITAL
EXPENDITURE
MINISTRY/DEPARTMENT/AGENCY
|
2006
APPROPRIATION |
|
|
The Executive
|
-
|
Presidency
|
18,057,233,523 |
Intergovernmental
Affairs , Special Duties and Youth Development |
1,221,000,000 |
Police
Affairs |
0 |
Police Formation &
Command |
5,335,000,000 |
Women Affairs
|
1,268,856,840 |
Agriculture &
Rural Development |
15,397,562,345 |
Office of the
Auditor-General of the Federation |
402,405,918 |
Independent
Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commissions
|
315,260,502 |
Water Resources
|
75,761,000,940 |
Defence/MOD/Army/Air
Force/Navy |
15,699,001,188 |
Education
|
37,389,441,082 |
Federal Capital
Territory |
53,400,000,000 |
Foreign Affairs
|
6,126,873,766 |
Finance
|
3,018,676,534 |
Health
|
39,162,800,002 |
Industry
|
407,300,000 |
Information and
National Orientation |
2,144,325,001 |
Internal Affairs
|
8,487,420,962 |
Office of the Head
of Service of the Federation |
3,020,966,261 |
Justice
|
808,107,122 |
Labour and
Productivity |
796,114,135 |
Power and Steel
|
74,710,240,083 |
Science and
Technology |
7,187,078,084 |
Sports and Social
Development |
1,726,674,517 |
Public Complaints
Commission |
77,850,000 |
Commerce
|
1,929,929,303 |
Ministry of
Transport |
2,177,096,941 |
Petroleum
Resources |
1,078,000,000 |
Works
|
72,793,314,755 |
Communication
|
2,415,986,568 |
Housing & Urban
Development |
2,831,499,999 |
Solid Minerals
Development |
4,544,358,091 |
Aviation
|
3,641,500,000 |
National Salaries
and Wages Commission |
38,313,817 |
Environment
|
2,742,061,049 |
Co-operation and
Integration in Africa |
481,500,000 |
Culture and
Tourism |
4,050,000,000 |
Office of the
National Security Adviser |
3,183,313,596 |
TOTAL -
EXECUTIVE
|
473,828,062,924
|
|
|
FEDERAL
EXECUTIVE BODIES |
-
|
Police
Service Commission |
18,000,000
|
National
Population Commission |
6,788,444,740
|
Federal
Civil Service Commission |
55,250,000
|
Independent National Electoral Commission |
42,329,490,728
|
Federal
Character Commission |
175,103,750
|
Revenue
Mobilisation Fiscal & Allocation Commission |
350,000,000
|
Code of
Conduct Bureau |
257,578,656 |
TOTAL - FEDERAL
EXECUTIVE BODIES
|
49,973,867,874 |
|
|
THE LEGISLATURE
(NATIONAL ASSEMBLY) |
-
|
National Assembly
Office |
1,776,520,353 |
Senate
|
1,288,375,509 |
House of
Representatives |
2,110,051,000
|
National Assembly
Service Commission |
80,000,000 |
TOTAL -
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
|
5,254,946,862
|
|
|
CAPITAL
SUPPLEMENTATION |
-
|
Payment to Local
Contractors |
25,000,000,000 |
Counterpart
Funding |
2,000,000,000 |
Adjustments to
Capital Costs |
1,000,000,000 |
Recapitalisation
of Development Banks |
|
Nigerian
Agricultural & Cooperative Bank Limited |
3,500,000,000 |
Bank of Industry
Limited |
3,500,000,000 |
Federal Mortgage
Bank of Nigeria Limited |
3,500,000,000 |
Millennium
Development Goals - Monitoring and Evaluation |
1,000,000,000 |
TOTAL - CAPITAL
SUPPLEMENTATION
|
39,500,000,000 |
TOTAL - CAPITAL
EXPENDITURE
|
568,556,877,659 |
GRAND TOTAL
|
1,899,987,922,467 |
Signed by the
Senate and House February 16, 2006
Assented to by the
President February 21, 2006
Re-compiled
from the PDF version by NigerianMuse.com
TABLE 2: Education Budget 2006 (In
Naira)
Source:
http://www.budgetoffice.gov.ng/pub/education.pdf
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Payroll |
Overhead |
Capital |
Total |
Percentage |
MAIN MINISTRY |
2,200,171,738 |
495,142,011.9 |
4,910,666,084 |
7,605,979,833.9
|
4.56% |
OTHER
PARASTATALS |
6,021,121,007 |
2,270,546,162 |
8,139,985,900 |
16,431,653,069
|
9.86% |
UNIVERSITIES
|
68,955,116,361 |
2,735,237,916 |
7,080,757,723 |
78,771,112,000
|
47.28% |
COLLEGES OF
EDUCATION |
10,278,966,116 |
1,117,728,354 |
4,974,433,523 |
16,371,127,993
|
9.83% |
POLYTECHNICS
|
18,375,638,799 |
1,454,423,067 |
2,121,000,019 |
21,951,061,885
|
13.17% |
UNITY SCHOOLS
|
9,749,658,463 |
5,071,225,757 |
3,367,771,783 |
18,188,656,003
|
10.92% |
UNESCO
|
159,827,511.9 |
282,409,413 |
45,411,300 |
487,648,224.9
|
0.29% |
UBE PROGRAMS |
0 |
0 |
6,749,414,750 |
6,749,414,750
|
4.05% |
CPRCN |
36,999,999.9 |
28,000,000 |
0 |
64,999,999.9
|
0.04% |
Total |
115,777,499,995.8
|
13,454,712,680.9
|
37,389,441,082
|
166,621,653,758.7
|
100.00% |
Percentage |
69.49% |
8.08% |
22.43% |
100.00% |
|
|