By Akin Samuel KAYODE
Every nation has a resource more valuable than oil, gas or minerals: its people. Nigeria has one of the largest and youngest populations in Africa, filled with intelligent, creative and ambitious young people. Yet a country cannot turn population into prosperity simply by having millions of young citizens. It must educate them, equip them, employ them and create an economy in which their talents can produce value.
This is where Nigeria’s current reality should concern every parent and every young person. Under the Bola Tinubu administration, the economic pressures facing households have made education increasingly difficult for many families. School expenses, transportation, accommodation, learning materials and other costs have placed additional pressure on households already struggling to maintain basic living standards. When economic hardship begins to determine who can afford quality education, inequality becomes a permanent inheritance.
A child should not have his or her future determined by the purchasing power of the parents. Yet that is precisely the danger when families are forced to choose between feeding the household today and investing in a child’s education tomorrow. The consequences may not immediately appear in economic statistics, but they accumulate over years. A child who leaves school early, a graduate who lacks employable skills or a young person unable to afford further training represents not merely an individual disappointment, but lost national potential.
The Tinubu administration must therefore answer a difficult question: what is happening to Nigeria’s human capital while government focuses heavily on economic adjustment? Economic reform should not simply seek to improve financial indicators; it must also protect the country’s ability to educate, train and equip the next generation. If today’s policies make it increasingly difficult for families to invest in education while opportunities remain limited, then the country risks paying a much higher price tomorrow.
Education is not merely a social service. It is an economic investment. A well trained engineer can build infrastructure. A skilled technician can maintain industrial equipment. A competent teacher can educate thousands of future workers. A trained health professional can improve productivity by keeping communities healthier. A technology entrepreneur can create products and employment. Every naira invested intelligently in human capital can generate economic value far beyond the classroom.
This is why Nigeria cannot afford an education system that produces certificates without sufficient employable skills. The world economy is changing rapidly. Technology, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, renewable energy, digital services and modern agriculture are creating new opportunities. Nigeria’s young population can participate in these opportunities, but only if education and training evolve alongside the economy.
The present challenge is therefore bigger than school fees. It is about whether Nigeria is preparing its citizens for the economy of tomorrow. A country that fails to equip its young people will eventually import skills that it could have developed at home. We cannot complain about unemployment while failing to build the human capital required for productive employment.
This is where Atiku Abubakar’s alternative deserves serious consideration. Atiku’s economic vision places human capital, private sector development, investment and a diversified economy within a broader strategy for national development. His alternative should recognise that education policy and economic policy cannot be separated. The classroom must connect to the workplace, and the workplace must connect to the wider economy.
That means strengthening basic education while expanding technical and vocational training. It means universities must become stronger centres of research, innovation and problem solving rather than institutions focused predominantly on producing graduates. It means polytechnics and technical colleges should be treated as critical engines of industrial development rather than second tier alternatives.
Nigeria also needs a serious skills revolution. Young people should have opportunities to acquire practical skills in technology, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, renewable energy, engineering and other sectors where the economy requires workers. Apprenticeships and partnerships between educational institutions and industry can help bridge the gap between education and employment.
Atiku’s alternative should also recognise the role of the private sector in education and skills development. Government cannot do everything alone. Businesses should be encouraged to participate in curriculum development, apprenticeships, research partnerships and workforce training. The purpose is not to privatise education, but to ensure that education produces citizens equipped for the economy that actually exists.
Technology presents another enormous opportunity. Nigeria’s young population is already demonstrating extraordinary creativity in digital entrepreneurship and technology. With the right infrastructure, affordable internet access, digital skills and investment environment, Nigerian innovators can serve customers not only within Nigeria but across Africa and the global economy.
But none of this can happen if families are trapped permanently in survival mode. A household that spends almost everything on food and transportation has little capacity to pay for additional training, computers, books or professional development. Economic recovery and human capital development must therefore move together.
The same principle applies to teachers. No education system can be stronger than the people responsible for educating its children. Teachers require proper training, professional development, decent working conditions and an environment in which excellence is encouraged. If society wants better students, it must invest seriously in the people standing in front of the classroom.
Nigeria must also confront the growing gap between education and employment. Every year, thousands of young Nigerians enter the labour market with certificates but limited opportunities. The answer cannot be to keep producing graduates without expanding the productive economy. Education creates potential; a productive economy converts that potential into opportunity.
This is where the political contrast for 2027 becomes important. Nigerians must decide whether the country will continue to respond to its economic challenges primarily by managing today’s pressures, or whether it will deliberately invest in the people who will build tomorrow’s economy. The question is not simply who can manage Nigeria’s finances; it is who can build Nigeria’s human capacity.
Atiku should therefore present his economic alternative as more than a recovery programme. It should be a human capital recovery plan, built around stronger schools, better trained teachers, technical education, vocational skills, research, digital capacity, apprenticeships, productive investment and an economy capable of employing the people education produces.
The objective should be a Nigeria where education is not merely a certificate, but a pathway to opportunity; where skills are connected to jobs; where research is connected to industry; where entrepreneurship is connected to finance; and where young Nigerians can build successful careers without being forced to look abroad simply because opportunities at home are insufficient.
A country can recover lost revenue. It can rebuild infrastructure. It can strengthen its currency. But when generations of young people lose educational opportunities, skills and hope, the cost is much harder to reverse.
Nigeria’s greatest resource has never been beneath the ground.
It is sitting in our classrooms, workshops, laboratories, farms, businesses and homes.
The task of leadership is to unlock that human potential.
That is the choice Atiku should place before Nigerians in 2027: an economy where education connects to opportunity, skills connect to employment, innovation connects to investment and the Nigerian child can look towards the future with confidence rather than uncertainty.
Because the greatest economic recovery Nigeria can achieve is not merely recovering its finances.
It is recovering the future of its people.
Akin Samuel KAYODE.
Member, The Narrative Force.
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