As the 2011
elections draws nearer, 1 Goal, a global advocacy group canvassing
support for increased access to education, has called on Nigerian
politicians to pay closer attention to the education sector.
Speaking at an
interactive session with journalists on Tuesday in Abuja, Wale Samuel,
the Policy Advisor for Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for
All (CASEFA), the group hosting 1 Goal in Nigeria, said their effort is
to get political leaders to make commitment and do what the United
Nations says has to be done by allocating proper percentage of the
budget to education.
This is in line
with the objective of 1 Goal, which is to promote Education for All and
call on world leaders to provide education for 69 million children
worldwide by 2015.
Our plan is “to
galvanise support for education. Knowing that this is election period,
we are trying to push education to the front burner, get attention of
politicians to do three things for us Nigerians,” Mr Samuel said.
“We have prepared a
one goal contract and they are supposed to sign it if they find our
requests agreeable; which is that if they are elected, they will ensure
that 26 percent of the budget, whether at national, state or local
government level, is voted for education and 23 percent out of it goes
to tertiary and three percent goes to adult education,” he said.
Open for monitoring
“Publish
allocations, disbursements and projects to enhance citizens’ monitoring
of resource allocation and utilisation in the education sector, at all
relevant levels,” he said. “Thirdly, inaugurate a joint
government/civil society task team to facilitate mechanisms and
processes for independent monitoring of education budget and projects,”
he said.
1Goal, through
CASEFA, said it is already in touch with the politicians to persuade
them to improve funding to the education sector.
Martin Davis, head
of broadcast for 1 Goal campaign, further said that a Facebook platform
has been provided for Nigerians to engage politicians on educational
issues.
“1 Goal is
supporting CASEFA in pushing the campaign. We want Nigerians to talk to
their leaders through Facebook. With that, Nigerians in diaspora have a
focal point ahead of the elections to do some of the expo and signup to
make government accountable ahead of elections on issues concerning
education and education spending,” he added.
