The National Universities Commission (NUC) has been criticized for allocating a paltry N8m for academic research and over N85m for purchase of vehicles for directors and other officials in the recently presented 2018 budget. President Muhammadu Buhari on November 7, 2017 presented the 2018 budget estimate to the National Assembly. The N8.6tn Budget proposal according to the President is intended to consolidate on the achievement of the previous budget.
A breakdown of NUC budget shows that the commission has a proposed expenditure of over N4bn with recurrent expenditure of about N1,434,223,306. Under the maintenance services, the commission proposed to spend N3,357,885 on the maintenance of office furniture, while the maintenance of office buildings and residential quarters would gulp N60,075,664.
Further breakdown of the budget proposal showed that the commission plans to spend N9,739,246 on the maintenance of generators at the secretariat while N85,351,433 was allocated for the “purchase of motor vehicles."
Speaking on the development, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Abuja who craved anonymity accused NUC of making budgetary allocation for the purpose of "anticipatory embezzlement." He said it was unfortunate that in an era when people are expecting significant progress in the education sector, a Commission in the sector could make such ridiculous budgetary allocation.
"That goes to show you that the country is just a joke. How can we make advancement in education? The country is being plagued with several challenges in the health, economic and even political sectors. Yet their concern is car. This is just a joke," he added.
