The Universal Basic Education Commission was created by The Compulsory, Free, Universal Basic Education Act 2004 and Other Related Matters among other things to:

a) Formulate policy guidelines for the successful operation of the Universal Basic Education Programme in the Federation.

b) Prescribe minimum standards for basic education throughout Nigeria in line with the National Policy on Education and the directive of the National Council on Education and ensure the effective monitoring of the standards.

c) Monitor Federal inputs into the implementation of basic education.

d) Collate and prepare after consultation with the States and Local Government, periodic master plan for a balanced and co-ordinated development of basic education in Nigeria, etc.

Among the above is the provision of adequate basic education facilities in Nigeria.

As a keen observer of the education sector in Nigeria, I have seen and watch UBEC struggle with the above responsibilities since 2004. The commission soon after inauguration became a comfortable ground for politicians and fraudulent foreign contractors.

Even the introduction of Due Process has not helped the situation at all.

Soon after the Federal Government approved the supply of plastic sitting desks for Junior Secondary Schools in Nigeria in 2004 to augment wooden sitting desk that is fast fading due to the scarcity of woods, politicians and their collaborators took over the commission dictating who get what and for how much.

I have watched from afar how incompetent staff have been posted to the commission to serve that fraudulent mission. And despite the fact that the Federal Government had banned the importation of plastic materials into the country in 2005, the politicians and their collaborators still went ahead to award the contract for the provision of plastic sitting materials for Junior Secondary Schools in Nigeria to a full foreign company, Intermarkets USA LLC, without following Due Process.

Recently, the foreign company (contractors) took the commission to court. I was surprised and wondered whether the evil collaboration may be coming to an end, until I discovered that a new management and probably a more transparent executive has taken over at the commission since the end of 2007 and had refused to “play ball” as others before him have done with the foreign contractors and their collaborators.

I am not surprised because one of the key policy aspect of the Yar’Adua administration has been the fight against corruption in Nigeria and I am sure that the new management would have taken stock of all the existing projects and had discovered the fraudulent activities that we all know exist in UBEC.

Indeed it will take real guts, sincerity and honesty to stand up and fight the inhouse politicians in UBEC and their contractors. I know quite well that they will find very disturbing revelation with respect to the contract for the supply of plastic sitting materials that was awarded in 2005.

I can still remember how some local contractors were interested in the contract in 2004 and how the process was manipulated by some staff of UBEC in favour of their collaborator, the Intermarkets USA LLC. I still remember the claim that the contract was advertised in The Punch, ThisDay and New Nigeria of 15^th March, 2004 by the UBEC staff and that the local contractors did not pre-qualify within the time provided in that publication. I personally carried out a search at the National Library in Abuja and got  a CTC of the above papers and I discovered to my outer amazement that no such publication was ever carried out.

I know that those involved would have forged paper publication to convince the board to approve the award of the contract to Intermarkets USA LLC.

It does not require an ICPC or EFCC to investigate this crime and fraud in UBEC, even a “keke NAPEP” driver can drive to the National Library and request for a CTC of the above papers and will also discover that no such publication was ever made.

I weep for Nigeria! I weep for my mother land! Where has our morals gone to? Where is nationalism or patriotism? Oh Nigeria we hail thee?

Recently, Intermarkets USA LLC took UBEC to court seeking for an order of Perpetual Injunction to restrain UBEC from awarding any contract for the supply of plastic sitting materials to any other contractor.

Intermarkets USA LLC are also claiming that they have a perpetual contract with UBEC to supply the plastic sitting materials for ever and that they came into Nigeria solely for that purpose only . I wonder whether it is the duty of UBEC or NIPC to authorize companies to establish factories in Nigeria.

As it is usual with our Judiciary to break new grounds in infamy, I read in the Punch and other dailies that the Federal High Court 1 had granted an interim order to restrain UBEC from awarding any ETF funded project contract in respect to the production and supply of plastic desks and chairs for Junior Secondary Schools pending the determination of the suit.

I was also surprised when I read that the court also held that the foreign company by their directors shall give a written undertaking to pay damages to UBEC, ETF and the Federal Ministry of Education for any loss that the defendants may suffer. As a lay man, I thought it was the other way round. How an individual or a company director can pay damages for loss to over 10 million Nigerian school children and their parents for denial of basic educational facilities still beats my imagination.

I wonder what the EFCC and ICPC are doing in respect to this fraud in UBEC. I think there is an urgent need for the Federal Government to set up a probe panel or the House of Committee on Education to investigate this fraud that is out side the contractual issues in court. There is need for the Minister of Education to:

· Personally investigate this fraud and identify the staff of UBEC involved in the fraud.

· If the above is not done, Government and UBEC will be a victim of ambush in court as UBEC staff collaborators will continue to frustrate the management of UBEC and support the attackers with vital information and documents to prosecute their offensive attack on our education sector.

· The Minister must bring the ETF and UBEC together in the fight against fraudulent contractors, so that our education sector is not destroyed.

· Those UBEC staff collaborators must face trial and go to jail for using public office to initiate personal criminal agenda.

· The security agencies must support the management of UBEC to fight this in house fraud for the benefit of our education sector.

Above all, the Federal Government must support this agency to overcome this foreign contractor and in house attackers, otherwise it may set a dangerous precedence for other Government agencies.

It is not all court decisions that solve problems, some merely trigger more crises. I hope this one is not another.  

UBEC management on its part must continue to see this fight as one undertaken for the benefit of poor Nigerian children and over 150 million Nigerians whose only hope for educational advancement is hanging on its shoulders. Ordinary Nigerians like me and several million others are solidly behind the current UBEC management.

I have noticed that the Intermarkets USA LLC, a foreign company has made tremendous use of local and foreign press in the legal onslaught as they are quick in publishing their side of the story in National dailies, in other words, heading to the court of public opinion, I know they will meet their waterloo in this court as Nigerians can not be fooled by their ulterior motive and colonial imperialism even in 2009.

May God help us!

Domeremember Enya writes from Abuja.

Robot  # 1 | 11.12.2008 22:45

The Universal Basic Education Commission was created by The Compulsory, Free, Universal Basic Education Act 2004 and Other Related Matters among other things to: a)Formulate policy guidelines for the successful operation of the Universal Basic Education Programme in the Federation. b)Prescribe minimum standards for basic education throughout Nigeria in line with the National Policy on Education and the directive of the National Council on Education and ensure the effective monitoring of the standards. c)Monitor Federal inputs into the implementation of basic education. d)Collate and prepare after consultation with the States and Local Government, periodic master plan for a balanced and co-ordinated development of basic education in Nigeria, etc. Among the above is the prov...Read the full article.

Mutti  # 2 | 12.12.2008 13:52

UBEC and however many commissions (UPEC) it morphed from has been corrupt and deliberately remains so with the connivance of the World Bank and its operatives through whom (for a healthy fee) most of the IDA loans used to fund the corruption is obtained. It is an open secret in the country, one way to get a taste of the national cake is to align with UBE at whatever level Federal, State or Local government through any one of the programme - teacher training, supply of books, supply of furniture, upgrade and renovation of buildings, school food programme, school health programme you name it. The malaise within the civil service where a criterion for getting the job is to be be a complete dumb ass in the area of skills and competencies relevant to the job but be absolutely good at dissembling and awarding dud contracts for kick back, is only a smokescreen for the loot sharing that goes on in UBEC and associated SUBEBs and LGEAs. PTAs are of course not left out. Few if any active PTA member has children in the schools in question and the same individual can represent several schools - after all we have the capacity to have many children well into old age. Education in Nigeria is like NEPA. It is a sector where people steal all they can and no one is held to account. We the viictims also seem to have lost our wherewithall for asking questions and demanding our rights. But there it is, the purveyors of the fraud that is UBEC and their allies like National Teachers Institute have made good money and will have a very very merry christmas while infrastural decay in the education sector continues and is used to justify more IDA loans with the connivance of World Bank and their overpaid consultants.