Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has lamented that the weakness in Nigeria’s education sector is the reason for the worsening insecurity in the country.
Lawan said this on Monday at the 8th matriculation ceremony of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS)/University of Benin (UNIBEN) postgraduate programmes held at the National Assembly, Abuja.
According to him, deficits in the education sector, including limited funding, lack of infrastructure and teaching aids, poorly trained personnel and low levels of commitment, had adversely affected the productivity and output of schools and centres of learning in the country.
He said the development has resulted in a rising profile of criminal activities and anti-social behaviour, insecurity, high number of unemployable youths and an unproductive workforce, among others.
He said, though the National Assembly had increased budgetary allocation to Universal Basic Education Commission to 3%, a lot more has to be done to strengthen the education sector.
Speaking on the postgraduate programmes, which offer Masters in Legislative Studies and other related fields, Lawan said for Nigeria to build a strong legislature, there is the need for highly professional and qualified staff members that are dedicated to parliamentary institutions.
In his remarks, the Director-General of NILDS, Prof Abubakar Sulaiman, said 123 students matriculated for the 2020/2021 academic session.
He urged the students to comply with all the rules and regulations of the institute as contained in their matriculation oath and in the students’ handbook.
