Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described the recent increase in fees for Federal Unity Colleges and the reported approval of a uniform ₦50,000 examination fee for WAEC and NECO candidates from 2027 as cruel, economically insensitive, and fundamentally incompatible with the government’s constitutional responsibility to make education accessible to every Nigerian child.

Reacting to the development on Sunday through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku condemned the Federal Government’s continued escalation of the cost of public education.

The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) said it is unconscionable that at a time when Nigerian families are battling record inflation, soaring food prices, rising transportation costs, crippling electricity tariffs, stagnant incomes and widespread unemployment, the Tinubu administration has chosen to make education even more expensive.

He noted that education remains the greatest instrument of social mobility and the surest pathway out of poverty for millions of children from humble backgrounds.

According to him, every additional financial burden imposed on parents translates into another child being denied the opportunity to learn, dream, and contribute meaningfully to society.

Atiku therefore called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately reverse the increase in Unity School fees and the proposed ₦50,000 WAEC and NECO examination fee and convene an urgent stakeholders’ dialogue on sustainable financing for public education.

He urged the Federal Government to invest more in public schools, strengthen educational infrastructure, recruit more qualified teachers, expand the carrying capacity of tertiary institutions, and ensure that no Nigerian child is denied education because of poverty.

“By the grace of Almighty God, I remain confident that Nigerians will reject policies that punish their children and make education the exclusive preserve of those who can afford it. The African Democratic Congress is committed to restoring education as a public good, not a privilege. An ADC-led government will not permit the implementation of this unjust and punitive increase in examination fees. Instead, we shall reverse policies that place education beyond the reach of ordinary families, expand access to quality education at every level, increase the carrying capacity of our tertiary institutions, and ensure that every Nigerian child, regardless of background, has a fair opportunity to learn, excel and fulfil his or her God-given potential.”

Atiku argued that education should never become another avenue through which citizens are made to bear the cost of government policy failures.

“No nation has ever taxed its way into educational excellence. Countries that aspire to economic greatness invest more—not less—in education during difficult times because they understand that human capital is the engine of sustainable development. Nigeria cannot build a globally competitive economy while systematically pricing millions of its children out of classrooms.”

He said the administration’s economic choices reveal a troubling pattern in which the burden of governance is repeatedly transferred to ordinary Nigerians.

“When families are being asked to pay more for food, more for transportation, more for electricity, more for healthcare and now significantly more for education, government cannot honestly claim to be protecting the vulnerable. Reform without compassion becomes punishment.”

“A government that genuinely believes in the future of its people does not erect financial barriers between children and education. It removes them. Education is not a privilege reserved for the wealthy; it is the birthright of every Nigerian child and the foundation upon which prosperous nations are built.”

Atiku described the latest decisions as particularly alarming because they come against the backdrop of Nigeria’s worsening education crisis.

“Nigeria already bears the painful distinction of having one of the largest populations of out-of-school children in the world. Depending on the methodology and age group measured, between 10.5 million and about 15 million Nigerian children and young people are already outside the classroom. Any government confronted with such a national emergency should be investing aggressively to bring these children back into school. Instead, this administration is choosing policies that will inevitably swell those numbers.”

He warned that increasing fees in Federal Unity Colleges while imposing a significantly higher cost on WAEC and NECO examinations would disproportionately affect children from poor and middle-income families whose parents are already making impossible choices between food, healthcare, transportation, and education.

“The consequences of these policies extend far beyond school gates. Every child priced out of education today becomes tomorrow’s victim of unemployment, poverty, child labour, criminal exploitation, drug abuse or insecurity. Nations do not become prosperous by making education more expensive; they prosper by making education more accessible.”

The former Vice President said the recent increase in WAEC and NECO examination fees represents far more than another financial burden on parents.

“It is a systemic filter that will inevitably restrict access to tertiary education for thousands of indigent but academically qualified Nigerian students. For many children from low-income families, the journey to university does not end at the admission gate—it is terminated long before then by the inability to afford the qualifying examinations that determine their future.”

He said the contradiction becomes even more glaring when viewed against the reality of Nigeria’s tertiary education system.

“Instead of investing massively in expanding lecture theatres, laboratories, hostels, libraries, and other critical infrastructure to boost the carrying capacity of our public universities, this administration is making access to education even more difficult. Today, Nigerian universities can admit only about 500,000 to 700,000 students annually, even though more than two million young Nigerians seek admission every year. The inevitable consequence is that well over one million qualified candidates are denied university admission annually—not because they lack the merit or the desire to learn—but because available spaces fall far below national demand. Rather than addressing this structural deficit by expanding infrastructure and increasing admission capacity, the government is effectively constricting access even further through higher Unity School fees and the proposed ₦50,000 WAEC and NECO examination fees.

“The result is a cruel double punishment: first, millions of qualified young Nigerians cannot secure admission because there are insufficient spaces; second, many will now be priced out of even competing for those limited spaces. That is not educational reform; it is the systematic rationing of opportunity and the gradual exclusion of the children of the poor from the promise of higher education.”

Atiku said the irony in the administration’s education policy is impossible to ignore.

“The same administration whose policies are progressively narrowing access to public tertiary education continues to project the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) as one of its flagship achievements. Yet, a university loan offers little comfort to a child who has already been priced out of secondary education or cannot afford the qualifying examination required to secure admission. A government cannot credibly claim to be expanding access to higher education while simultaneously erecting financial barriers that prevent millions of young Nigerians from ever reaching the university gates.”

He added that, in the view of many Nigerians, NELFUND has yet to address the structural barriers confronting access to education.

“Genuine educational reform begins by making education affordable from the primary and secondary levels, expanding the carrying capacity of our tertiary institutions, and ensuring that poverty never becomes the reason a child is denied the opportunity to learn. A government that truly believes in education invests in classrooms before it invests in loans.”

tribuneonlineng.com

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