Lucky Obukohwo Reporting
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticised the Federal Government over its decision to increase the fees for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and National Examinations Council (NECO) Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) to N50,000, effective from 2027.
Atiku described the fee hike as “cruel” and “economically insensitive,” accusing the government of placing an additional financial burden on Nigerian families and making access to public education increasingly difficult.
The Federal Government recently approved a uniform examination fee of N50,000 for candidates sitting for the SSCE from next year. Before the approval, candidates reportedly paid about N30,000 for NECO and N27,000 for WAEC examinations.
In a statement issued on Sunday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice president argued that the increase contradicts the government’s constitutional obligation to ensure education remains accessible to every Nigerian child.
He maintained that the policy would further limit educational opportunities for students from low-income households.
According to him, “it is unconscionable that at a time when Nigerian families are battling record inflation, soaring food prices, rising transportation costs, crippling electricity tariffs, stagnant incomes and widespread unemployment, President Bola Tinubu’s administration has chosen to make education even more expensive.”
Atiku, who is also the African Democratic Congress (ADC) 2027 presidential candidate, noted that the hike was alarming, coming against the backdrop of Nigeria’s worsening education crisis.
He warned that increasing fees in Federal Unity Colleges while imposing a significantly higher cost on WAEC and NECO examinations would disproportionately affect children from poor and middle-income families, whose parents are already making impossible choices between food, healthcare, transportation, and education.
According to him, “A government that genuinely believes in the future of its people does not erect financial barriers between children and education.
“It removes them. Education is not a privilege reserved for the wealthy; it is the birthright of every Nigerian child and the foundation upon which prosperous nations are built.
“Nigeria already bears the painful distinction of having one of the largest populations of out-of-school children in the world.
“Depending on the methodology and age group measured, between 10.5 million and about 15 million Nigerian children and young people are already outside the classroom.
“Any government confronted with such a national emergency should be investing aggressively to bring these children back into school. Instead, this administration is choosing policies that will inevitably swell those numbers.
“The consequences of these policies extend far beyond school gates. Every child priced out of education today becomes tomorrow’s victim of unemployment, poverty, child labour, criminal exploitation, drug abuse, or insecurity.
“Nations do not become prosperous by making education more expensive; they prosper by making education more accessible”, Atiku said.
He said the irony in the administration’s education policy is impossible to ignore, adding that the policy amounts to “systematic rationing of opportunity and the gradual exclusion of the children of the poor from the promise of higher education.”
He added, “The same administration whose policies are progressively narrowing access to public tertiary education continues to project the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) as one of its flagship achievements.
“Yet, a university loan offers little comfort to a child who has already been priced out of secondary education or cannot afford the qualifying examination required to secure admission.
“A government cannot credibly claim to be expanding access to higher education while simultaneously erecting financial barriers that prevent millions of young Nigerians from ever reaching the university gates.
“Genuine educational reform begins by making education affordable from the primary and secondary levels, expanding the carrying capacity of our tertiary institutions, and ensuring that poverty never becomes the reason a child is denied the opportunity to learn.
“A government that truly believes in education invests in classrooms before it invests in loans.”
