President Bola Tinubu assumed office with a promise to reform the education sector. In his Renewed Hope Agenda, candidate Tinubu promised to transform the sector to make education a driver of economic growth and national development. He promised to do this through increased budgetary allocation, expanded access to higher education, and developing a curriculum that suits emerging global best practices and socio-economic realities.
Two years into a four-year tenure, the Tinubu administration has had two education ministers, increased the education budget, introduced a student loan scheme, and recorded no nationwide university lecturers’ strike – a rarity in more than a generation.
While some stakeholders have hailed Mr Tinubu’s initiatives and expressed optimism about them, others have said the reforms are ‘anti-poor.’
“There is nothing that could be termed significant in the education sector with respect to the past and present administrations,” said Adeola Egbedokun, a former chairperson of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Chapter.
“Maybe the only ‘difference’ is the common, consistent insensitivity of the government.”
The Education sector Tinubu inherited
Mr Tinubu inherited a fragile education sector, in which university workers were fuming over the withholding of their salaries by the former administration of Muhammadu Buhari.
In 2022, workers shut down the universities over the government’s failure to implement agreements reached with them. While ASUU members downed tools for eight months, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) members were on strike for four months.
The Buhari administration adopted a ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy to withhold the workers’ salaries during the strike.
Meanwhile, the workers’ foundational grievances, which were the non-implementation and renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, had yet to be met.
At the basic education level, the challenges remained dilapidated infrastructure, underfunding, and a dearth of qualified teachers. At the same time, the number of out-of-school children continues to rise, with officials relying on estimated figures for the phenomenon.
A Wobbly Start
Mr Tinubu tried to ‘hit the ground running’ with reforms. Less than a month in office, he signed the Access to Higher Education Bill (2023), which provided the legal framework for student loans. He said the law would take off three months later. However, it took 10 months due to multiple postponements that amplified the voices of critics and opponents of student loans.
ASUU said a student loan would impoverish Nigerians and take university education out of the reach of the poor due to the introduction of tuition fees and hikes in other fees. The Nigerian government explained that universities would remain tuition-free and that students only pay sundry charges.
However, in 2023, almost all Nigerian universities increased their fees, most of them by more than 100 per cent, despite student protests. The increments preceded Mr Tinubu’s assumption of office. However, his removal of the petrol subsidy and devaluation of the naira worsened the impact.
Dissolution of Governing Councils
Mr Tinubu also dissolved the governing councils of the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. He failed to reconstitute the councils for almost a year, stirring disputes and stalling administrative activities in some universities.
Without a council, substantive heads for various institutions’ organs could not be appointed, nor could staff recruitment, as the council is the only body granted power by law to conduct these activities.
In fact, in some institutions, where the tenure of the vice-chancellors, rectors or provosts ended, the appointment of successors led to controversies and even industrial actions by workers. At the University of Abuja (UniAbuja), the local chapter of ASUU declared an indefinite strike after accusing the university administrators of encroaching on the territory of the governing council.
The UniAbuja ASUU accused the administrators of conducting recruitments, promotions, and initiating the process of appointing another vice-chancellor, roles reserved for the university council.
The Tinubu administration released a list of the governing councils only after ASUU gave a two-week ultimatum. However, the list was withdrawn after criticism that the then Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, violated the federal character provisions by appointing more persons of Adamawa State origin than other states, like Niger, which had just a few names on the list.
Education under Mamman
In August 2023, Mr Tinubu appointed Mr Mamman, a professor and former vice-chancellor of an Abuja-based private institution, Baze University, as education minister. He also appointed Yusuf Sununu, a former House of Representatives member, the Minister of State for Education.
Mr Mamman angered many Nigerians again when he directed tertiary institutions not to admit students under 18 during the 2024/2025 admission cycle. He gave the directive during a policy meeting between the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the heads of all tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Although he agreed that the institutions could admit candidates from 16 years, he asked that 18 be maintained from 2025.
He was also criticised for spearheading the breach of the admission quota by Baze University when he was the vice-chancellor before his ministerial appointment. The violation led to the Council of Legal Education, the regulatory body for law education in Nigeria, banning the university from admitting law students for five years.
Alausa in, Mamman Out
In October 2024, Mr Tinubu removed Mr Mamman in a cabinet reshuffle and redeployed Mr Sununu to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
The president then redeployed Tunji Alausa as education minister to replace Mr Mamman. Mr Alausa, a medical doctor, was the Minister of State for Health. Mr Tinubu appointed Suwaiba Ahmad, a professor of education, as the Minister of State for Education.
On his first day as education minister, Mr Alausa reversed Mr Mamman’s policy of 18 years as the minimum age for admissions to tertiary institutions.
National Education Sector Reform Initiative
Mr Alausa immediately launched the National Education Sector Reform Initiative (NESRI) with a six-point plan of promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medical Sciences (STEMM) education; reducing the number of out-of-school children in the country, enhancing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), advancing Girl-Child Education, Harnessing Data and Digitalisation and Strengthening Quality Assurance Mechanisms.
To promote transparency in public tertiary institutions, Mr Alausa mandated that they publish student population data, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), federal allocations, and grants received.
A survey by the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership earlier this year found that Nigerian universities, both public and private, are not transparent with their finances.
The researchers noted that requests made under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act were ignored by all the federal universities surveyed during the research.
Status of Out-of-School Children
Before President Tinubu assumed office, Nigeria was already grappling with out-of-school children estimated to be up to 20 million, according to UNESCO—more than half of them girls.
The situation has persisted for years and is deeply rooted in systemic challenges, including poverty, insecurity, poor infrastructure, and socio-cultural barriers to education, especially in Northern Nigeria.
As of May 2024, UNICEF reported the number had risen to 20 million due to economic hardship, displacement due to conflict and the continued inadequacy of public infrastructure.
Last year, the Nigerian government said it enrolled two million Almajiri children in Basic and Arabic Literacy Programmes. The then education minister, Mr Mamman, noted that reducing the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria was a primary focus of the Tinubu administration, assuring that before the end of 2024, many more out-of-school children would be brought back to acquire learning and skills.
Meanwhile, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) said over 20,000 new schools and 907,769 classrooms were needed to absorb the existing out-of-school population.
In response, the government allocated N50 billion in the 2025 budget for “Support for out-of-school Children project under the Economic Recovery Growth plan”.
The minister, Mr Alausa, also said the government would commit to reconstructing 195,000 dilapidated classrooms and constructing an additional 7,000 by 2027.
Students Loan
Mr Tinubu’s most important policy in the education sector to date is the student loan scheme.
A year after the Nigerian Educational Loan Fund (NELFUND) began receiving applications, it has received over 600,000 applications and approved over 550,000. NELFUND paid the students’ school fees and offered them a monthly stipend of N20,000. The school fees are disbursed directly to the institutions.
The loans are repayable two years after graduation, according to the Access to Higher Education Act.
“The NELFUND initiative is a good one,” said Samson Adeyemi, the Public Relations Officer of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).
Mr Adeyemi said the initiative has created a new direction for students to focus more on their education. He said one cause of student failure is students leaving their campuses to work to meet the financial expectations of their academics.
“Now, you can concentrate on your studies and apply for NELFUND. Later, when you graduate with a good grade, you can secure a job and repay the loans,” he added.
He also commended the government and the academic unions for the smooth academic session experienced in the universities in the last two years, noting that students now feel like they can study and graduate from the universities as due.
Mr Adeyemi hoped there would be additional initiatives and reforms to improve the system for Nigerian students.
Increased spending
In 2024 and 2025, the Tinubu administration increased allocations for the education sector. However, this remains below the 15-20 per cent recommendation by the global education agency UNESCO.
Mr Tinubu allocated N1.54 trillion, representing 6.39 per cent of the total budget, for the education sector in 2024.
However, more than 70 per cent of the budget was for salaries and other overhead expenditures. Less than 25 per cent was for capital projects.
This year, the education sector gets 3.52 trillion, representing 7.35 per cent of the N47.90 trillion federal government budget.
Meanwhile, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), an intervention agency for tertiary institutions, received N683 billion in disbursements for 2024, more than twice the N320 billion it received in the previous year.
This year, the Fund received over N700 billion to disburse to public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
The education minister, Mr Alausa, also said in January that TETFund had been directed not to fund new projects from the 2025 disbursements. He said the 2025 disbursements will be for the rehabilitation of existing facilities in the tertiary institutions.
More institutions amidst underfunding
Despite the increased spending, Nigerian universities remain underfunded. Yet, Mr Tinubu’s government has continued to establish more.
The administration has established at least 12 tertiary institutions, including eight universities, two polytechnics and two colleges of education.
This is even as most public universities struggled to pay their electricity bills last year. The Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and the University of Benin (UNIBEN) were temporarily disconnected from the electricity grid over failure to pay accrued bills.
Though ABU said it spent about N1 billion on electricity bills between January and November 2024, the total overhead cost allocated to it in the 2025 budget was N511 million.
Overhead costs cover electricity bills, water and other expenses for the day-to-day running of the university.
The administration proposed a N36.7 billion budget for ABU, of which N34 billion is allocated for salaries and wages and N2.1 billion for capital projects.
A further review of the budget revealed that UNILAG has N510 million allocated for overhead costs and N502 million for the University of Ibadan (UI).
Mr Tinubu proposed a total spending of N27.8 billion for the University of Ibadan, of which N2.1 billion was allocated for capital expenditures.
For UNILAG, the president proposed N24.5 billion, of which N2.1 billion was allocated for capital expenditure.
Earned Academic Allowance Releases
Last month, the government released N50 billion to pay earned academic allowances to academic and non-academic workers.
However, some university-based unions have protested both the sharing ratio of the N50 billion and what they termed exclusion in the negotiation process that led to the release of the funds.
The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) noted that the disbursement disproportionately favours the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
According to them, 70 per cent of the released funds go to ASUU, while the remaining unions—the non-academic staff—share the remaining 30 per cent.
“Non-teaching staff of Nigerian universities are not second-class citizens but are critical stakeholders who contribute immensely to the day-to-day functionality, administrative efficiency, research excellence, technical operations, and overall development of the Nigerian universities system.
“A harmonious and productive academic environment can only be achieved when all stakeholders are treated with respect, dignity, equity, and fairness,” the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of SSANU and NASU said about the sharing formula.
Disputes with university workers remain
Despite the smooth academic calendar in the universities in the last two years, a rarity since 1999, the Tinubu administration has yet to fully address the demands of the unions, chief of which is the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement. The failure to meet these demands risks pushing the union into downing tools again.
ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAAT signed separate agreements with the Nigerian government in 2009, which were to be reviewed periodically.
However, this has not happened in over a decade, resulting in multiple industrial actions. ASUU has had four renegotiation committees since 2017. The government failed to implement the renegotiated agreements, resulting in industrial actions by the union in 2018, 2020 and 2022.
Last October, the then education minister, Mr Mamman, inaugurated the fourth renegotiation efforts led by Yayale Ahmed, the pro-chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Wale Babalakin, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and the then-pro-chancellor of the University of Lagos, led the government-constituted renegotiation team from 2017 until his resignation in 2020.
In 2021, Munzali Jibril, an emeritus professor of English and then pro-chancellor for the Federal University, Lafia, Nasarawa State, took over. With him, the negotiation was relatively smooth as the committee turned in a draft agreement in three months, in May 2021. But the government did not sign or implement the agreement.
When the union embarked on another nationwide strike in 2022, the government constituted yet another committee – headed by the late Nimi Briggs, an emeritus professor. The Briggs-led committee also renegotiated the 2009 agreement and submitted a draft to the government in June 2022.
It was never signed, forcing the 2022 strike action to last until October when an Industrial Court asked the ASUU to suspend the strike after a suit was instituted against the union by the federal government.
Just last week, ASUU President Chris Piwuna decried the slow pace of the negotiations, which have stalled since December.
According to Mr Piwuna, a professor of medicine, the government’s implementation of the agreements has been discouraging.
He listed the unmet demands, which include the conclusion of the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, the release of withheld three-and-a-half months’ salaries, unpaid salaries for staff on sabbatical, part-time, and adjunct appointments due to the application of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), and the release of outstanding third-party deductions such as check-off dues and cooperative contributions.
ASUU also said the government failed to release funds for the revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances and the proliferation of universities.
Stakeholders criticise policies
Adeola Egbedokun, a former chairperson of ASUU at OAU, Ile-Ife, said the sector has not witnessed significant progress in the last two years.
However, he is unhappy that the government continues establishing more tertiary institutions while the existing ones are not properly funded.
“It is not only unfortunate, but equally unwise to increase numbers when funding is not ‘available’ for the existing. The government is only trying to create some ‘crisis centres’ around the country,” he said.
Francis Nwapa, the national coordinator of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), criticised the hike in school fees, describing it as the commercialisation of education.
Mr Nwapa said the student loan scheme has only legitimised increasing school fees by the tertiary institutions.
He described Mr Tinubu’s government as a ‘full-fledged capitalist’ that does not believe in funding education as a social service for Nigerians.
“If you study the student loan scheme, you find it is to cover the tuition fee. Nigerian students, we were never at any time paying for tuition fees. Tuition was introduced through the back door,” he said.
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