While Schools in Bad Shape, Oyo Keeps mum on Over N2.6bn UBEC Unaccessed Grants, Plans to Spend N145bn in 2025

Two weeks ago, a video went viral on social media, showing the deplorable state of a public school named, Elenusonso Community High School, in Ido Local Government Area of Oyo State.

 

The video was backed with a corresponding voice recording giving an account of the awful experiences of students and teachers at Elenusonso Community High School.

 

In the native language of Yoruba, the video explained the despicable experiences of students who continually learn in decimated school buildings and under trees. Most students who couldn’t afford to get their chairs, opt for non-tiled floors, sitting dirty to learn.

 

Another scene of the video showed the vice principal, perching on his table and chair under a tree. The accompanying audio of the video said, “this is the vice principal’s office, under the tree. He also doesn’t have an office.”

 

In the video which was first posted by Tiamiyu Adebayo Live on Facebook and subsequently by Abdullah on X, filmed students in different horrible positions below the standard of an expected conducive learning environment.

 

Meanwhile, throughout this time, Nigeria’s Federal Government-funded Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) paid up to N2.6bn into the Oyo State Government account to address challenges facing education like that of Elenusonso Community High School.

 

According to the statement of the UBEC Executive Secretary, Hamid Bobboyi, on Monday in Abuja, Oyo joined 34 States in Nigeria that decided not to use the fund between 2022 and 2023.

 

UBEC matching grants to states are 2 percent of the Federal Government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) dedicated to support primary and secondary school education in Nigeria. With the support from States, providing counterpart funding, UBEC matching grants are expected to alleviate most challenges facing education, including construction of school buildings, providing of chairs and learning materials for students in Nigeria.

 

Bobboyi said  “In 2022, 29 states and the FCT accessed the grants, with Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Ogun, and Oyo yet to access theirs. For 2023, 25 states accessed the grants for the first to fourth quarters,” he said.

 

This is true as checks on the UBEC document found that in 2022, Oyo received N1.2bn and in 2023, N1.3bn. These funds, alongside the little leftovers of the former years totalled over N2.6bn that were marked unaccessed by UBEC.

 

Despite this, last week, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State presented a N678bn budget for 2025 fiscal year. Out of this budget, roughly N145bn is to be spent on the education sector for building and renovation of schools.

 

Governor Makinde had budgeted similar amounts on education with low performances according to the State’s auditor-general reports. With the backlogs of UBEC unaccessed funds and the new budget, Oyo State schools can only hope they will experience it in reality.

 

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