By: Mayen Etim
KADUNA, North-West, Nigeria – The Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education, (CHRICED), has said the task of ensuring provision of quality and basic education for Nigerians is a collective responsibility.
The Executive Director of CHRICED, Dr. Ibrahim Zikirullahi who made the assertion during a press briefing in Zaria recently, said no single actor can claim monopoly of the process.
“Let me state that the overall task of ensuring quality and basic education for the children of this country is a collective responsibility.
“Importantly, with the new opportunity provided by the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, (NFIU), guidelines, which prohibits state governors from interfering with and cornering financial resources belonging to LGAs, the Local Councils no longer have an excuse not to deliver on good governance.
“This is an area where as an organization, we have adopted proactive and sustainable approaches by encouraging communities to take up the challenge by documenting their needs through letters, community charters and project demands, such that their basic education needs are clear enough to the agencies on the side of the government.
“It is pertinent to note therefore that the challenges, which affect the delivery of quality service in the basic education sector, have to be amplified outside the communities in order to elicit action from government actors,” he said.
Dr. Zikirullahi who commended the media for beaming their searchlight on the education sector, however said more is needed to be done to reflect the scale of problems in the sector for prompt action from relevant government agencies.
CHRICED is piloting a social project of mobilizing communities for accountability demands, and track projects which are being implemented in three focal Local Government Areas of Kauru, Kubau and Zaria, with the support from MacArthur Foundation.