MAU Inaugural Lecture Decries Nigeria’s 8% Education Budget

The 30th Inaugural Lecture of the Modibbo Adama University (MAU) Yola, has challenged the federal government over its consistently low budgetary allocation to education.

The lecture titled, “The Sorry State of Physics Teaching and Learning in Nigeria: What Remedies?’’ lamented that Physics teaching and learning suffers the fate of poor funding of the education sector.

The Professor of Physics, Prof. Okoronka Ugwumba Augustine who presented the inaugural lecture, did a critical assessment of what he described as a deepening crisis in Nigeria’s physics education system.

The professor warned that Nigeria’s persistent underinvestment in science education is slowing national development and weakening the country’s technological capacity.

Okoronka highlighted the issue of funding between 2015 and  2022, noting that Nigeria invested approximately ₦7.61 trillion in education, about 10 percent of its ₦76.96 trillion total national budget within the same period.

He lamented that annual allocations to education have consistently remained below 8 percent, far below UNESCO’s recommended benchmark of 26 percent.

“The first challenge here is our failure as a nation to invest enough of our intellectual and financial resources to build a strong knowledge base,” Prof. Okoronka said.

Among other challenges, he identified a lack of strategic thinking and planning aimed at raising future core scientists, physicists, and physics educators who will drive scientific, technological, and economic growth.

In a personal reflection, Prof. Okoronka recounted his humble beginning at birth on 4th August 1962 in Kafanchan, Kaduna State; a teaching stint at King’s College, Lagos in the 90s to earning his PhD at the University of Ibadan and attaining full professorship in 2018 at Modibbo Adama University, Yola.

The lecture was well attended by dignitaries, including the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Prof. Iliyasu Audu who represented the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ibrahim Umar; as well as other principal officers, members of Senate, staff, students, and invited guests.