One Youth Global has raised fresh alarm over Nigeria’s deepening social crisis, saying more than 120 million people are living in extreme poverty while over 18 million children remain out of school.
The organisation called on the administration of President Bola Tinubu to adopt urgent and practical policies to expand access to education, improve school infrastructure, and reward academic excellence.
The President of One Youth Global, Mr. Uchechukwu Agbo, who made the call, said the country must treat the education crisis as a national emergency.
“Currently, over 18 million children are still out of school in Nigeria. This is a state of emergency,” he said.
“For the nation to move forward, the Federal Government needs to do more to ensure that more young people enrol, stay through, and graduate from schools across Nigeria.”
He also called for a major review of the nation’s curriculum, arguing that young people must be equipped with practical knowledge and problem-solving skills relevant to the modern world.
“As we work to promote enrolment and excellence in our school system, I think we also need to review our curricula to meet 21st-century needs,” he said.
“Our young people need to be empowered with the right knowledge. We need to promote excellence in terms of creating actionable solutions to societal problems, such that the question shifts from what would you want to be when you grow up to which problem would you want to solve when you grow up.”
On the welfare of teachers, Agbo said poor remuneration was undermining the profession and discouraging capable people from entering it.
“There seems to be a dynamic where only people who are not able to get jobs in other places get to become teachers these days because teachers are so poorly paid,” he said. “If we are to promote excellence, we need to pay our teachers better.”
He further urged Nigerians in the diaspora to invest in education in their home communities, insisting that the government alone could not fix the problem.
“Reshaping our education ecosystem cannot be done by the government alone,” he said. “Those who have travelled should look back and ensure that they invest in the educational sector of their respective communities so that more people can go to school.”
Agbo linked the education crisis to insecurity, noting that a large proportion of out-of-school children are in northern Nigeria, where violence is most prevalent.
“Because I think that’s one of the easiest ways to cut down on crime,” he said. “Over 70 per cent of that number live in northern Nigeria, where the incidence of terrorism is highest within the country. This tells a story of a natural nexus between low literacy and insecurity. So the more educated the people are, the less incidence of insecurity you see in that environment.”
He also called on governments at all levels to urgently equip schools with modern learning facilities, especially laboratories and libraries.
“Our schools are very, very under-equipped,” Agbo said. “The average science student in Nigeria knows a lot about theory.
“They know very little about practicals, and that’s basically because the schools are dilapidated. They don’t have equipment to run practicals.”
He added that meaningful reform would require deliberate investment in public schools across the country.
“University labs need to be equipped. Secondary school labs need to be equipped. Books need to be put in the libraries.
“A number of government-owned primary and secondary schools in Nigeria do not have libraries,” he stated.
