By Dahiru Hassan Kera
It has become normal for governments across Nigeria to delay action on industrial relations issues, especially with educational institutions, until unions reach that painful point where industrial action becomes the only option left to them before something is done.
This painful reality has affected education in Nigeria at all levels but, especially, tertiary education.
Across Nigeria, the bells of industrial actions are ringing, from universities in Nasarawa State, to Kaduna State where irreconcilable differences have forced over 2,000 teachers not only to down tools, but tender their resignation, to Gombe and so many institutions across the nation, inertia on the part of government is crippling education.
But that’s not the case in Kebbi State and this is thanks to Governor Nasir Idris (Kauran Gwandu) who, having served as a national union leader and teacher, has elected to proactively get ahead of the situation by releasing funds to offset the allowances accruing to university workers, the same allowances causing the grievance in universities across the nation.
Gov. Idris has since approved and released N172 million for the payment of the Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance (CATA) and Consolidated Non-Teaching Tools Allowance (CONTTA) to the ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAAT chapters of the state-owned Abdullahi Fodiyo University of Science and Technology, Aliero.
But, beyond offsetting the back allowances owed the workers, the Governor had also approved the inclusion of the CATA/CONTTA salary structure into the university’s monthly subvention, which would bring the amount to an annual financial commitment of over N2 billion.
Also approved and released is N151.51 million for the payment of identified annual increment arrears owed to staff of the university.
But that’s not all. Demands in the signed ASUU/JAC unions of universities included the need for the upgrade of facilities in institutions to create a conducive ambience for teaching and research with a view to improving the overall experience of staff and students.
Gov. Nasir has already answered that request as an approval has been made and over ₦2.07 billion released for interventions in tertiary institutions across the state to strengthen facilities and improve the welfare of staff and students.
Among that welfare package is the recent inauguration and distribution of seven 32-seater, fully air-conditioned coaster buses to seven state-owned tertiary institutions by Gov. Nasir Idris, an intervention designed to enhance the movement of staff and students, improve their overall welfare, and create better learning conditions across the institutions.
The beneficiary institutions are Abdullahi Fodiyo University of Science and Technology, Aliero; Adamu Augie College of Education, Argungu; Kebbi State College of Nursing Sciences, Birnin Kebbi; Kauran Gwandu College of Nursing and Midwifery Sciences, Ambursa; College of Health Sciences and Technology, Jega; Kebbi State Polytechnic, Dakingari; and College of Advanced and Legal Studies, Yauri.
While these current interventions amount to a major milestone in the administration’s efforts to reposition tertiary education in the state and bring it in line with global standards, they are also evidence that continuity and consolidation have been carefully factored into the Kebbi development agenda, and this is where the real story is.
Before these current interventions, the Comrade Governor of Kebbi State had been accused of a certain bias towards education. It has been said that because he’s a teacher, he has prioritised developments in education at all levels, the evidence of which can be found in the budgetary allocations for education since his election in 2023.
Perhaps, there is some truth in that accusation. After all, Gov. Nasir Idris did not suddenly become interested in education because he became governor. He came into government from the classroom and, perhaps more importantly, from the trade union movement.
He was a teacher and former President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers before becoming Governor of Kebbi State.
So, when he talks about teachers, he is not talking about some abstract figures on a government payroll, he mirrors his experience as one of them in the education policies of the state. And, because he understands the classroom, he also understands how to help the teacher who hitherto arrives at school without the necessary teaching materials.
He understands the frustrations of working in a school without adequate infrastructure. He understands what happens when a teacher is not motivated and what happens when the welfare of the teacher is treated as an afterthought.
This may explain why, within the first eight months of his administration, Gov. Idris spent more than N9 billion on repositioning education, with interventions covering classroom construction, motorised boreholes and hand pumps, toilets, furniture, renovation of dilapidated classrooms, textbooks and writing materials.
The administration also reported that 2,000 teachers had undergone training to improve their pedagogical competence, while six mega schools were being constructed to provide access to education for Almajiris and other out-of-school children.
And the interventions did not stop there, as between June 2023 and May 2024, the State Universal Basic Education Board reported over N8.17 billion in expenditure on construction, renovation, procurement, furnishing and other infrastructure across schools in the state, with three Junior Secondary/Vocational Schools in Birnin Kebbi, Bagudo and Ngaski among the projects commissioned during that period.
There was also attention to the welfare of teachers whose job it is to actually deliver education. In January 2024, 2,400 primary school teachers commenced training under a state government programme designed to strengthen teaching capacity.
The Governor, while declaring the training open, promised that teachers would receive particular attention under his administration and also pledged support for the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment.
The administration has also moved into teacher recruitment, with Kebbi recruiting 2,000 teachers in 2025 as part of efforts to address shortages in the state’s schools.
The exercise attracted 18,000 applications and involved the screening of 4,000 candidates, with graduates, HND holders, postgraduate qualification holders and NCE holders forming part of the recruitment process.
This is significant because you cannot build an education system simply by constructing classrooms. You need people to teach in them, but beyond needing teachers, you certainly need them motivated, you need them well trained, and you need many of them.
This is perhaps why the administration has also been talking about returning to the old idea of teachers’ training colleges. In January 2024, Gov. Idris announced plans to establish two teachers’ training colleges, one for males and another for females, arguing that the disappearance of such institutions had contributed to the weakening of teaching quality and methodology.
The administration has also placed considerable emphasis on the students themselves. For instance, in 2024 alone, the Governor approved N309.58 million for foreign scholarship obligations covering 63 students in India and 23 in Egypt, while the government said local scholarships had also been paid to students studying in 36 tertiary institutions across Nigeria.
By 2025, the administration had spent about ₦2.7 billion on tuition fees for Kebbi students studying within Nigeria and abroad, while the state government also cleared more than ₦4 billion in outstanding scholarships, tuition fees and related expenses.
These interventions are important because the education equation does not end with the teacher or the school, it also includes the child who must remain in school long enough to benefit from what government is putting into the system.
And this is where the teacher argument becomes interesting. Should every governor be a teacher? Perhaps not literally, but perhaps every governor should understand education the way a teacher does.
This is because, education is not just another line in the budget, it is not simply about commissioning a block of classrooms, distributing exercise books or announcing scholarships. No!Education is a chain where once one link is broken, the entire system suffers.
So, the he classroom must be conducive, just as the teacher must be trained and motivated and the student must be able to attend school, even as the parent must be able to afford the incidental costs. Above all, the institution must have the infrastructure to function.
At the tertiary level, academic and non-academic workers must have their welfare addressed before frustration becomes industrial action.
Interestingly, even the state’s budgetary documents suggest that this approach is becoming institutionalised rather than remaining dependent on individual announcements. Kebbi’s 2025 approved budget allocated more than ₦10.56 billion to basic education capital expenditure, including funding for construction of primary schools and ECCDE centres, JSS construction, renovation of primary and JSS schools, and provision of furniture. The budget also provided N3 billion for digitisation of primary school employees.
The state’s official education documents now also include a Medium Term Basic Education Strategic Plan for 2024–2027, teacher baseline mapping and a final report on the 2025 basic education teacher recruitment, suggesting an attempt to move education beyond isolated interventions into planning, data and institutional continuity.
And this, for me, is the real story of Kebbi. It is not simply that Gov. Nasir Idris is a teacher. No, far from it. It is that the experience of being a teacher appears to have influenced the way he sees education.
Perhaps every governor does not need to have taught in a classroom, but every governor needs to understand what happens inside one. Every governor needs to understand that when a teacher is unhappy, the student eventually pays the price; when a school has no furniture, the child sits on the floor. And that when a university worker is owed legitimate allowances, it eventually affects the university.
Governors ought to also learn that when there is no laboratory, science becomes theory, when there are no teachers, buildings become monuments, and when scholarship obligations are not paid, education becomes a privilege rather than a right.
Kebbi may therefore be making a simple but important argument for the rest of Nigeria, and it is that sometimes, what education needs is not another policy document, but someone who understands the pain points of the system enough to act before the crisis arrives.
Maybe we don’t need all governors to be teachers, but perhaps we need more governors who think like teachers. And in Kebbi, they’ll find a model shaped by an insider, and it’s worthy of emulation by all serious governments across the nation.
Kera, a Journalist writes from Abuja