The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi, has raised alarm over the declining state of Nigeria’s education and the worsening poverty levels across the country.
Obi, in a statement, called for urgent and strategic investment in critical sectors.
He described the recently released results from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) as ‘shocking’ and a clear indicator of systemic failure in the country’s educational sector.
READ ALSO: ‘Stop de-marketing Nigeria’ – Sowunmi to Obi
The New Daily Prime reported that JAMB disclosed that over 1.5 million out of the 1,955,069 candidates who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination scored below 200 in the just-concluded exam.
“I just came across the official results from JAMB showing the recent exam figures. According to the data shared, a total of 1,955,069 candidates sat for the exam. Shockingly, only about 420,000 candidates scored above 200, while over 1.5 million scored below 200,” Obi said.
“This means that over 78% of the total candidates failed to meet the 200-mark threshold — a reflection of the deep-rooted challenges in our educational system,” he added.
Obi attributed the poor performance to decades of underinvestment in education, stressing that the sector should be central to Nigeria’s development strategy.
Comparing Nigeria’s university enrolment to that of other countries, he lamented the dismal figures.
“Nigeria’s total university enrolment currently stands at approximately 2 million students. By contrast, the National University of Bangladesh — a single university — has over 3.4 million students enrolled, despite the country having only about 75% of Nigeria’s population,” he noted.
“Turkey, with a population of about 87.7 million, has over 7 million university students, more than three times Nigeria’s total university enrolment.”
Obi reiterated his long-standing position that education must be treated not merely as a social service, but as a strategic investment capable of driving national development and lifting citizens out of poverty.
“Education is the most critical driver of national development and the most powerful tool for lifting people out of poverty. We must now invest aggressively in education — at all levels — if we are serious about building a prosperous, secure, and equitable Nigeria,” he said.
The former Anambra State governor also decried the rising poverty levels, citing a recent World Bank report which revealed that, as of April 2025, over 75% of rural Nigerians now live in poverty, while 41.3% of the urban population is also below the poverty line.
“Back in 2018/2019, about 30.9% of Nigerians lived below the international extreme poverty line. As of 2025, that figure has more than doubled instead of improving,” Obi stated.
He blamed the worsening situation on years of misplaced priorities by successive governments, criticising the continued investment in non-essential infrastructure over critical human capital sectors.
READ ALSO: VDM’s Arrest: Obi warns against rising abuse of rule of law
“Rather than investing in critical sectors, we have continued to prioritise wasteful spending on non-developmental projects such as conference centres, government houses and lodges, guest houses, and fleets of official vehicles—instead of investing in education, healthcare, and MSMEs,” Obi said.
Calling for a shift in national priorities, Obi urged governments at all levels to reassess their focus and urgently redirect investments towards health, education, and poverty alleviation.
“We must urgently redirect our national focus and address the root causes of poverty. Nigeria must expand access to quality education and healthcare, and support job creation by investing in and empowering Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs),” he said.
