It was a battle of wits in Edo State between the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. And the subject of attack: the N5 billion secured by the state government from the Universal Basic Education Fund, UBE for provision of infrastructure in primary schools in the state. The ACN was of the opinion that the fund which was meant to renovate schools for children between 3 and 5 years (early children care and development education, ECCDE0; children between the ages of 6 and 11 + years (primary school education) and children between the ages of 12-14 + years (junior secondary school education) is being diverted to only the mere rehabilitation of dilapidated walls of the public schools at highly inflated costs through contracts awarded without due process. The facilities supposed to be provided in the schools also include: new classrooms, water and electricity, free books and uniforms to primary school pupils and students up till junior secondary.
Former speaker of Edo State Assembly, Zakawanu Garuba said at a meeting recently organised by the PDP in Benin City, that the state government could not justify the whopping N2 billion spent to renovate one school which has neither teachers nor pupils. He described the waste as open stealing of public funds and called on Governor Oshiomhole to explain the true position to Edo people.
Sometime last year, the state chairman of the party, Chief Dan Orbih said the party has it on record that some secondary schools in the state, which the government claimed to have renovated, were at unreasonable costs. He listed such schools to include: St. Maria Goretti which government allegedly spent over N550 million to renovate; Idia College where over N600 million was spent; Niger College, which gulped over N250 million and St. John Bosco College, Ubiaja, was renovated at the cost of over N400 million. Orbih argued that due process was not followed in awarding contract for the renovation of these schools, neither were they advertised. He reminded the people of the state that, “all purported primary school and junior secondary school projects all over Edo State were funded with over 60 percent by the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC. Oshiomhole finds it convenient to misinform Edo people that these projects were financed only by him using Edo taxpayers’ money.” 
He wondered how much the government would have needed to build new schools when such staggering amounts were purportedly spent on renovation works. “To put the record straight, the UBEC projects are undertaken at 50 percent counterpart funding between the states and the federal government and not over 60 percent contribution by the federal government as claimed by the PDP.”
Governor Adams Oshiomhole however described the criticism of the PDP leaders as “empty, incoherent, laughable statements which for me portray them more as people who are in politics with no purpose.” He said if it was true that the UBE funds were with the federal government just for people to take, “what stopped them (the PDP) from going to Abuja to collect the money to develop the state?” Governor Oshiomhole said he was shocked on assumption of office that for six years, the Chief Lucky Igbinedion-led PDP government in Edo State refused to access the UBE funds because it was not ready to contribute to the counterpart funding. “I decided that we must raise the counterpart funding which they were not prepared to do, even when I met an empty treasury; because when I assumed office, not one dime was in the treasury. I met a huge debt of N10 billion. So, we raised N2.5 billion to pay the counterpart fund so as to develop the state.” The governor noted that even at that stage, the State House of Assembly under the former speaker, Zakawanu Garuba, refused to grant the approval needed to access the UBE funds. “With respect to our third priority area, primary and post primary education, we encountered serious political bottlenecks. This prevented this administration from accessing the UBE facility required to finance the massive rehabilitation of schools in the 18 local governments, as originally planned. Having failed to access the federal component of the UBE grant because of non-confirmation of my nominees into the SUBEB, we have now withdrawn the Edo State contribution, in order to address part of the problems the funds was meant to solve. Accordingly, we have awarded contracts for the supply of furniture to primary and secondary schools, as well as for the renovation of some premier schools across the three senatorial districts,” the governor added. 
UBE Act makes provision for basic education comprising of ECCDE, primary and junior secondary education. While the financing of basic education is the responsibility of state and local governments, the federal government’s intervention is in the provision of basic education with two per cent of its consolidated revenue fund. States are to fully benefit from this fund through the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, and the Local Government Education Authorities, LGEAs.
Professor Ngozi Osarenren, former education commissioner in Edo State blamed the inability of the state to access the UBE funds up till 2010 on the non-constitution of the state UBE board. “You may be aware that the state last year paid in about N2.2 billion as counterpart fund, but because of the problem in constituting the board which you have acknowledged, we were not able to access the money and withdrew it since it was just lying fallow in the Central Bank and the state government was still servicing the loan in the bank.” She added that the state government decided to withdraw the money and used it to award contracts of furniture for some of the state government owned schools. Even when the board was finally constituted it ran into troubled waters. “Soon after inauguration of the board, it had to be introduced to outstanding UBE process. That apart, the work plan that we submitted earlier, was no longer tenable, so we had to prepare a fresh work plan that we just completed. Until you prepare a new work plan and know exactly how much you are ready to put in as counterpart funds to access the UBE funds, nothing will be done. We just concluded the work plan, we met and soon, somebody will be in Abuja to submit the plan. After the submission, you need approval by the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, which we have concluded on our part; and before you know it, things will start working,” Professor Osarenren explained then.
Analysts believe that the controversy trailing the UBE funds has to do with the Edo State governorship election scheduled for July this year. PDP is desirous of winning back the state, which it lost to ACN through the court in 2008.