The chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Universal Basic Education Commission and Services, Hon Dr Mark Oseni has said the current act that established the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) is moribund and therefore needs to be amended in order to serve Nigerians better.
The lawmaker stated this Wednesday while answering questions from journalists during the House’ oversight function/visitation to the headquarter of UBEC in Abuja.
Hon. Mark said already, the bill to that effect has passed first and second readings in the House and now at the committee stage.
He said, “UBEC act has been in place for nearly 20 years. From the time the law came into force till today, we have passed through several stages of developments; so one cannot hold on to one thing over the years. Like the issue of unaccessed funds, if we don’t amend the act, the challenge would continue to be there but if the act is amended and there are measures to make sure that we overcome unaccessed funds, the primary and secondary education would serve our children better. Our laws are made in a manner that they can be reviewed and amended all geared towards ensuring that implementations are achieved. By the time the process of amending the act is achieved, we would, for instance, overcome the challenge of inaccessible funds and others.”
Explaining further why the committee visited the agency, Oseni said they were there to find out how the previous appropriations were utilised and also identity problematic areas that need intervention.
While addressing the lawmakers later, the executive secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Boboyi outlined the various achievements and challenges of the commission. In particular he said the problem of unaccessed fund by some state governments has been the major bane of the intervention policy of the commission.
He named states like Ekiti, Imo, Ebonyi as some of those that have not accessed the intervention fund while he said Enugu, Lagos and a number of other states have fully accessed the fund.
