Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and another lawyer, Hauwa Mustapha, have sued the Attorney General of the Federation, the Nigerian Education Minister, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the Attorneys General of the 36 States of the Federation, and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, over the education of Nigerian children.
In an affidavit filed before the Court, Falana stated that a recent report released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated Nigeria’s overall number of out-of-school children to be 20.2 million, the highest figure in the world.
The applicants, Falana and Hauwa Mustapha, a lawyer, are asking the Federal High Court in Lagos to issue an order directing the 4th–40th respondents to pay the counterpart funds in order to access the matching grant of N68 billion in the Universal Basic Education Fund Account and to report compliance with the court’s order within 30 days of the judgement’s delivery.
They further ask the Court to issue an order instructing the respondents to always pay the counterpart fund to access the matching grant in the Universal Basic Education Fund Account as and when due.
They also request that the Court declare that, under Section 2(1) of the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, the Respondents are legally obligated to provide free, compulsory, and universal basic education to every Nigerian child of primary and junior secondary school age.
At the time of filing this report, there was no set date for the suit’s hearing.
