Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, has defended the cost of education in Nigeria, arguing it’s still more affordable than what students pay overseas.
He made this point during a Thursday panel on Channels Television, where he responded to questions from young Nigerians and broke down the Tinubu-led government’s educational efforts.
He pointed to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) as a key move by President Bola Tinubu, who he said is thinking ahead by supporting students financially.
The minister urged young people not to base important life decisions solely on social media trends. Instead, he advised them to research and understand the long-term implications of their choices.
In his words: “But I want to put it straight that most of the time…, we’re all young people. I’m also a young person. Maybe we have a millennium. We have a Gen Z, and the Alpha Gen Z, I think we should, most times, make our research rather than following trends.
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“Sometimes trends may not work for us. You would have made your research. This is the first time the President is thinking about the future.
“And if a president comes out and says he, as a President, does not want any student to go out of school because you are not able to pay the school fees, I think it’s a plus for the student.
“And for any president to think like that, you know that the President is looking at the future, how, because the same President is working out, the same government is working out to make sure that after you leave school, you get a job, and when you get a job, you can be able to pay back.
Most of these countries that you will japa to, that’s the same thing they do, even their school fees are more expensive.”
His comments come at a time when many young Nigerians are considering studying abroad. Olawande’s message was clear: the government is making efforts to improve education access at home and build systems that benefit students long after graduation.