WAEC Mass Failure: Obi Urges Govts. to Prioritise Education, Redirect Funds from Infrastructure
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has called on governments at all levels to prioritise human development, particularly education, over infrastructural development.
Obi‘s call follows the mass failure recorded in the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), recently released by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
He cited the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), stating that Nigeria’s education sector is facing a crisis of great magnitude, with over 20 million children out of school and many more unable to read or write.
“These scary statistics were also mirrored by WAEC, as they confirmed that the recently released WASSCE is the worst academic performance in five years, with only 38% of students passing.
“At a time when education should be our most urgent national priority and most critical investment, we as leaders continue to spend trillions on infrastructures, most of which contribute little or nothing to the measurable development index and cannot be completed and renovations that are a misplaced priority, while the foundational sectors like education remain in crisis,” the politician stated.
Obi affirmed that education is the most powerful investment Nigerian leaders can make in the country’s future.
“We must urgently redirect our focus towards building our national human capital by providing quality and functional schools and investing in access to learning for every Nigerian child,” he said.
The former Anambra State governor noted that a nation that neglects its young people has no future, and advised leaders to urgently redirect their priorities and invest in quality education.
He further acknowledged that Nigerian children deserve classrooms, not abandoned projects, adding that “to build a stronger, safer, and more prosperous nation, we must invest in our children, because when we fail them, we have failed our nation.”
