Moghalu condemns Nigerian govt’s poor investment in education

Kingsley Moghalu, former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has slammed the Federal Government for investing poorly in the country’s education system.

Moghalu, who spoke in a Channels TV interview on Tuesday, said the “political priority” attached to education in Nigeria was “very low”.

The former presidential aspirant also reacted to the industrial action embarked upon by university lecturers, blaming the FG for misplacement of priorities.

The political economist claimed that it was wrong to pay politicians more than university teachers.

He, therefore, charged the government to do the needful by yielding to the demands of the striking lecturers.

Moghalu said: “We need to invest a lot more in the educational system — the salaries of our teachers and professors in Nigerian universities, compared to what our legislators earn in the national assembly. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but there are reports that a senator takes home anything from N20 million to N30 million every month based on various allowances, not the actual salaries.

Read also:Oil has made Nigeria lazy, unproductive —Moghalu

“Sometimes, people are very clever. They don’t say ‘my salary is N10 million.’ They say ‘my salary is N1 million’, and then there are several allowances that amount to N15 million.

“So, we are investing a lot of money in the pay of politicians, but if we want to be honest, how productive are they compared to if we had invested a similar amount of money in paying university and secondary school teachers and building the facilities that we need, creating the laboratories, and so on?

“The political priority that we attach to education is very low. That is one of the reasons for the situation that we are in now.

“We borrow sometimes for physical infrastructure. Why can’t you borrow to build your society in a very foundational way?”

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