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No serious government should allow education sector to suffer a setback — Ashiru
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Your aspiration to highest state office is questionable when you lack basic facts about education funding — Uba Sani
The Kaduna State Government and the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Alhaji Isa Mohammed Ashiru, have disagreed over the commitment of Governor Uba Sani’s administration to education funding and the implementation of agreements with university lecturers.
The state government, through the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Malam Ahmed Maiyaki, on Wednesday faulted Ashiru’s criticism of the administration’s education policies, insisting that Kaduna had consistently met or exceeded international funding benchmarks.
Maiyaki said Ashiru was entitled to criticise the government but should base his arguments on verifiable facts.
“Mr. Ashiru is entitled to criticise the government. But when an aspirant to the highest office in the state gets basic facts about education funding wrong, a little lesson becomes necessary,” he said.
The commissioner disputed Ashiru’s claim that UNESCO recommends that governments allocate between 15 and 20 per cent of their budgets to education.
According to Maiyaki, the Education 2030 Framework for Action recommends that governments commit at least four to six per cent of Gross Domestic Product or 25 per cent of total public expenditure to education.
He said Kaduna allocated 25 per cent of its total budget to education in 2024, 26.14 per cent in 2025 and another 25 per cent of its N985.9 billion 2026 budget to the sector.
The 2026 allocation, he said, amounts to approximately N246.5 billion.
“For three consecutive years, therefore, Governor Uba Sani has committed about one-quarter of Kaduna State’s annual budget to education,” Maiyaki said.
He added that the government’s investment had produced measurable results in basic education, tertiary education and skills development.
Maiyaki said the National Board for Technical Education had recognised three Skills Development and Vocational Training Centres established by the Sani administration as the best-equipped and structured skills training facilities in Nigeria.
He further disclosed that the state had reduced its out-of-school children population from more than 550,000 to 187,719 within three years through sustained investments, enrolment campaigns and infrastructure development.
According to him, the Federal Government had also drawn from the Kaduna model in developing national interventions on skills training and addressing the out-of-school children challenge.
On Kaduna State University (KASU), the commissioner said the government had made several financial interventions, including more than N800 million for staff welfare, about N146 million for withheld salaries and SIWES-related obligations, as well as a N50 million monthly standing intervention.
He said the government provided more than N200 million in overhead support to KASU in 2026 alone, in addition to more than N300 million for the accreditation of 57 academic programmes and resource verification for 60 postgraduate programmes.
Maiyaki said the interventions contributed to the full accreditation of seven professional programmes and the university’s Digital Learning Centre.
He also disclosed that the administration had committed more than N1.6 billion to scholarships and other student-support programmes, alongside a 50 per cent reduction in tuition fees across state-owned tertiary institutions.
“These are hardly the actions of a government that is ‘lukewarm’ towards education,” the commissioner said.
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The government also challenged claims that about 200 professors and other academic staff had resigned from KASU over poor working conditions.
“Those advancing the claim should provide the names of the alleged 200 academics, their dates of resignation and their stated reasons for leaving. Repetition does not turn an unverified allegation into fact,” Maiyaki said.
He, however, said the government recognised the role of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU-KASU, in advocating for the welfare of its members and remained committed to constructive engagement on genuine outstanding issues.
Maiyaki said the domestication of Federal Government-ASUU agreements in state-owned universities required “serious legal, financial and institutional consideration, not political grandstanding.”
Ashiru, in his earlier statement, had accused the APC-led administration of showing a “lukewarm attitude” towards education and failing to implement the 2025 Federal Government-ASUU agreement.
The ADC governorship candidate expressed disappointment over what he described as the government’s “nonchalant attitude” towards the future of young people in the state.
According to a statement issued on Tuesday by his spokesman, Abdulwaheed Olayinka Adubi, Ashiru said the situation at KASU had reportedly led to the resignation of about 200 professors and other academic staff over poor working conditions.
Ashiru said no serious government should allow the education sector to suffer such a setback.
He also criticised the government for failing to act despite a two-week ultimatum issued to relevant stakeholders, including Governor Sani, to begin the full implementation and domestication of the 2025 agreement.
He attributed the alleged inaction to what he described as government negligence towards the future of the younger generation.
Ashiru listed the demands of ASUU-KASU as including implementation of the 2025 Federal Government-ASUU agreement, payment of outstanding academic allowances and promotion arrears, death benefits, the 25/35 per cent wage award, group life insurance and university autonomy.
“These are serious issues that should be accorded utmost priority,” he said.
The ADC candidate urged the state government to domesticate and implement the agreement in line with the law establishing the university.
Ashiru also called for increased funding for education, urging the government to dedicate and implement a larger percentage of the state budget to the sector.
He said this would bring Kaduna closer to what he described as UNESCO’s recommendation of 15 to 20 per cent for education.
He further called for greater accountability and transparency in the management of public funds, alleging that corruption and waste had become deeply entrenched in the administration.
The competing claims have therefore placed education funding, KASU staff welfare and the implementation of the FG-ASUU agreement at the centre of the latest political exchange between the Sani administration and the opposition in Kaduna.
