What is your education plan, and what will happen to NELFUND if you're elected?

My plan for education starts with a clear belief: education should not begin with a mountain of debt hanging over a young Nigerian's future.

On NELFUND itself, I have said plainly that student loans are not something to celebrate as if they are the answer. A loan is not a scholarship, it is a liability. Lending students money to cope with rising school fees, and then asking for applause, is not the same as making education affordable. The real test is whether your family can educate your children without being pushed into debt just to keep them in school.

That is why I have reviewed the current student loan policy. My approach is to reduce the underlying cost of education itself, not just hand out more loans to cover rising costs. And after that review, I am committed to providing forgiveness for qualifying student debts, so that young Nigerians can graduate with hope rather than repayment burdens hanging over them. Education should open doors, not mortgage your future.

I have also made clear that any cost-of-living relief I bring, such as making fuel cheaper, will not threaten NELFUND, workers' salaries, or the minimum wage. If there is an honest arithmetic showing otherwise, it should be published, line by line, for Nigerians to see.

Beyond loans, I believe in supporting students and schools directly. Through my own Education Day programme in Adamawa State, my team has provided scholarships, notebooks, pencils, biros, and teaching materials to public schools, and shortlisted brilliant students for scholarship awards to continue their education. I have also established the Atiku Abubakar Foundation, which offers scholarships to young girls, and the Atiku Institute, which works to combat poverty among adult women. Through the Standard Microfinance Bank, which I set up, we have empowered and uplifted over 60,000 women from poverty. I am committed to working with partners like the Malala Fund to make education gender transformative and more inclusive for girls across Africa.

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Post on X Post by @atiku on X · https://x.com/atiku/status/1691172404318380032 2023-08-14 ›

Today, I had the honor of hosting the @MalalaFund team in Nigeria, led by Ms. Fatima Askira, @Fatiskira, to engage in discussions about possible collaboration opportunities between the American University of Nigeria, @AUNigeria, and the Malala Fund. Our shared goal is to enhance access to education for girls and ensure inclusive education for all. It deeply saddens me that education has faced significant challenges in Nigeria. To address this, I established the Atiku Abubakar Foundation, which primarily offers scholarships to young girls. Additionally, the Atiku Institute was founded to combat poverty among adult women. I also highlighted that through the Standard MicroFinance Bank, which I set up, we've empowered and uplifted over 60,000 women from poverty. I'm committed to joining hands with the Malala Fund to champion advocacy to make education gender transformative in Africa. -AA

Post on X Post by @atiku on X · https://x.com/atiku/status/1866398313676943372 2024-12-10 ›

Yesterday, my team concluded our annual intervention programme tagged Education Day, designed to provide annual outreach in support to public schools around Adamawa State. This year’s edition of the programme focused on schools in the Ganye area of the state. It is a day set aside to support public education through the provision of scholarships and educational materials to public schools and students. This year, the team visited ALL the 18 public schools in Ganye to distribute notebooks, pencils, biros, and teaching and learning materials to public schools. The programme also shortlisted 10 brilliant students for scholarship awards for the next phase of their education. -AA

Article on X Article by @atiku on X · https://x.com/atiku/status/2094810791937446399 2026-09-01 ›

It is fundamentally different from allowing living costs to explode, watching Nigerians struggle with hunger and unaffordable healthcare, and then arriving close to an election with another round of emergency handouts. And, Bola, your attempt to use NELFUND as a shield against Atiku’s cost-of-living proposal is even more dishonest. You now want Nigerians to believe that making fuel cheaper will somehow threaten student loans, workers’ salaries and the minimum wage. That is fearmongering dressed up as economics. Celebrating NELFUND as proof that education has become affordable under your government is like setting school fees on fire and then boasting that you lent students a bucket of water. What exactly is the wisdom in presiding over dramatic increases in school fees in some institutions, only to turn around and celebrate loans as the solution? You make education more expensive, lend students money to survive the increase, and then demand applause for the rescue. That is not affordability. It is witchcraft economics: create the burden with one hand, offer debt with the other, and demand applause for the intervention.

Article on X Article by @atiku on X · https://x.com/atiku/status/2094810791937446399 2026-09-01 ›

The good news for Nigerian students is that Atiku has reviewed the current student-loan policy and believes education should not begin with a mountain of debt hanging over a young Nigerian’s future. His approach will reduce the underlying cost of education and, after review, provide forgiveness for qualifying student debts so that young Nigerians can graduate with hope rather than repayment burdens. Education should open doors, not mortgage the future. A student loan is not a scholarship. It is a liability. The proper test of an education policy is whether ordinary families can educate their children without being pushed into debt merely to keep them in school. When students increasingly require loans because the underlying cost of education has become prohibitive, government should not parade the loan itself as evidence that the system is working. And your attempt to frighten students and workers by claiming that Atiku’s targeted and capped production support will somehow destroy NELFUND, reduce salaries or reverse the minimum wage is a fallacious claim without a ledger behind it. If your government has the arithmetic, Bola, publish it. Show Nigerians, line by line, how a transparently budgeted subsidy tied to Nigerian crude and domestic refining suddenly empties NELFUND or workers’ pay packets.

p. 36 MANIFESTO OF THE AFRICAN DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS (ADC) Party Manifesto 2027-2031 2026-10-05 ›

● Within the first 100 days, declare a national emergency on out-of-school children and convene a National Education Summit to develop and implement a clear action plan ● Partner with states and local governments to identify and return out-of-school children to classrooms through targeted outreach ● Declare a state of emergency in technical and vocational education, expanding skills training centres and aligning them with industry needs ● Provide student loans and financing support to enable young Nigerians to access technical and vocational education. ● Integrate vocational training into secondary education to create multiple pathways for learning and employment 2. Reform UBEC for accountability and results We will restructure the Universal Basic Education system to ensure funds are efficiently used, transparently managed, and tied to measurable outcomes. Details: ● Reform the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to focus on students, not fund administration. ● Simplify access to UBEC funds for states while enforcing strict accountability and reporting standards ● Digitize UBEC processes to track fund disbursement, school performance, and project implementation in real time

p. 36 MANIFESTO OF THE AFRICAN DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS (ADC) Party Manifesto 2027-2031 2026-10-05 ›

3. Strengthen community participation in education Bring education closer to the people by empowering communities and local governments to take an active role in managing and improving schools. Details: ● Establish Local Government Education Committees involving parents, teachers, traditional leaders, and community stakeholders ● Give communities a role in monitoring teacher attendance, school performance, and infrastructure maintenance ● Provide small grants and support for community-led school improvement initiatives ● Encourage partnerships between schools and local organizations to support learning outcomes 58

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