The Governor Chukwuma Soludo-led Anambra State government has approved the budget of N68.306million for the maintenance of the state’s Lagos and Abuja liaison offices while it approved N46.2million for the maintenance of 264 secondary schools across the state.
This was contained in the N410.1billion 2024 budget tagged “Changing Gears: The Transformation Agenda Begins”, Governor Soludo signed into law on December 27, 2023 in Awka, the state capital.
Speaking in Awka on May 27, 2024 during the Children’s Day celebration, Governor Soludo had said that the state’s investment in the education sector was yielding positive results, and noted that his administration is committed to investing more in the state’s education sector.
However, analysis of the state’s 2024 approved budget showed that the state government allocated the sum of N26,131,116.59 to its Lagos liaison office and N42,175,319.86 to its Abuja liaison office, making a total of over N68million, while it allocated a total sum of N46million to 264 secondary schools across the state at N175,000 per school.
Further examination of the budget document showed that exactly the same N175,000 were spent on each identified 264 secondary schools in the state in 2023 by Governor Soludo’s government as indicated on the January to September 2023 budget performance column.
2022 out-of-school children figures across the 36 states of the federation showed that Anambra remained the state with the lowest record of out-of-school children in Nigeria with 2.9%, which the governor attributed to the huge investment of his government in education.
However, it is hard to justify Governor Soludo’s huge investment in education claim when juxtaposing the state’s 2024 budgetary allocation to its liaison offices in Lagos and Abuja with N22,106,436.65 difference against the total budget of 264 secondary schools in the state.
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