Tinubu Has Delivered Almost 100% Of Campaign Promises – Alausa

The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Alausa, has declared that President Bola Tinubu has delivered on almost 100 per cent of the promises he made during the 2023 presidential campaign, saying the country is experiencing tangible transformation under the Renewed Hope administration.

Alausa, who made the assertion in Abuja at the weekend, said the changes under the Tinubu administration were no longer mere political rhetoric but were being reflected in reforms and outcomes across critical sectors, particularly education.

Receiving the 2025 Nigeria 2050: Child Foresight Analysis for Futures Literacy and Intergenerational Equity, produced under the Anticipatory Governance and Foresight Capacity Programme of the Office of the Vice President with technical support from UNICEF, the minister said Nigeria had moved beyond the uncertainty that previously characterised national development.

He said: “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.

“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.”

The minister, who said Nigeria was “back, and back in a powerful way,” added that the country was no longer at a crossroads but had “a lot of catching up to do.”

He said the President’s commitment to education was evident in the support given to the Federal Ministry of Education to implement reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda, stressing that education remained central to the administration’s ambition of
building a $1 trillion economy.

According to him, the Nigerian Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) is driving reforms in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), STEM education, teacher quality, quality assurance, reduction of out-of-school children, education data and digitalisation.

Alausa said the renewed emphasis on TVET was already changing the perception of technical education and creating new pathways for young Nigerians to acquire practical skills, secure employment, become entrepreneurs and progress to higher levels of education.

“Skills are the present and the future,” he said, stressing that Nigeria could no longer afford an education system that failed to prepare young people for the realities of the modern economy.

He recalled that technical education was once an integral component of Nigeria’s education system, providing pathways for young people to become skilled workers, artisans, entrepreneurs and professionals, but suffered decades of neglect and declining public confidence.

“The Federal Government is now deliberately restoring technical and vocational education to the centre of the national education system because of its importance to employment, productivity and economic growth,” the minister said.

Alausa also cited the administration’s expansion of medical education and professional training as part of efforts to address skills shortages and reduce migration pressures associated with the “Japa” phenomenon.

He said Nigeria had faced severe shortages of nurses and other health professionals despite having a large population of young people seeking opportunities to study in those fields.

According to him, the government had therefore expanded access to nursing education and increased training capacity within existing teaching hospitals, federal medical centres and specialist hospitals, rather than relying solely on the construction of new institutions.

He said the strategy was designed to give more Nigerians access to quality professional training at home while developing a workforce capable of competing internationally.

The minister said the same principle was driving the broader education reforms, insisting that young Nigerians must have access to the knowledge, skills and opportunities needed to build productive lives within the country.

Alausa also highlighted the administration’s shift towards data-driven education planning, particularly in determining the actual number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.

He questioned the long-standing estimates of between 15 million and 17 million out-of-school children, arguing that the figures had been repeatedly cited without a sufficiently comprehensive household-level assessment.

The minister said emerging evidence from state-level household surveys suggested that some of the historical estimates could have significantly overstated the actual number.

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, which he said fell to less than 100,000 following a general household survey.

Jigawa State, he added, had equally recorded significant differences between existing estimates and the findings of its household-level assessment as he said, “Without data, you’re flying blind. Data will tell you everything.”

Alausa explained that reliable data would enable the government to identify where children were out of school, establish the reasons for their exclusion, target infrastructure and interventions more accurately and monitor whether children who returned to school remained there.

The minister, however, cautioned that any reduction in the estimated number of out-of-school children would not diminish the urgency of the challenge as he said, “Even if there’s significant reduction, any child out of school is still too many.”

Alausa 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 moved more than 180,000 children into school in the last two years.

He said the priority now was to sustain enrolment, keep children in school and prevent new cases of school exclusion.
Digital census

The minister further disclosed that significant progress had been recorded in the 2026 Annual School Census through the digitised Nigerian Education Management Information System (NEMIS).

He said 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.

Alausa described the growing participation of public and private schools as a major step towards strengthening education planning, accountability and evidence-based policymaking.

He said the data being generated would help the ministry identify gaps in access and participation, monitor enrolment, plan infrastructure and assess the impact of government interventions.

He added that the ministry had also conducted a national assessment to establish a baseline for literacy, numeracy and cognitive development among learners at primary, junior secondary and senior secondary levels.

According to him, the assessment would provide government with a clearer picture of learning outcomes and allow it to measure the effectiveness of interventions over time.
Nigeria’s youthful population

Speaking on the Child Foresight Analysis, Alausa said its findings were particularly important given Nigeria’s youthful population, with about 70 per cent of the estimated 220 million population below the age of 30.

He described the demographic structure as both an opportunity and an urgent responsibility, saying Nigeria must deliberately transform its youthful population into a demographic dividend through quality education, relevant skills, productive opportunities and long-term planning.

The minister said the foresight initiative provided an opportunity to embed long-term thinking, systems thinking, adaptive innovation and youth participation into national planning.

Alausa said his ministry would work to align the findings of the foresight analysis with NESRI, particularly in future literacy, long-term education planning, skills development, data systems and intergenerational equity.

He urged stakeholders to move beyond theoretical scenarios and connect the findings of the exercise to tangible reforms already being implemented in education and other sectors.

The minister said the ultimate test of Nigeria’s progress would be whether children and young people received better education, acquired relevant skills, found productive opportunities and contributed meaningfully to national development adding that “Nigeria has changed, and it has changed for good.”