A senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, said it is the duty of the government to provide free and compulsory education for its people.
The human rights lawyer, in a statement signed on Sunday, urged the lawmakers to stop paying lip service to the poor state of basic education in the country.
The senior lawyer faulted lawmakers at the National Assembly for attempting to amend the Universal Basic Education Act of 2004 by introducing severe penalties for parents who fail to send their children to school.
He said, “The needless resolutions are indeed unfortunate because they show that the federal law markers are seemingly lacking in institutional memories of even the progress made by the legislature in making laws to promote universal access to basic education.
“Since each of the 36 States of the Federation has adopted the Child’s Rights Act and enacted a Child’s Rights Law, it has become the joint responsibility of the Federal, State and Local Governments to ensure that every Nigerian child is given access free and compulsory education.”
He also noted that individuals of the political class have failed to pay enough attention to basic education by failing to ensure that the counterpart fund required to be paid by states is paid to UBEC.
