Foreign Education and the Contradictions of Nigeria’s Modern Leadership

Late literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe, in his influential book “The Trouble with Nigeria” identified failure of leadership as the singular core problem of Nigeria. Achebe in his 68-page book first published in 1983 by Fourth Dimension Publishers argued that nothing is wrong with the Nigerian land, air, climate or the average character of the Nigerian citizens, leaders are unwilling or unable to rise to the responsibility of true leadership.

The author, at the time of writing the book, identified the major problems of Nigerian leadership as bad leadership, corruption, tribalism and nepotism, cult of mediocrity, lack of patriotism and indiscipline. The book predicted the December 1983 military coup that ended Nigeria’s Second Republic.

This was followed by an aborted Third Republic in Nigeria that ended with the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election by military junta, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd.) MKO Abiola was widely believed to have won the election that was annulled. The country later recovered from the post-election crisis and moved forward.

Achebe had identified the leadership failures 43 years ago, and they are still very much rampant today, even after 27 years of uninterrupted democracy since the beginning of the present Fourth Republic in 1999. Our predicament has been further compounded by the hypocrisy of the contemporary Nigerian leadership. Leadership hypocrisy is bad, because it destroys public trust, creates double standards and hurts people.

Perhaps one of the most glaring examples of modern Nigerian leadership double standards is the way our political leaders shamelessly celebrate the academic achievements of their children abroad. As our reference point, we will take two high-profile politicians in Nigeria who recently celebrated the graduation of their daughters from universities in the United Kingdom (UK).

The controversial Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, rolled out the drums to celebrate the graduation of his daughter from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. Wike, a former Governor of Rivers State, hosted friends and family to a dinner in the UK in honour of his daughter, who bagged a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Southampton. Photos of the event appeared in the media and were credited to his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka.

Days after Wike celebrated the graduation of his daughter, the Governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, celebrated the graduation of his daughter, Oduko Soludo, from the University of Nottingham with a First Class Honours degree in Neuroscience. Oduko was attending a convocation ceremony with Professor Soludo, his wife Nonye Soludo and other family members.

Let’s see the cost of studying in these two universities in the United Kingdom. According to information in the public domain, an international student pays about £24,000 a year to study law in the University of Southampton. It takes three years to study for a law degree in the university, if nothing unusual occurs. The overall cost of studying law at the University of Southampton will be £72,000 (approx N131 million).

By implication, the money Wike spent to secure his daughter a law degree in the UK is more than he earned as the Governor of Rivers State for eight years and his earnings to date as a Minister in the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has stated that the total annual package of each of the 36 state governors in Nigeria is N11,540,896. This includes basic salary, normal statutory allowances and packages. So a former Governor like Wike who served the constitutionally mandated two terms of four years each, earned approximately N92.3 million in eight years.

RMAFC said a substantive Federal Minister in Nigeria such as Wike earns a total regular package of N7, 801,640. By August 21 this year, Wike would have spent three years as a minister. If we should add his August salary, it means he has earned about N23.4 million since his assumption of office as Minister of FCT. His earnings as a governor and his earnings so far as a Minister will sum up to N115.7 million which is still N15.3 million less than the N131 million he paid for his daughter to get a law degree in University of Southampton.

Soludo’s daughter graduated from the University of Nottingham and an international student at the university pays £33,000 a year to study Neuroscience. Barring unforeseen circumstances, a B.Sc. in Neuroscience at the university takes three years of full time study. Overall, it costs £99000 (N180 million) to get a B.Sc. in Neuroscience at the University of Nottingham.

Interestingly, Soludo stated during his second anniversary as Governor of Anambra State in March 2024 that he had not received any salary since he assumed office on the 17th of March, 2022. If that was true, how did he pay N180million for his daughter to get a University of Nottingham degree in Neuroscience?

Ironically, the same people who pay lip service to developing education in Nigeria are the ones sending their children abroad to study. For example, Wike had, on several occasions, boasted publicly that the state had never allocated less than 30 percent for education during his years as the Governor of Rivers State.

However, official data show that during his presidency, the education budget was around 20 percent of the total budget. For example, his government allocated N49.471 billion to education in the 2020 budget (representing 20 percent of the total budget) which his administration at the time cited as the highest allocation to education.

If Wike truly invested in education during his tenure as the Governor of Rivers State, why didn’t he send his daughter to the Rivers State University, his alma mater where he earned his law degree? The Rivers State University Faculty of Law is 45 years old. Founded in 1981, one year after the birth of the university. “This is unbelievable that after all the “massive” investment in education in the era of Wike as the Governor of Rivers State, the university cannot deliver quality legal education.

Soludo’s case is confusing. Why did I say that? In his thirties, he attained the rank of Professor in the Nigerian university system and was a consultant to the World Bank before opting to serve in the public service first as the Chief Economic Adviser to the President and subsequently, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). So, I don’t think there is any Governor in Nigeria that is better positioned to know the importance of education than him.

During his campaign for the office of the Governor of Anambra State in 2021, the Professor of Economics had promised to make Anambra State the “Dubai-Taiwan of Nigeria.” But when it was becoming apparent that his promise of making Anambra Dubai-Taiwan in his first four-year tenure was a pipe dream, he recanted that he never meant building skyscrapers everywhere. He said that the access to quality education was the road to the destination. To date, he has not put his words into practice.

Soludo said the Anambra State Appropriation Law 2026 allocated almost 50 percent of the total budget of N757 billion to education, which he said is far above the 15-20 percent recommendation made by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). With five months to the end of this fiscal year, there is nothing on ground in Anambra State to show for the humongous allocation to education in the budget.

Lecturers in the Anambra State owned Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU) are among the least paid academic staff in the Nigerian university system. I leave it for another day to talk about it.

It is often the same people in government who shed crocodile tears about the billions of dollars and pounds that Nigeria loses annually as a result of education tourism abroad, while sending their children to study in very expensive foreign universities, without paying attention to our university system. What do they expect of us, the followers, when our leaders do not believe in the institutions within the country?

Nigeria today has about 312 universities. The breakdown is 168 private universities, 77 federal universities and 67 state universities. Some Nigerian universities are making some good progress. Nigeria is the most represented country in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Times Higher Education Ranking for 2026, with a record 24 Nigerian universities making this year’s ranking.

Unfortunately our leaders do not appreciate what they have. They prefer sending their children abroad to study, while keeping for them the best job placements in choice government establishments such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Bank of Industry (BOI) and Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), among others.

The unfortunate graduates of Nigerian universities are still roaming the streets jobless. To add insult to injury, the same politicians who abandoned our education system to rot, are often quick to turn around and accuse Nigerian graduates of being unemployable. What other double jeopardy is there?

But I do not want to hold the whole political class in Nigeria responsible for the mistake of the majority of them. There are a few exceptions for Nigerians. For example, Senator Chris Ngige, who was the Minister of Labour and Employment at the time, celebrated the graduation of three of his children from Nigerian universities in the time of the late President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Dr. Ngige’s children, two boys and a girl, are studying medicine just like their father. The former Governor of Anambra State was at loggerheads with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) when he was the Minister of Labour and Employment but the union lauded him for believing in the Nigerian university system.

Similarly, the Governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke was recently spotted celebrating the graduation of his daughter, Adebukola Josphine Adeleke who graduated with a degree in Mass Communication from Adeleke University, Ede Osun State. I therefore appeal passionately to the rest of the political class in Nigeria to emulate the example of their colleagues that have demonstrated their faith in Nigerian universities.

On a very sad note, as I conclude this article, I read that the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, celebrated the graduation of his twin children from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom.

The same Umahi when he was the Governor of Ebonyi State spent billions of Naira from tax payers money to build a University in the State. The Federal Government took over the university and renamed it David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences, Ebonyi State (DUFUS). He shunned the university named after him so that his twin children could go to Sheffield University.

Finally, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is known to take hard decisions. Let him also put an end to the fraudulent subsidy regime that unfortunately made Nigeria the poverty capital of the world, just like he did, and enact a law to ban Nigerian politicians from sending their children to study abroad. That’s the only way they will pay attention to education in Nigeria. They will pay for education when they know their children will benefit from the system.