Education is the foundation upon which developed societies are built. Nations that thrive invest in education as a tool for the development of skills which can be used to produce wealth, create and sustain a suitable society. The education decay in Nigeria began in the late 90s when the sector was starved of funding. Gradually, this was followed by infrastructure decay and brain drain. With the flight of these three elements, the education sector went down a slope. Despite, the Federal Government intervention, through the establishment of Universal Basic Education, a reform programme aimed at providing free primary and secondary education for all, not much has changed.

This publication is an empirical analysis of the root causes of the decline in the education sector, chief among which are inadequate funding and improper utilization of provided funds. Government spending in the sector is relatively small when compared with other African countries. In 2014, according to Index Mundi, Ghana spent 21.7% of its budget expenditure on education which shows its commitment to improving the sector, compared with Nigeria's 10% in the same year despite the fact that Nigeria has a larger population and even more resources.