Ashiru got Kaduna education funding figures wrong — Commissioner

The Kaduna State Government has dismissed criticism of Governor Uba Sani’s commitment to education by the African Democratic Congress governorship candidate, Alhaji Isa Mohammed Ashiru, saying the state has consistently met or exceeded international funding benchmarks.

The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Ahmed Maiyaki, said in a statement on Wednesday that Ashiru was entitled to criticise the administration but should base his claims on verifiable facts.

Maiyaki particularly rejected Ashiru’s claim that UNESCO recommends that governments allocate between 15 and 20 per cent of their budgets to education.

He said the Education 2030 Framework for Action recommends that countries allocate at least four to six per cent of their Gross Domestic Product or 15 to 20 per cent of total public expenditure to education.

According to the commissioner, 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.

He said the 2026 allocation 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.

The commissioner said the administration’s investments had produced results across basic education, tertiary education and skills development.

He claimed that the National Board for Technical Education had recognised three Skills Development and Vocational Training Centres established by the administration as the best-equipped and structured skills training facilities in Nigeria.

Maiyaki also said the state had reduced the number of out-of-school children from more than 550,000 to 187,719 within three years through enrolment campaigns, infrastructure development and sustained investment in education.

He added that the Federal Government had drawn from Kaduna’s experience in developing national interventions targeting skills development and the out-of-school children crisis.

On Kaduna State University, Maiyaki said the government had provided more than N800 million for staff welfare, about N146 million for withheld salaries and SIWES-related obligations, and a monthly standing intervention of N50 million.

He said the government also provided more than N200 million in overhead support to the university in 2026 and over N300 million for the accreditation of 57 academic programmes and resource verification for 60 postgraduate programmes.

According to him, the interventions contributed to the full accreditation of seven professional programmes and the establishment of the university’s Digital Learning Centre.

Maiyaki further disclosed that the administration had committed more than N1.6 billion to scholarships and other student-support programmes, while tuition fees across state-owned tertiary institutions had been reduced by 50 per cent.

He said the figures contradicted claims that the administration was “lukewarm” towards education.

The commissioner also challenged claims that about 200 professors and other academic staff had resigned from KASU because of poor working conditions.

He urged those making the allegation to provide the names of the affected academics, their dates of resignation and reasons for leaving.

“Repetition does not turn an unverified allegation into fact,” he said.

Maiyaki said the government recognised the role of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, KASU chapter, in advocating for staff welfare and remained committed to engaging the union on genuine outstanding issues.

He, however, said the domestication of Federal Government-ASUU agreements in state-owned universities required “serious legal, financial and institutional consideration,” rather than political grandstanding.