EDUCATION: RIGHTS GROUP ASKS ECOWAS COURT TO EXECUTE JUDGMENT AGAINST, FG

By NBF News

The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Abuja has been asked to 'urgently issue a writ of execution against the Nigerian government and the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, to secure the full and effective implementation of the ECOWAS Court judgment requiring the government to provide free and compulsory basic education to every Nigerian child.'

The request was made by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, in a letter by the organisation's lawyer, Femi Falana and addressed to the Registrar of the court.

In the letter dated 4 March 2011, the organisation said that, 'This request is brought pursuant to article 24 (2) (3) of the Supplementary Protocol of the ECOWAS Court, which provides that, 'Execution of any Judgment of the Court shall be in the form of a writ  of execution, which shall be submitted by the Registrar of the Court  to the relevant Member State for execution according to the rules of  civil procedure of that Member State. Upon the verification by the appointed authority of recipient Member  State that the writ is from the Court, the writ shall be enforced.'

The organisation said that, 'since the judgment was delivered in November 2010, the government and the UBEC have neither acknowledged the judgment nor taken steps to implement the letter and spirit of the judgment.

Since the judgment was delivered, more than 5 million Nigerian children of school age still roam the streets and have no access to primary education; 115 million adults are illiterate. Nigerian children still lack access to quality primary education in Nigeria.'

'SERAP's investigation this year has also revealed gross under-funding of the nation's educational institutions and systemic corruption in the systems; non-availability of class rooms seats and pupils sitting on bare floor; non-availability of books and other teaching materials; poor curricula; poor and uninviting learning environments; overcrowding; inability of supervising agencies to set and/or enforce standards; and absence of infrastructural facilities,' the organization added.