FG not responsible for education sector woes, says Osinbajo

The Presidency on Tuesday exonerated the Federal Government from most of the problems associated with the education sector in Nigeria which, it said, is the responsibility of state governments.

The Presidency said that the responsibility of the Federal Government was to provide support for the States.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) made the clarification in Abuja on Tuesday while declaring open a two-day national dialogue on girls with the theme, “National dialogue on girls: Towards a girl-friendly Nigeria.”

The programme was jointly organised by the African Child Policy Forum, Women Arise for Change Initiative, and the Africa-Wide Movement for Children.

Osinbajo identified social and cultural prejudices as some of the critical problems militating against the girl child in Nigeria, stressing that despite efforts by the Federal Government to curtail the menace, States and Local Governments also have roles to play.

“We run a federal system, and questions of education, medical care are essential state matters. Primary education is a state and local government matter. The Federal Government has only about 100 schools of the hundreds of thousands of schools.

“Sometimes, when we talk about out-of-school children and problems associated with education, we tend to focus on the Federal Government whereas the Federal Government does not run primary school. That is not the business of FG. It is the business of state and local government,” he said.

According to him, comparing Nigeria to other countries may be missing the point since the Federal Government cannot force the other tiers of government to implement policies and laws without the concurrence of the states and local governments.

“This has to be made it clear; even when comparisons are drawn between Nigeria and other countries, the tendency is to assume the Federal Government can legislate that states should do a particular thing but that is not possible. Our country is a federal system. The state has governors, budgets and their budgets should reflect the true realities of their concerns,” the VP added.

(The PUNCH)