•Insists Nigeria remains world poverty capital
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Mr. Peter Obi, has expressed deep concern over the recently released results of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), describing them as a reflection of Nigeria’s deteriorating education system.
The former governor of Anambra State, was reacting to the data published by JAMB, which revealed that 1,955,069 candidates sat for the 2025 UTME and that out of this figure, only about 420,000 scored above 200, while over 1.5 million candidates scored below the 200-mark.
In a statement released Tuesday via his verified social media handle, Obi noted that “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.”
Attributing the poor performance to long-standing neglect and underinvestment in the education sector, he stressed that education must be repositioned as a cornerstone of national development.
According to him: “The latest JAMB results once again highlight the consequences of decades of underinvestment in education, a sector that should be central to our national development strategy.”
Mr. Obi also drew comparisons between Nigeria and other countries with significantly stronger educational outcomes, stating that Nigeria’s total university enrollment is currently about 2 million students while in stark contrast, Bangladesh’s National University, a single university, has an enrollment figure of over 3.4 million students, despite the country having only about 75% of Nigeria’s population.
“Bangladesh, which once lagged behind Nigeria in virtually every measurable development index, now surpasses us in all key areas of development and in the Human Development Index (HDI),” he remarked.
Citing another example, Obi referenced Turkey, which has a population of about 87.7 million but boasts more than 7 million university students – over three times Nigeria’s entire university enrollment.
He reiterated his long-standing position that education is not merely a social service but a strategic national investment.
“Education is the most critical driver of national development and the most powerful tool for lifting people out of poverty,” Obi asserted. “We must now invest aggressively in education at all levels if we are serious about building a prosperous, secure, and equitable Nigeria.”
Mr. Obi’s comments come at a time when stakeholders in the education sector continue to call for reforms, increased funding, and a comprehensive overhaul of the system to meet global standards and effectively prepare Nigerian youth for the future.
Meanwhile, despite severe attacks that were let loose on him for lamenting the extreme poverty reality among Nigerians, the 2023 Presidential candidate of the Labour Party has insisted that Nigeria remains the world’s poverty capital.
Obi made the emphasis Tuesday, when he visited Godfrey Okoye University Enugu and inspected Basic Health Centre Ihuokpra in Nkanu East local government, being constructed by the Enugu Anglican Diocese.
Obi donated N20 million to each of the institutions to support the University’s College of Nursing Sciences and the construction of the Health Centre.
Obi stated that the support he has been giving to education and healthcare was because the two sectors were indices for measurements of the human development index, stating that healthcare is the number one measure of development.
Obi said that he partners with churches because they do immeasurable work in healthcare and education, hence his investments in the two critical sectors for the production of manpower.
“These are what governments are supposed to be doing but that the failure of government brought about individuals and groups rescue to the institutions.”
He said that the more educated a society is, the more developed it will be, adding that the two have a nexus in pulling people out of poverty.
“That’s the job of government. If you look at what is happening now, the World Bank report this month showed that poverty is worsening in Nigeria. UNICEF said that Nigeria has the most malnourished children because we have overtaken India in infant mortality, and India has a population ten times our population.
“But because we have abandoned governance, we’ve done governance in the crime scene. Instead of using the resources to do the right thing, we’re using them to do the wrong thing, and the consequence is that you people are doing this, and I remain grateful for the churches and voluntary agencies and assure you of our continued support,” Obi said.
On the attack against him for disclosing the pathetic level of poverty in Nigeria, Obi said: “It’s for people to know who is wrong, it’s not me. The World Bank has just said that rural poverty has increased to 75 per cent. I didn’t tell the World Bank, the World Bank said it. So, it’s for you to go to your village and ask them if they are rich or poor, everybody can see it. So, I’m not the one insisting, it’s the reality everybody can see, and we all have to sacrifice to pull people out of poverty.”
He told the Nursing Science students that the world by 2030 would have an over 30 million shortage of nurses and that students were on the right track in their studies.
“You should take it seriously as something that the world needs. Nigeria already needs you. Forget that today you might see a situation where this government didn’t get a job. Nigeria needs about 1.2 million Nurses. We have fewer than 200 that are registered today.
“So, there’s a huge demand. We need you. We need to have community hospitals, village hospitals are not working today because there are shortages of manpower.
So, it’s a critical area, and I thank you and urge you to be serious. It is not easy to work in our country today, because those who work are not cared for while those who don’t work are stealing the money.
“So. it is important that we make this country work, and it is not politics. What I’m doing now is not politics, but I keep saying we must dismantle this criminality as it is today if we want the country to work because other countries are working and there’s no reason why this country should not work.”
