The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, CON, has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has fulfilled almost 100 per cent of the promises he made during the 2023 presidential campaign, asserting that Nigeria is witnessing tangible changes under the administration.
Alausa stated this at the weekend in Abuja while receiving the outcomes of the 2025 Nigeria 2050: Child Foresight Analysis for Futures Literacy and Intergenerational Equity, a flagship initiative of the Anticipatory Governance and Foresight Capacity Programme of the Office of the Vice President, implemented with technical support from UNICEF.
The Child Foresight team was led to the minister’s office by its Director-General, Chris Ngwodo, and the Special Assistant on Special Duties to the Vice President, Mohammed Ahmed.
Alausa said the findings were particularly relevant to Nigeria because of its youthful population, noting that about 70 per cent of the country’s estimated 220 million people are below the age of 30.
He described the demographic profile as both an opportunity and an urgent responsibility, stressing the need to transform the youthful population into a demographic dividend through quality education, relevant skills, productive opportunities and long term planning.
The minister said the changes under Tinubu were not merely political rhetoric but were reflected in reforms and measurable outcomes, particularly in the education sector.
“I can assure you of that one fact because today we have a President who is leading the country, managing this country from the front, with the highest level of integrity, commitment, patriotism and determination to change the face of this country,” he said.
“And these are not just rhetorics we are hearing now. These are things we are seeing, with a lot of tangible benefits and tangible change in the country.”
According to him, three years into the administration, the country had moved beyond the uncertainty that previously characterised national development and was now focused on consolidating its gains while addressing areas requiring further attention.
“The country is not at a crossroads again. We have a lot of catching up to do,” he said.
Alausa said Tinubu’s commitment to education was evident in the support given to the Federal Ministry of Education to implement reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda, adding that education remained central to the administration’s ambition of moving Nigeria towards a $1 trillion economy.
He said the Nigerian Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) was driving reforms across the sector, with emphasis on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), STEM education, teacher quality, quality assurance, reducing the number of out-of-school children, education data and digitalisation.
The renewed focus on TVET, he added, was helping to change perceptions about technical education while creating pathways for young Nigerians to acquire practical skills, pursue entrepreneurship, secure employment and progress to higher levels of education.
“Skills are the present and the future,” the minister said, stressing that Nigeria could no longer afford an education system that failed to prepare young people for the demands of the modern economy.
He recalled that technical education had once played a major role in the country’s education system but suffered decades of neglect and declining public confidence. The Federal Government, he said, was now restoring vocational education to a central position because of its importance to employment, productivity and economic growth.
The minister also linked investments in medical education and professional training to efforts to address skills shortages contributing to the migration of Nigerian professionals, popularly known as “Japa.”
He said the government was expanding access to nursing education and increasing training capacity in existing teaching hospitals, federal medical centres and specialist hospitals rather than relying solely on the construction of new institutions.
The objective, he explained, was to enable more Nigerians to obtain quality professional training at home while developing a workforce capable of competing globally.
Alausa said the government was also adopting a data-driven approach to education planning, particularly in determining the actual number of out-of-school children.
He questioned long standing estimates of between 15 million and 17 million out-of-school children, saying the figures had been repeatedly cited without a sufficiently comprehensive household level assessment.
Emerging evidence from state level surveys, he said, suggested that the historical estimates could have significantly overstated the actual numbers.
He cited Kaduna State, where a household survey covering more than 90 per cent of households reportedly recorded fewer than 190,000 out-of-school children, compared with an earlier estimate of about 585,000.
He also referred to another Kaduna estimate of about 1.2 million children, which he said fell to fewer than 100,000 following a general household survey.
Jigawa State, he added, had similarly recorded substantial differences between existing estimates and the findings of its household assessment.
According to Alausa, reliable data would enable government to identify where children are out of school, understand the reasons for exclusion, target interventions and infrastructure more effectively, and monitor whether children who return to school remain enrolled.
He stressed, however, that any reduction in the national estimate would not diminish the urgency of the problem.
“Even if there’s significant reduction, any child out of school is still too many,” he said.
The minister disclosed that more than one million children had been moved from the streets into school nationally over the past two and a half years, while Jigawa State alone had reportedly enrolled more than 180,000 children in the last two years.
He said the next challenge was to sustain enrolment, keep children in school and prevent new cases of exclusion.
Alausa said the government was increasingly relying on digital systems to strengthen education planning, citing progress recorded in the 2026 Annual School Census through the digitised Nigerian Education Management Information System (NEMIS).
He disclosed that more than 56 per cent of public schools had entered their 2026 Annual School Census information, while 41 per cent of private schools had populated their records on the digital platform.
He described the participation as an important step towards improving planning and accountability in the education sector.
“Without data, you’re flying blind. Data will tell you everything,” he said.
According to him, the information being generated would help the ministry identify gaps in access and participation, monitor enrolment, plan infrastructure and assess the impact of interventions.
The minister also disclosed that a national assessment had been conducted to establish a baseline for literacy, numeracy and cognitive development among learners at the primary, junior secondary and senior secondary levels.
He said the assessment would provide a clearer picture of learning outcomes and enable government to measure the effectiveness of interventions over time.
Alausa said the data and reforms in the education sector were directly relevant to the Child Foresight Analysis, arguing that the future of Nigerian children could not be secured through projections alone.
He said the initiative offered an opportunity to incorporate long term thinking, systems thinking, adaptive innovation and youth participation into national planning while protecting the interests of future generations.
The minister commended the Office of the Vice President, the Office for Strategic Preparedness and Resilience (OSPRE) and UNICEF for supporting the initiative, describing it as an important tool for moving Nigeria from reactive governance towards anticipatory action.
He pledged that the Ministry of Education would work to align the findings with NESRI, particularly in future literacy, long term education planning, skills development, data systems and intergenerational equity.
Alausa urged stakeholders involved in the foresight programme to move beyond theoretical scenarios and link their findings to the reforms already taking place in education and other sectors.
He said the ultimate measure of progress would be whether Nigerian children and young people received better education, acquired relevant skills, secured productive opportunities and contributed meaningfully to national development.
“Nigeria has changed, and it has changed for good,” Alausa said.
The 2025 Nigeria 2050: Child Foresight Analysis for Futures Literacy and Intergenerational Equity is part of the Anticipatory Governance and Foresight Capacity Programme of the Office of the Vice President, with technical support from UNICEF. It examines the risks, opportunities and drivers likely to shape the lives of Nigerian children and young people towards 2050, with the goal of strengthening futures literacy, anticipatory governance and intergenerational equity in national planning.
