The Nation, Lagos. 30/10/2011
GOVERNOR
of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has said most of
the states and local governments in the country are unviable.
He
questioned the rationale behind the creation of more states, local
government and ministries which are not economically viable. Sanusi's
declaration lends credence to the assertion by the Senate that most
states of the federation are financially unhealthy.
Speaking
at a book presentation in Kaduna during the celebration of the 80th
birthday of Prof. Adamu Baike yesterday, the CBN governor said that the
time has come when the nation needs to take the difficult step of
overhauling political structures which have ensured that states spend
about 96 percent of their resources paying salaries and allowances.
Sanusi
also faulted the wisdom behind establishing nine new federal
universities when existing ones have not been adequately funded by the
government. According to him, the paucity of funding has led to a mass
exodus of students and teachers to better organised educational settings
such as Ghana, South Africa and other parts of the world.
In his paper entitled “Re-invigorating education in Nigeria:
An
essay in honour of Professor Adamu Baike”, he said “ultimately, we will
have to be confronted with the task of taking the difficult step of
overhauling the political structures that we have.”
He
asked pointedly, “Do we need 36 states? Do we need the number of
ministries that we have? Is an economy where states spend 96 percent of
their revenue paying civil servants an economy that is likely to grow in
the long run? These are difficult questions that we need to ask.
“We
have created states and local governments and ministries as structures
that are economically unviable and the result is that we do not have
funding for infrastructure, we do not have funding for education; we do
not have funding for health”.
This
damning verdict by Sanusi will likely dampen the spirit of many who
have been agitating for creation of more states in the country.
Apparently
explaining the government’s expenditure portfolio, the CBN governor
said, “I don’t know how many people know that 70 percent of the revenue
of the federal government is spent paying salaries and overhead; leaving
the rest 30 percent for 150 million Nigerians”.
What
this means, according to him, is that there is no money for the
provision of infrastructural facilities by the various tiers of
government, pointing out that in an emerging economy like Nigeria, a
well designed educational policy should be an integral part of its
development strategy.
He
argued that the present development strategies should include measures
to invest in human capital that facilitates the upgrading of industries
and engender the economy to attain optimal resource utilization.
While
acknowledging the growth in the number of federal, state and private
universities in the country in recent times, Sanusi said that “the
recent decision of the federal government to establish nine additional
universities will further increase the number of federal universities.
“It
is not the place of the Central Bank Governor to comment on education
policy. But one wonders the wisdom behind creating new universities when
the ones we have built are still suffering from underfunding”.
While
lamenting the huge number of Nigerian students studying outside the
country in what he described as “better organized educational settings”
and the huge amount of money they pay as tuition, the CBN governor noted
that the tuition paid by these students is more than the annual budget
for all federal universities in the country.
In
his words, “although there are no comprehensive data on the number of
Nigerian students abroad, recent data have shown that there are about
71,000 Nigerian students in Ghana paying about N155 billion annually as
tuition fees as against the annual budget of N121 billion for all
federal universities.
“In
other words, the tuition paid by Nigerian students studying in Ghana
with a better organised system is more than the annual budget of all
federal universities in the country,” adding that “Nigeria is today
placed third on the list of countries with the highest number of
students studying overseas”.
He
noted that though the structural shift from 7-5-4 to the 6-3-3-4 system
of education in 1983 was expected to address many of the perceived
deficiencies and respond to the educational yearnings of the citizens
for technological and self reliant skills, the system was endangered by
funding challenges owing largely to the swings in economic fortunes of
the country.
He
contended that a sustainable financing framework should be established
to support primary education which is the foundation to all other
educational achievements, pointing out that inadequate funding and lack
of funds could stifle the attainment of the Universal Basic Education
goals.
Those
who attended the book presentation include Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Lt. Gen.
T.Y. Danjuma, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Kano State Deputy Governor,
Abdullahi Ganduje, Gen. Martins Agwai, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, Prof.
Emeritus, Umaru Shehu, Prof. Shehu Abdullahi, traditional rulers and
friends of the Baike family.
