The Kaduna State Government has faulted African Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship candidate Alhaji Isa Mohammed Ashiru over his criticism of Governor Uba Sani’s commitment to education, insisting the state has consistently surpassed global funding benchmarks.
The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Malam Ahmed Maiyaki, said in a statement on Wednesday that while Ashiru is entitled to criticise, his claims on education funding were inaccurate.
“Mr Ashiru is entitled to criticise the government. But when an aspirant to the highest office in the state gets basic facts about education funding wrong, a little lesson becomes necessary,” he said.
Maiyaki faulted Ashiru’s claim that UNESCO recommends 15 to 20 per cent budgetary allocation to education.
He explained that the Education 2030 Framework for Action recommends at least 4 to 6 per cent of gross domestic product or 25 per cent of total public expenditure.
According to him, Kaduna State allocated 25 per cent of its budget to education in 2024, 26.14 per cent in 2025, and another 25 per cent of its N985.9 billion 2026 budget, amounting to about N246.5 billion.
“For three consecutive years, therefore, Governor Uba Sani has committed about one-quarter of Kaduna State’s annual budget to education,” Maiyaki disclosed.
The commissioner said the investment has yielded results across basic, tertiary and skills education. He noted that the National Board for Technical Education recognised the three skills development and vocational training centres established by the governor as the best-equipped in Nigeria.
He added that out-of-school children in the state dropped from over 550,000 to 187,719 within three years through enrolment drives and infrastructure upgrades. “The federal government has also drawn from the Kaduna model” for national interventions, he said.
At Kaduna State University, Maiyaki listed interventions including over N800 million for staff welfare, N146 million for withheld salaries and SIWES obligations, and a N50 million monthly standing intervention.
The government also provided more than N200 million in overhead support in 2026 alone and over N300 million for the accreditation of 57 academic programmes and resource verification for 60 postgraduate programmes.
These, he said, led to full accreditation of seven professional programmes and the university’s Digital Learning Centre.
Maiyaki further disclosed that more than N1.6 billion has been committed to scholarships and student support, alongside a 50 per cent reduction in tuition fees across state-owned tertiary institutions.
“These interventions are hardly the actions of a government that is ‘lukewarm’ towards education,” the statement added.
On allegations that about 200 professors resigned from KASU due to poor conditions, the commissioner challenged critics to provide names, dates and reasons.
“Repetition does not turn an unverified allegation into fact,” he said.
Maiyaki also acknowledged ASUU-KASU’s role in advocating for members and said the administration remains committed to constructive engagement but noted that domesticating FG-ASUU agreements in state universities requires “serious legal, financial and institutional consideration, not political grandstanding”.
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