Our Reporter, Abuja
Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 general election and former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, has sounded the alarm over what he described as a “crisis of great magnitude” in Nigeria’s education sector, calling for an urgent redirection of national priorities towards investing in human capital development.
Reacting on Thursday via his official X handle to recent data from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Obi noted that over 20 million Nigerian children are currently out of school, with many more in school but unable to read or write effectively. UBEC had warned that children who managed to enroll in school were often not learning—underscoring a deeper systemic collapse.
Obi said the statistics were scary as they were also reflected in the poor performance of candidates in the recently released WASSCE results by the West African Examination Council, WAEC.
“These scary statistics were also mirrored by WAEC, as they confirmed that the recently released WASSCE is the worst academic performance in five years, with only 38% of students passing,” Obi said.
The former Anambra State Governor therefore expressed concern over the government’s spending priorities, criticizing the allocation of trillions of naira to infrastructural projects that he claims have little impact on measurable national development indices.
“At a time when education should be our most urgent national priority and most critical investment, we as leaders continue to spend trillions on infrastructure—most of which contribute little or nothing to development, and cannot be completed. Renovations and abandoned projects have become misplaced priorities, while foundational sectors like education remain in crisis,” he said.
He reiterated his longstanding position that education is the most powerful investment a country can make for its future, emphasizing the need to urgently refocus on building functional schools and ensuring access to quality learning for every Nigerian child.
“A nation that neglects its young people has no future. Our children deserve classrooms, not abandoned projects,” Obi added.
Obi called for national action saying: “To build a stronger, safer, and more prosperous nation, we must invest in our children, because when we fail them, we have failed our nation.”
