*Photo: President Bola Tinubu *
Nigeria’s education budget has surged from ₦1.54 trillion in 2023 to ₦3.52 trillion in 2025, a remarkable fiscal leap that Vice President Kashim Shettima described as evidence of the administration’s unwavering commitment to human capital development. At first glance, this is a commendable achievement. But as my Yoruba people say, “Aláǹgbá tó jábọ́ lórí ìrókò, ó ní bí ẹnìkan ò yin òun, òun á yin ara òun”, when a lizard falls from a high wall and finds no one to applaud it, it nods to praise itself.
This proverb captures the spirit of the Vice President’s announcement. A larger education budget is good news, but when measured against global standards, particularly UNICEF’s recommended allocation of 15–20 percent of national budgets to education, the celebration becomes premature. Nigeria still allocates barely 10 percent to a sector that is supposed to power its future.
The reality is sobering. Despite this funding increase, Nigeria remains home to almost 20 million out-of-school children, the highest figure in the world, with the North-West and North-East carrying the heaviest burden. Learning poverty is even more alarming: more than 45 million Nigerian children aged seven to fourteen cannot read a simple sentence. This is not merely a statistic; it is a national emergency. It is a crisis that demands not applause, but accelerated action. If Nigeria is serious about transforming its fortunes in this rapidly changing algorithmic age dominated by artificial intelligence, automation and knowledge economies, education must become the country’s number one priority for the next decade.
While the budget increase suggests progress, the deeper problem lies in the persistent lethargy that characterises federal, state and local government engagement with education. Each tier of government has contributed, in varying degrees, to the weakened state of Nigeria’s classrooms. The Federal Government often produces commendable policies but implements them inconsistently. State governments routinely underfund education, fail to access UBEC grants, and neglect teacher training and school maintenance. Local governments, constitutionally responsible for primary education, have all but abandoned infrastructural upkeep and school security. The combined effect is a system stretched thin, failing millions of learners every day.
The Vice President was right to declare the out-of-school children crisis an emergency. Yet an emergency without emergency-level action remains rhetorical. What Nigeria requires is a 10-year national education emergency plan that addresses core structural issues and channels sustained investment into teaching, infrastructure, curriculum modernisation and digital learning access. This level of commitment is not optional if the nation hopes to remain competitive in a world reshaped by artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics and digital value chains.
Teacher quality remains the most critical weakness in the Nigerian education system. Global evidence shows that no system can outperform the quality of its teachers. Yet Nigerian teachers continue to struggle with low pay, poor working conditions, limited digital literacy, outdated training and minimal career growth opportunities. This situation sharply contrasts with nations like Finland, Singapore and South Korea where teachers are highly respected, rigorously trained and treated as essential national assets. Nigeria must urgently elevate teacher professionalism through licensing reforms, digital competency training, better welfare packages and the establishment of national teacher academies that meet global standards.
Infrastructure remains another major stumbling block. Across thousands of Nigerian schools, classrooms lack roofs, chairs, laboratories, toilets, ventilation and electricity. Many classrooms accommodate over a hundred pupils. The absence of digital tools hampers modern learning. In such environments, even the most dedicated teachers cannot deliver meaningful education. Nigeria must therefore establish a national minimum infrastructure standard for all schools, supported by aggressive investment in modern classrooms, ICT laboratories, water and sanitation facilities, and solar-powered energy solutions that keep schools functional regardless of local grid challenges.
Security is another pillar of learning that remains fragile. Despite the multi-billion-naira Safe Schools Initiative, many children in the North-East and North-West still face threats of kidnapping and insurgency. Fear continues to erode school attendance and enrolment. A functional Safe Schools strategy must move from policy to practice, involving community-based security structures, early-warning systems, trained school safety officers, perimeter fencing, surveillance tools and psychosocial support for traumatised learners. School security cannot remain optional; it is central to national stability and future economic growth.
Reforms within the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) are promising but require stronger enforcement. Many states still fail to access UBEC funds because they cannot meet counterpart funding requirements. The revised guidelines, which emphasise monitoring, teacher development and school grading, can only succeed when states treat them as mandatory rather than discretionary. Nigeria must consider legal provisions compelling states to access and transparently utilise UBEC grants, penalising failures that jeopardise children’s futures.
Higher education must also evolve beyond certificate production to become a driver of national development. Globally competitive nations have universities that function as engines of innovation, research and industry collaboration. In South Korea, universities work hand-in-hand with Samsung, LG and Hyundai to advance engineering and technology. In Finland, universities anchor national R&D ecosystems. In Singapore, NUS and NTU power the country’s multi-billion-dollar innovation economy. In the United States, institutions like MIT and Stanford catalysed Silicon Valley. For Nigeria, a genuine transformation requires universities to build strong links with industry, invest in research commercialisation, foster start-ups and develop global partnerships that bring in expertise, funding and innovation. Without this shift, Nigeria’s higher education system will remain disconnected from the nation’s economic aspirations.
For Nigeria to reverse decades of educational decline, the nation must take bold steps, especially by committing to allocate a minimum of 15–20 percent of its budget to education at both federal and state levels. This must be accompanied by a clear strategy that focuses on digital learning access, infrastructure renewal, teacher development, improved governance and transparent financing mechanisms. The country must also reform local government education responsibilities by strengthening administrative capacity, improving funding flows and mandating school maintenance and security.
We are living in a global era where education is no longer a social service alone; it is a competitive advantage. Nations that thrive in this algorithmic age will be those that invest aggressively in the minds of their citizens. Nigeria cannot continue to trail behind. Twenty million out-of-school children and forty-five million children unable to read by age ten represent not just a crisis of today but a catastrophe for tomorrow if left unattended.
Nigeria is at a crossroads. The increased budget is a step forward, but it is not enough to alter the country’s trajectory. If Nigeria truly believes that “nothing threatens a civilisation more than an uneducated generation,” then education must not only be funded—it must be prioritised above all other sectors for the next decade. The country must invest not for applause, but for survival; not for political credit, but for national rebirth; not for incremental change, but for transformational impact.
The future of Nigeria depends entirely on what happens in its classrooms. In this digital era that is reshaping every aspect of human life, the nations that will rise are those that choose to educate their children comprehensively, creatively and consistently. Nigeria must make that choice now. The next ten years will determine whether Nigeria grows into a competitive knowledge economy or remains stagnant. And the decisive factor will be education.