Former presidential candidate and Labour Party leader, Peter Obi, has issued a scathing critique of Nigerias education system, calling the sectors current state a crisis of great magnitude and urging national leaders to prioritize education as the most crucial investment in the countrys future.
In a strongly worded statement posted on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle on Thursday, Obi lamented the state of basic education in the country, referencing recent revelations by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) that over 20 million Nigerian children are out of school, and a majority of those enrolled are not receiving functional education.
These scary statistics were also mirrored by WAEC, Obi noted, referencing the West African Examinations Councils (WAEC) confirmation that only 38% ofcandidates passed the 2025 WASSCE, marking the worst academic performance in five years.
Obi described the current approach to national development as dangerously misaligned with the countrys most urgent needs, accusing successive governments of prioritizing trillions on infrastructure and renovations over functional investments in education.
At a time when education should be our most urgent national priority and most critical investment, he wrote, we as leaders continue to spend trillions on infrastructures, most of which contribute little or nothing to the measurable development index.
He further criticized ongoing capital projects that, according to him, neither improve livelihoods nor translate to human development, while classrooms remain dilapidated, underfunded, or entirely absent in many parts of the country.
Echoing global consensus on education as a cornerstone of national development, Obi urged the federal and state governments to urgently redirect their focus towards building our national human capital. He called for quality, functional schools and inclusive access to learning for every Nigerian child, emphasizing that a nation that neglects its youth has no future.
Our children deserve classrooms, not abandoned projects, he declared, adding that 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.
Obis remarks come amid growing public anxiety over Nigerias declining education standards. The UBEC report highlighted not just the sheer number of out-of-school children, but also widespread illiteracy and poor comprehension among those in school, a phenomenon experts refer to as schooling without learning.
This was compounded by WAECs recent results, which showed a steady erosion of academic performance in core subjects like Mathematics and English.
