The number of out-of-school children in Nigeria has increased from 10.5m to 18m in 23 years despite over N100 trillion federal government budgets, the MacArthur Foundation has said.
This was disclosed by the foundation’s Deputy Director, Nigeria Office, Dayo Olaide, at a policy dialogue on situating Constituency Projects in the 2023 Electioneering Campaigns, organised by OrderPaper, an online news platform, in partnership with Budgit and MacArthur Foundation.
Mr Olaide said, “Nigerians when they wake up every morning, they are asking themselves, what does this budget mean for me as a person.”
On his part, Country Director, Budgit, Gabriel Okiewu, said despite 469 federal lawmakers, 36 governors, House of Assembly members and local government chairmen and councilors, “it’s so disheartening that people’s needs are not being captured.
Mr Okiewu said, “We see that empowerment projects take more than 60% of the N100bn allocation for constituency projects every year”.
Represented by Adewale Adejola, Mr Okiewu stressed the need to restore citizen’s confidence in government and democracy.
