By Dr. Kodilichukwu Okelekwe

History will remember October 23, 2024 as the day Nigerian education changed course. On that day, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu reassigned Dr. Morufu Olatunji Alausa — a globally renowned Nephrologist, clinician, administrator and pro-democracy patriot — as the 31st Honourable Minister of Education of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What has followed is not reform as usual. It is a clinical, methodical, and compassionate revolution.

Guided by resolve, method, and a clinician’s respect for diagnosis before cure, Dr. Alausa unveiled the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) — a six-pillar masterplan to overhaul a struggling system. In less than two years, the results have been unprecedented.

1. Abolition of the 18-Year Admission Age Limit – Restoring Hope and Justice

One of his first and most humane acts was to reverse the draconian 18-year minimum admission age policy. With a single stroke of compassionate leadership, Dr. Alausa abolished a policy that threatened to destroy the dreams of millions of brilliant Nigerian youths. He declared that merit, ability, and readiness — not an arbitrary calendar — should determine a child’s future. That decision was celebrated in every home, every JAMB centre, and every secondary school as a victory for common sense, equity, and the Nigerian child.

2. Expansion of Tertiary Capacity:

For decades, Nigeria’s tertiary admission ceiling was a national bottleneck — barely 750,000 placements for over 2 million qualified candidates. Under Dr. Alausa, that ceiling was shattered. Through aggressive expansion of carrying capacity, strategic resource optimization, establishment of new programmes, distance learning expansion, and the reconstitution and empowerment of Governing Councils of federal tertiary institutions, annual admission has crossed the historic 1 million mark for the first time in the history of Nigeria. No Minister has ever achieved this scale of access.

3. Student Loan and Welfare Support – NELFUND: The Great Equalizer

The minister described the new student loan scheme as one of the administration’s most significant achievements. Under his stewardship, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has become a living reality — providing interest-free loans to students in public universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.

What was once a manifesto promise is now food on a student’s table, rent paid, books bought, and dropout rates crashing. Coupled with the expanded National School Feeding Programme and student welfare interventions, Dr. Alausa has restored dignity to the Nigerian student.

4. TVET and Vocational Overhaul – From Certificates to Skills

Dr. Alausa understood that Nigeria does not just need more graduates; it needs skilled creators. His TVET revolution is unrivalled. He dismantled the old, theory-heavy vocational system and replaced it with a competency-based, industry-aligned, and globally competitive Technical and Vocational Education and Training framework. Workshops are being retooled, instructors retrained, and a new generation of welders, coders, fashion designers, renewable energy technicians and agro-processors are emerging — ready to build Nigeria’s industrial future.

5. Curriculum and Subject Rationalisation – Preparing for Tomorrow, Not Yesterday

Nigeria cannot continue using outdated learning frameworks while preparing children for a digital global economy. Dr. Alausa took that truth head-on. He launched a new basic education curriculum and a comprehensive subject rationalisation that reduced overload, eliminated redundancies, and infused critical thinking, entrepreneurship, coding, and values. This is curriculum with clarity, purpose, and future-relevance.

6. Digitalisation and Teacher Empowerment – The Twin Engine

The rollout of the Tertiary Institution Information Management System (TIIMS) has streamlined administration, while hundreds of smart schools and digital teaching platforms are already being deployed.

But Dr. Alausa’s greatest insight is this: “No education reform can succeed without placing teachers at its core”. He launched Nigeria’s first Artificial Intelligence in Education Task Force, alongside a nationwide training programme for 6,000 secondary school teachers to integrate AI in classrooms. He is revitalising the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, improving recruitment, training and motivation, and unveiled a far-reaching ICT Blueprint supported by the French Government and Agence Française de Développement (AFD) — described as one of the most ambitious efforts yet to transform tertiary education through technology.

7. Data and Repository Systems – Ending Governance by Guesswork

For years, education planning was blind. Dr. Alausa ended that era with the launch of the National Education Data System and the National Education Data Initiative (NEDI) — a platform designed to consolidate fragmented education statistics and support evidence-based planning. The Ministry is now using NEDI to track performance and cut learning poverty. This data-driven governance is unprecedented and has become the backbone of the Renewed Hope Agenda.

8. Global and National Recognition – Honour Well Deserved

Nigerians from all walks of life have hailed this transformation. In 2025, Dr. Alausa was conferred with the prestigious national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) by President Tinubu as part of Democracy Day celebrations — the only serving minister among 102 honourees, recognised for his contributions to Nigeria’s democratic journey and transformative education reforms.

In the same year, he emerged as Most Innovative Cabinet Minister of the Year 2025 at the Independent Newspapers Silver Jubilee Awards. These are not just awards; they are national testaments.

9. Transparency, Accountability and Unimpeachable Integrity – The Alausa Standard

In an era when public trust is scarce, Dr. Alausa has discharged his duties with unimpeachable integrity. Every loan under NELFUND is traceable. Every data point under NEDI is verifiable. Every council appointment, every smart school deployment, every kobo released is accounted for. He brought the ethics of a physician — do no harm, put the patient first, keep accurate records — into public service.

Conclusion: A Legacy Being Written in Gold

Dr. Tunji Alausa did not come to manage the Ministry of Education; he came to heal it. Like the brilliant kidney specialist he is, he diagnosed a chronically ill system, applied evidence-based treatment, and the patient — Nigeria’s education sector — is now standing, walking, and running.

The abolition of the 18-year limit gave back hope. The expansion to over 1 million admissions gave back access. NELFUND gave back opportunity. TVET gave back skills. Digitalisation gave back relevance. Data gave back truth. And integrity gave back trust.

This is unprecedented. This is unrivalled. This is record-breaking. This is the Alausa Era.

Dr. Kodilichukwu Okelekwe
2023 APC Senatorial Candidate for Anambra Central Senatorial District
Abuja
August 1, 2026

By Lanre Olagunju

When news broke that the children abducted from the Oriire Community had been rescued, it brought a collective sigh of relief across the country. For their families, the nightmare had finally ended. For the security personnel involved, it was the successful conclusion of what must have been days of painstaking intelligence gathering, operational planning and immense personal risk.

But as the celebrations subside, perhaps the more important question is not simply how the children were rescued, but what the operation tells us about the future of security in Nigeria.

For years, insecurity was viewed through institutional silos, with successful operations judged by which agency deserved the credit. Yet criminals do not distinguish between the police, the military or intelligence services; they exploit gaps between agencies, making the growing culture of inter-agency collaboration one of the most encouraging developments in Nigeria’s security architecture.

The Oriire operation is another reminder that collaboration is no longer optional. Intelligence-led policing is strongest when backed by military capabilities, inter-agency coordination and community support. As recent joint operations have shown, insecurity has become too complex for any single agency to tackle alone.

Equally commendable was what happened after the operation. Both the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force honoured officers who distinguished themselves while paying tribute to colleagues who made the ultimate sacrifice. Such moments remind us that behind every successful operation are men and women who risk everything in service to the nation. A country that expects such sacrifice must never fail to honour it.

It was therefore disappointing, though perhaps not surprising, that almost immediately after the rescue, some voices chose to dismiss the entire incident as staged. Healthy scepticism has an important place in every democracy. Public institutions should never be immune from scrutiny. But there is a moral line that should not be crossed.

To casually dismiss the trauma endured by abducted children, the agony experienced by their parents, and the sacrifice of officers who lost their lives is to trivialise human suffering for the sake of political commentary. Not every national tragedy should become fodder for conspiracy theories. Some moments demand empathy before opinion. Regardless of political persuasion, Nigerians should be able to agree that the lives lost in the line of duty and the pain endured by victims deserve far greater respect than careless speculation.

Yet even as the country celebrates this successful rescue, we should resist the temptation to mistake recovery for victory. Every successful rescue is commendable, but it is also evidence that criminals were able to strike in the first place. The true measure of an effective security system is not how efficiently it responds after an attack but how consistently it prevents attacks from occurring.

That is where Nigeria’s security conversation must now evolve. Preventive policing, supported by technology and intelligence, offers the most sustainable pathway forward. Around the world, law enforcement agencies increasingly rely on artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, geospatial intelligence, drones, digital forensics and integrated surveillance systems to detect threats before they materialise. Criminal networks have embraced technology with remarkable speed. Security institutions cannot afford to fight twenty-first-century crime with nineteenth-century methods.

This thinking is beginning to find expression within the Nigeria Police Force. Speaking at the Fifth United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit in New York earlier this month, Inspector-General of Police Tunji Disu, observed that while technology presents enormous opportunities through artificial intelligence, digital forensics and geospatial intelligence, it can never replace public trust. He also noted that criminals now exploit AI, encrypted communications and cyber-enabled platforms, making innovation an operational necessity.

That perspective is significant because it recognises two realities at once. First, technology is no longer an accessory to policing; it is becoming its backbone. Second, technology without trust, accountability and collaboration cannot produce lasting security. Public confidence remains the currency upon which effective policing depends.

The implication is clear. Nigeria does not simply need more security personnel; it needs smarter security systems. It needs deeper intelligence sharing among agencies, stronger partnerships with local communities, greater investment in surveillance and forensic capabilities, and the political will to sustain collaboration long after the headlines disappear. The success of joint operations should become the rule rather than the exception.

The children from Oriire are home. That is a victory worth celebrating. But the greater national success will come when our investments in collaboration, intelligence and technology make such rescues increasingly unnecessary. In security, the highest achievement is not responding brilliantly after tragedy. It is preventing tragedy from happening at all.

Lanre Olagunju wrote in from Abuja.

By Wole Olujobi

In the last few years, Dr Peter Obi of APGA, PDP, Labour Party, semi-SDP, ADC, PRP applicant and NDC, has desperately been jumping from one political party to the other over a consuming ambition to be elected as Nigeria’s President. As a rule and habit, Obi hates to build for a political habitation: his method is nomadic, usurping the structures of existing parties, and when crisis erupts, he bolts to join another party in a chain of defections never witnessed in the political history of Nigeria; the country that needs builders that can weather political and economic storms to build a virile, prosperous nation.
Never for him a leader that builds structures or nurtures a vision that attracts followership for a common agenda unlike other focused leaders that are faithful and loyal to their political persuasions to achieve their political dreams, as explained recently by a public analyst, journalist and scholar, Professor Okey Ikechukwu, in a television commentary.

According to him, a serious leader stays the course, builds and sustains solid structures and maintains faithful followership to succeed in politics, unlike what Obi is doing in his makeshift politics of expediency with no discernible vision and followership’s loyalty.

This is what Barry Avotu, the leader of “Obidient Movement” explained in a well-publicised televised press conference that he and other leaders formed the pro-Obi movement for a noble cause only for Dr Peter Obi to hijack the movement and impose his whims on the group, leading to the rejection and expulsion of Obi by the group.

Another Obi’s ally, Prince Kennedy Ahanotu and his group, also rejected Obi as their leader, declaring that Obi is not a builder of men while Obi’s former spokesman, Kenneth Okonkwo, declared that Obi runs a visionless politics of gambling for self-elevation.

Another albatross is Obi’s open support for IPOB in his condemnation of the Supreme Court judgment on the proscription of IPOB and its designation as a terrorist organisation, which has since stoked fears that Obi can leverage the Presidency to pursue ethnic agenda to break up Nigeria.

Critics argue that Obi is neck-deep in alleged Biafra nationalism so much so that when on behalf of Anambra State he deployed state money to invest in the International Breweries Limited, brewers of Hero beer, Obi allegedly ensured that Biafran insignia (logo) and colours (red, yellow, black and green) were deliberately chosen as the label of Hero Beer to foster a deep emotional connection with the Igbo people and send a message across the South East that he shared in the dream to divide Nigeria to ensure that Biafra becomes a sovereign nation. And this is clearly against the interest of the vast majority of innocent and hardworking Igbo people who are living and conducting their businesses peacefully among their compatriots across Nigeria!

This much former Borno Governor, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, explained in a Channels television interview when he said that Northerners understand that Obi’s agenda is to divide Nigeria and so they will never support or vote for Obi in his desperate agenda to divide the country through the instrumentality of presidential powers.
“This is why Obi, when he faces difficulty in getting the presidential ticket in one party, he moves to the other to get the ticket” Sheriff explained, adding that his burning agenda is to divide Nigeria through presidential powers and the North will never vote for him to help him divide the country.

Although Kwankwaso had sought to deflate Sheriff’s postulation quoting NNPP’s score in the 2023 presidential election, fact is that more than 70 percent of Kwankwaso’s loyalists in Kwankwasiyya Movement, including the current Kano Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, National and State Assembly members and all commissioners in Kano State have all defected to APC working for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Kwankwaso’s argument is also punctured by the reality of former Governor Ibrahim Shekarau’s massive bloc in Kano politics now working for APC.

Again, for painting the 2023 election as a religious and ethnic war, an average Muslim sees Obi as a man that will use his executive powers as President to advance religious and ethnic advantage in favour of Christians.

Another problem is Onitsha crisis in 2006 during which over 100 Northerners were reportedly killed and markets belonging to them burnt down. Reports suggested that when respected Northern Emirs offered to intervene to douse tensions, Obi as the governor allegedly refused to hold a peace meeting with them.


This fear of ethnic bias is also further reinforced by the recent alleged Obi’s manipulative conduct when the FCT chapter of the Arewa Consultative Forum Chairman, Alhaji Musa Aliyu, accused Dr Peter Obi of “demonstrating deep-seated bias against the Arewa community by working to overturn a delicate, mutually agreed zoning arrangement established to maintain regional balance in the nation’s capital”.

The group expressed shock that “despite these outcomes being the product of a transparent democratic process, high-level maneouvers are reportedly underway allegedly by Obi to substitute the name of Grema, the son of the Sarkin Hausawa of Abuja, with that of Uchenna Harris Okonkwo, a serving federal lawmaker from Anambra State who allegedly failed to secure a return ticket in his own home constituency”.


Another problem is his alleged opaque and cloudy approach to all issues. For example, during the 2023 presidential election, Obi was dubbed the “soapbox champion of beautiful lies” on account of dexterity in cooking alleged fraudulent opinion polls by discredited pollsters that placed Obi above far more popular and credible candidates. Recklessly, opinion polls, which ought to guide voting behaviour as in the Western world, were turned into a bazaar and casino for political manipulations for fraudulent advantage.

For instance, a discredited polls agency, (the NOI Polls) declared that Obi maintained “a solid overall lead” ahead of Tinubu, PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar; and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in the 2023 presidential poll. It all turned out a hoax allegedly choreographed by Obi in alleged fraudulent device to deceive Nigerians into supporting him, as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu roundly trounced Obi and other candidates in the results that emerged in the presidential poll.

This poll information analysis company had earlier falsely predicted victory for Prof. Kolapo Olusola Eleka of PDP in the July 14, 2018 Ekiti State governorship election, which Dr Kayode Fayemi of APC resoundingly won, just like NOI Polls failed in 2015 when it falsely predicted that President Goodluck Jonathan had over 70 per cent chance above APC candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, who NOI had earlier rated as the fourth in the ballot, but who eventually emerged as the winner with a wide margin in the presidential contest.

In its polls before presidential primaries in 2014, NOI had rated Buhari fourth behind Jonathan, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos, in that order, among other prospective presidential aspirants, even though Fasola never told anyone he would contest the election. In the end, Buhari that NOI had rated number four roundly trounced Jonathan to win the 2015 presidential election, which NOI had predicted Jonathan to win through dishonest cyber manipulations that devalue Nigerians’ worth as decent human beings.

It is in this context that Dr Peter Obi should be put on the scale to assess him from the standpoint of integrity and trustworthiness, before Nigerians, again, gamble with their lives for Obi’s leadership of the country.

In 2013, Obi was quoted in the media as saying: “I will not only remain in APGA, I will also die for APGA.” But when he later left APGA, he refused to commit suicide.

“The day I leave APGA, which I have made up my mind never to leave, I will quit politics.” But after he left APGA, he became more active in politics desperately angling to become president.
“Igbos don’t need APGA in Aso Rock for them to achieve their aims.” (But he started nursing presidential ambition to live in Aso Rock since his days in APGA. Or if we may ask; what exactly are the Igbo’s aims they want to achieve without living in the Aso Rock? Perhaps Ali Modu Sheriff has provided the answer.)

“Anambarians should not vote for PDP. PDP is a party alien to the Igbo. PDP is synonymous with destruction,” but Obi later defected to the same destructive and evil PDP.

At the Chatham House in London in 2023, Obi deceived the entire world when he lied and lied and even lied against himself to feign competence.

According to the Premium Times report on Chatham House event at the time, Obi, in order to paint APC-led Federal Government black, claimed that apart from Venezuela, Nigeria was at that time the only OPEC nation that could not meet its oil production quota. But verification from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) showed that from September to December 2022, none of the OPEC member countries had met its production quota.


Obi also lied that Nigeria had about 60 per cent of youth unemployment, whereas NBS dashboard showed that Nigeria had 42.5 per cent youth unemployment.

He claimed there were 20 million out-of-school children in Northern Nigeria alone, whereas the total out-of-school children in the entire Nigeria was 20 million, according to the global data on out-of-school children published in September 2022 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Obi claimed that Nigeria’s GDP per capita in 2015 was $2,550, eventhough World Bank’s data put it at $2,679.

He also lied that Nigeria’s total health budget was below N2.5 trillion from 2015 – 2021, whereas it was N2.50 trillion.
Obi also lied: “As of 2015, Nigeria’s total debt stock is about N15 trillion. But today (January 2023), with CBN ways and means, we owe over N75 trillion.” But Nigeria’s public debt in December 2015 stood at N12.6 trillion, according to official data from Nigeria’s Debt Management Office. Nigeria’s total debts combined with CBN’s loans was N67.8 trillion, not over N75 trillion, as falsely claimed by Obi at the Chatham House.

Also, at one of his campaign stops while canvassing for votes in 2023, Obi was quoted as saying: “I signed at least 5,000 certificates of occupancy while in office as governor. If you find one piece of land allocated to me, directly or indirectly, I will stop campaigning for President.”

Two days after he falsely made that claim, social media was awash with a photocopy of alleged land allocation approval in alleged favour of Obi by the Anambra State Housing Development Corporation and the approval to the alleged beneficiary was addressed to him as the Executive Governor of Anambra State. After that revelation to expose his lie, Obi kept sealed lips.

The latest stunt was the airport incident which Obi alleged was a plot to kill him to prevent him from running for the nation’s Presidency. He never told Nigerians that his disorderly conduct at the airport over illegal parking at the restricted area caused confrontation between him and the airport officials. Instead, he chose Adolf Hitler’s method in his dangerous lies to lie that government was after his life and businesses. Nigerians should therefore not be surprised if in the next few days rabid Obi’s supporters set up fake killer gangs in choreographed attacks to kill Obi in order to discredit Tinubu to stoke public rebellion against his government for sympathy, resulting in setting off a chain of reactions to stoke violence and create opportunity to widen pro-Biafra agitations through recklessly seditious acts. It is just gratifying that the close circuit television footage of the incident proved that Obi is a shameless, heartless and incorrigible liar.

Up till now, Obi has not explained to Anambra people the impropriety in his alleged involvement in alleged criminal conspiracy in the famed Pandora Files where secret public assets allegedly cornered in Anambra were held overseas allegedly in his family’s favour as if weilding power is a legal way to illegally corner public assets.

The electoral process ought not to be a call to trust the leaders; it is all about seen leaders as trustworthy and a call for leaders to be more trustworthy, for the most important aspect of leadership is integrity, otherwise when things go bad, lack of trust in leadership often gets people killed.

For instance, the 36th American President Lyndon B. Johnson once lied to the Americans that led to the Vietnam War. President Johnson lied to the Americans about attacks by Vietnam on U.S. destroyer warships, the same ships that later launched the Vietnam War. The problem was that those attacks never actually happened at all. As a result of the alleged attacks, the American Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Johnson the power to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further attacks.”

This resulted in a brutal war in which America lost fortunes and unnecessary wastes on both sides.

The leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, borrowed from that philosophy too when he said: “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed,” even if that results in apocalypse like the World War, which Hitler stoked through lies. Such a leader is not only unfaithful to his oath of office, he is also dangerous to the society.

What Nigerians need is a honest leadership to chart a transparent course in tackling myriads of crises bedeviling the nation as Nigerians struggle to overcome the hardships imposed on them by long years of irresponsible leaderships that took Nigerians for granted through deceits in the ways they have been governed.

How long will Nigeria continue to recycle liars as government leaders at the time that honesty, trust, integrity and credibility in leadership are what the nation requires to weather the storms of the present disillusionment imposed by dishonest leadership?

All these are compounded by the embarrassing quality of Obi’s performance in public discourse at a time the nations of the world present their cerebral leaders to preside over their affairs.

Generally speaking, a leader who lies is dangerous to the lives of his followers and the larger society. Nigeria needs a competent and upright President; not an unmanageable, pathological, compulsive, dangerous and incorrigible liar, particularly now that NDC has sold out its presidential cake to the Annaniah and Saphira of the Nigerian politics.


* Olujobi, a journalist, who served as Deputy Director of Media and Communications in 2026 BAO Campaign Organisation, writes from Ado-Ekiti