Yusuf Abdulraheem, the Provost of the Kwara State College of Education, llorin, says the state government owes the institution N252 million, being six months of unremitted subvention.
AbdulRaheem, who announced this during an interview with journalists in IIorin, the Kwara State capital on the sidelines of Tuesday’s staff protest to Government House llorin, noted that the paucity of funds from the non-release of subvention to the institution had incapacitated it from meeting its obligations.
He said the management could no longer meet with the high demands of the College from the paltry sums from internally generated revenue.
AbdulRaheem described the staff protest as unfortunate, attributing it to the dwindled financial state of the College, which had made payments of salary arrears impossible.
The provost therefore called on the state government to declare a state of emergency in the education sector as a way of combating the problem in the sector.
“The declaration of the state of emergency in the state Education sector will bring extra budgetary allocation that will cater for all the problem confronting the sector,” he said.
BusinessDay reports that hundreds of staff of the College embarked on a peaceful protest to the Government House requesting the outgoing government to settle their unpaid salaries before the expiration of its tenure in office.
In a swift reaction, Ustaz Abdullahi-Alikinla, the state commissioner for tertiary education, informed that the state government was owing the College only four months subventions totalling N202 million.
He attributed the state government’s indebtedness to the institution to the dwindling allocations from the Federal Government.
The commissioner, however, assured that the state government would settle all the outstanding arrears of subventions as soon as funds were available before the tenure of the present administration end.
