The recent behind-the-scenes revelation that some federal lawmakers demanded N8 million from each of the 60 Vice-Chancellors of federal universities, totaling N480 million, to aid the approval of their 2025 budgets shows that these lawmakers are harsh enemies of the Nigerian state and agents of destruction for the education system in Nigeria.
In an eye-opening revelation, the investigative online media Premium Times exposed how the Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFund, and the House Committee on University Education, carried out their shameless bribery deal and threatened unyielding heads of federal universities with probes.
It is disheartening that this is coming at a time when heads of institutions expend the majority of their budget on power supply, following a hike in tariffs. This is a shame, to say the least.
Although the House Committee chair Hassan Fulata (APC, Jigawa) has refuted the reports, Nigerians are more likely to side with Premium Times considering the antecedents of federal lawmakers in budget padding and their unrepentant desperation for bribes during the budget screening process.
Sadly, this ethical rot is not new. In March 2019, for instance, the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, exposed how the Health Care Services Committee of the House of Representatives openly demanded a bribe from her for inspecting the agency’s headquarters and threatened her with a probe if she failed to comply with their demands.
Similarly, in March 2012, the Director-General of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at the time, Dr. Arunma Oteh, accused a lawmaker, Herman Hembe, who was heading the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market, of demanding N39 million from SEC for an investigation into the expenditure of SEC.
While the lawmakers were perfecting plans to forcibly get a cut from the budgets of the institutions, the University College Hospital (UCH) of the University of Ibadan has been cut off from the national grid for months due to unpaid electricity bills—a direct consequence of underfunding.
A situation where the budget of the National Assembly is higher than the allocations for educational institutions should stop if they are true representatives of the Nigerian people. For instance, the 2024 National Assembly budget of N344.48 billion—a huge increase from the N197.93 billion which the president allocated to them—was more than the budget of 15 largest federal universities, which only had a combined allocation of N327.8 billion for 2024. This grotesque prioritization of self-interest over education must end.
Federal institutions are crumbling due to neglect, yet lawmakers would rather extort Vice-Chancellors than address systemic underfunding. The National Assembly must halt this charade and refocus on its oversight duties. Instead of demanding bribes to “bury” financial misconduct, lawmakers should transparently hold VCs accountable for expenditures.
Let Vice-Chancellors breathe. Let them allocate scarce resources to revitalize classrooms and laboratories—not line the pockets of politicians. Nigeria’s future depends on it.
The heads of institutions on their part must strive for transparency to the greatest extent possible, thereby preventing gluttonous lawmakers from exploiting any loopholes in their spending within these institutions.
Join EdubaseNG WhatsApp Channel to get the latest education & student loan tips
Join our Telegram Channel to get the latest news about Student Loans & Education News.
Are you a stakeholder in education? You can become our guest writer. Write to us using our our email address here
