The leadership of the House of Representatives on Monday called for deliberate policy towards reversing the huge capital flight estimated at over N1.5 trillion spent yearly on overseas education by Nigerians.
Speaker Yakubu Dogara gave the charge at the one-day public hearing on three bills namely, Police Academy, University of Abuja and Tertiary Education Trust Fund along with three motions referred to the Committee on Tertiary Education and Services, chaired by Aminu Suleiman (APC-Kano) for further legislative action.
While stressing the need for immediate overhaul of the educational system for better productivity, Dogara assured that each of the bills and motions will bring the much needed change in this all important sector to competitive world standards, such that the foreign exchange being spent on oversea education could be preserved and channeled to other needy sectors.
“The alarming report that Nigerians spend over N500 million annually on their children studying in the United State of America and the United Kingdom calls for concern from every Nigerian.
“The House of Representatives is equally worried that over N1.5 trillion which is nearly half of the total Federal Government Appropriations in 2015, is spent on Nigerians studying abroad,” he observed.
Dogara who reiterated the House resolve the chart a new course for the educational sector, emphasised the need for immediate overhaul of the education at all levels, in the bid turn the sector “into a source of foreign exchange as is the case with other countries.
“The House is determined to pursue this goal to fruition in fulfillment of its prescriptions in the Legislative Agenda to make concerted efforts in bringing about the desired change in the sector,” he said.
Dogara who stressed the need for total commitment of all the stakeholders invited to the public hearing to make meaningful contribution, note that the event provides the opportunity for them to be “involved in government decisions making.”
In his remarks, Aminu Suleiman, chairman House Committee on Tertiary Education & Services who expressed regrets over the State of the nation’s educational sector however assured that the aggregate objective of the bills/motions is to leverage our educational sector to compete favourably with the world best educational institutions.
He lamented that “there is no gain saying on the fact that our educational institutions and indeed the Tertiary institutions have been bedeviled and constrained in the past three decades by several challenge, ranging from poor funding, corruption, inefficiency, maladministration, industrial actions, students unrest, etc. These no doubt had dire consequences of low standard of education, including the products of these institutions,” Suleiman said.
