When General Olusegun Obasanjo assumed office in 1976 following the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed, Nigeria was already set on a path to transition to civilian rule in 1979. While that historic shift was beyond his control, Obasanjo identified two critical issues to define his legacy as military Head of State: food security and education.

To address food security, he launched the Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) programme, coincidentally sharing initials with his later private venture, Obasanjo Farms Nigeria. On education, he introduced the Universal Primary Education (UPE) scheme in 1976.

Though the UPE was ambitious, it faced resistance from traditional and religious leaders in parts of the country who opposed Western-style education, particularly for the girl-child. With only three and a half years in power, Obasanjo’s military administration could not fully implement the programme. The subsequent civilian government under President Shehu Shagari struggled with corruption and economic decline, leaving UPE to falter.

When Obasanjo returned as civilian president in 1999, he once again confronted Nigeria’s education crisis. In 2004, he launched the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme, making nine years of basic education compulsory for all Nigerian children. By 2006, he unveiled a National Policy on Education, but alarming statistics showed nearly 20 million children were still out of school.

Education challenges persisted under later governments. In 2016, former Education Minister Adamu Adamu introduced the Education for Change: A Ministerial Strategic Plan (MSP 2016-2019), targeting out-of-school children (OOSC) and mass illiteracy. The plan estimated 10.5 million OOSC, though President Muhammadu Buhari later raised the figure to 13.2 million. The ambitious strategy aimed to cut illiteracy rates by half by 2019, but many of its proposals—including recruiting 170,000 instructors—were never fully realized.

Today, the situation has worsened. Former President Obasanjo recently revealed that Nigeria now has nearly 24 million out-of-school children—almost double the figure from a decade ago. He warned that this population risks becoming “the recruiting ground for the Boko Haram of tomorrow.”

Despite the gravity of the crisis, many Nigerians remain unaware of who the current Minister of Education is, let alone their policies. Analysts argue that without coherent national strategies and firm political commitment, Nigeria’s education sector risks further decline, with dangerous implications for national security.