Nigerian Leaders Keep Preaching Faith in Local Universities—But Their Children Keep Heading Abroad
Oru Leonard
The graduation of Ariwera Jonathan, son of former President Goodluck Jonathan, from Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom deserves congratulations. Every young person who earns a degree through hard work should be celebrated.
But beyond the applause lies an uncomfortable national question: Why do so many of Nigeria’s political leaders and senior public officials entrust the education of their own children to foreign universities while millions of ordinary Nigerians are left to navigate an underfunded and struggling education system at home?
This is not about Ariwera Jonathan. It is about a long-standing culture among Nigeria’s elite.
For decades, presidents, governors, ministers, lawmakers, and other top public office holders have regularly chosen universities in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and other countries for their children. Yet these same leaders return home to assure Nigerians that the country’s education sector is improving.
The contradiction is glaring.
Nigeria boasts some of Africa’s oldest and most respected universities, but many have suffered years of inadequate funding, decaying infrastructure, repeated industrial actions, overcrowded lecture halls, and declining research capacity. Thousands of brilliant students have watched academic calendars disrupted while those with the means quietly seek opportunities abroad.
The message this sends is troubling. If those who formulate education policies do not have sufficient confidence in the system to educate their own children, why should ordinary Nigerians?
Public office should come with more than speeches about reform. It should require leadership by example. Imagine the impact if the children of presidents, vice presidents, governors, ministers, and lawmakers attended Nigerian universities.
The pressure to improve facilities, fund research, strengthen security, and ensure uninterrupted academic calendars would become immediate and impossible to ignore.
This issue transcends any one administration. It has persisted under successive governments, making it a national governance problem rather than a partisan one.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has pledged to reform education. Previous administrations, including those of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, and Muhammadu Buhari, also made commitments to strengthen the sector. Yet many Nigerians continue to believe that the political class has not demonstrated the same confidence in public education that it asks citizens to have.
No one should fault parents for wanting the best education for their children. The real shame is that after decades of promises and enormous public spending, many of Nigeria’s decision-makers still appear to believe that “the best” lies outside the country.
Ariwera Jonathan’s graduation should therefore not only be a family celebration. It should also be a wake-up call. Nigeria cannot become a nation of educational excellence while its leaders continue to export confidence in foreign universities instead of building world-class institutions at home.
Until the political elite are prepared to place the futures of their own children in Nigerian classrooms, many citizens will continue to question the sincerity of official promises to transform education.
Oru Leonard Oru ( frpa) is the Media and Business Development Practioner based in Abuja
