RIGHT OF REPLY: WHEN POLITICAL PRAISE OVERSHADOWS THE REAL STATE OF EDUCATION IN KEBBI
A Teacher in Government House Must Be Judged by the Condition of the Classroom, Not the Applause of His Aides.
By Bala Salihu Dawakin Kudu
Northern Bureau Chief
October 6, 2026.
The article titled “The Patriotic and Humble Teacher in Kebbi Government House: A Tribute to Governor Nasir Idris on World Teachers’ Day,” written by Ibrahim Abubakar Jombali, Special Adviser on Public Enlightenment and Orientation to the Executive Governor of Kebbi State, is certainly entitled to praise the governor.
However, public enlightenment must not become political celebration at the expense of honest assessment.
World Teachers’ Day is fundamentally about teachers, pupils, learning and the future of education. It should therefore be an opportunity to ask a simple but important question:
What is the actual condition of education in Kebbi State today?
No one disputes that Governor Nasir Idris is a professional teacher or that his administration has announced several interventions in the education sector. Indeed, reports have documented government spending on school rehabilitation, new classrooms, teaching materials and teacher welfare. The Nigeria Union of Teachers has also publicly commended some of the administration’s education reforms.
But these achievements do not mean that every problem in Kebbi’s education sector has disappeared.
A government should not be judged merely by the number of projects announced. It should be judged by the quality, distribution, functionality and sustainability of those projects.
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WHERE ARE THE CLASSROOMS?
The writer speaks extensively about renovated classrooms, furnished schools and thousands of educational interventions.
That sounds impressive.
But the people of Kebbi deserve something more concrete than impressive figures. How many of those schools are fully functional today? How many classrooms have adequate desks and chairs?
How many have functioning toilets and clean water? How many have sufficient teachers? How many schools are operating in communities affected by insecurity? How many pupils have been forced out of school because their communities are unsafe? And how many children are still learning in environments that fall far below the minimum standard expected of a modern school?
These are not political questions. They are educational questions.
Kebbi’s own education-sector planning documents acknowledge the impact of insecurity on schooling. The state’s 2024–2027 basic education plan identifies schools affected by banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling and farmer-herder conflicts, including dozens of primary and secondary schools in affected local government areas, with declining enrolment and parental safety concerns.That reality cannot simply be erased by a newspaper tribute.
INSECURITY IS PART OF THE EDUCATION STORY
One of the most serious challenges confronting education in Kebbi is insecurity.
In November 2025, the state government ordered the closure of schools following security threats, including the abduction of 25 schoolgirls from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga. Schools were subsequently reopened in January 2026, but the security challenge did not disappear.
As recently as July 2026, the Kebbi State Government confirmed that schools in communities affected by banditry would remain closed until security conditions improved.
Therefore, when celebrating the achievements of a government on education, it is not enough to count renovated buildings.
We must count the children who are actually inside those buildings.
A beautiful school without pupils because insecurity has driven them away is not the complete success story.
A school building without teachers is not a complete success story.
A classroom where children cannot learn safely is not a complete success story.
A TEACHER SHOULD UNDERSTAND THIS BETTER
The irony is that the governor’s professional background as a teacher makes the issue even more important. A teacher understands that education is not simply about constructing buildings.
Education is about the child, the teacher, the classroom, the learning materials, security, discipline, attendance, literacy, numeracy and measurable learning outcomes.
A teacher knows that a new classroom block cannot automatically produce educated children.
Therefore, the administration should welcome serious questions about the actual learning outcomes of pupils in Kebbi rather than treating every criticism as political opposition.
WHERE IS THE INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE?
The article makes sweeping claims about more than 2,000 schools being renovated, reconstructed or furnished and hundreds of new schools being constructed.
If these figures are correct, Kebbi citizens deserve no less than a transparent breakdown.
Let the government publish:
The names and locations of the schools;
The amount allocated to each project;
The contractors responsible;
The dates of commencement and completion;
The current physical condition of the projects;
The number of classrooms delivered;
The number of pupils benefiting;
The number of teachers posted to each school; and
Independent verification of completed projects.
That would transform political praise into verifiable public accountability.
There is nothing wrong with celebrating government achievements. But in a democracy, government achievements must remain open to verification.
TEACHER WELFARE IS IMPORTANT—BUT PUPILS ALSO MATTER
The article rightly praises teacher welfare, including salary improvements, allowances, recruitment and professional development.
These are important.
But the ultimate purpose of teacher welfare is to improve teaching and learning.
Therefore, the real test should be:
Are pupils reading better?
Are children performing better in basic literacy and numeracy?
Are dropout rates falling?
Are out-of-school children returning to classrooms?
Are rural children receiving the same quality of education as children in urban centres?
These are the questions that should dominate the conversation on World Teachers’ Day.
POLITICAL LOYALTY MUST NOT REPLACE PROFESSIONAL HONESTY
The author of the original article is a political appointee of the governor and therefore has every right to defend the administration.
But there is an important distinction between defending a government and presenting government publicity as unquestionable reality.
A Special Adviser on Public Enlightenment should enlighten the public.
And enlightenment requires both achievements and shortcomings to be acknowledged.
No government, however competent, can solve every problem within a few years.
Indeed, acknowledging remaining challenges does not weaken a government. It can actually strengthen public confidence because citizens know that their leaders understand the problems confronting them.
LET KEBBI’S CHILDREN BE THE JUDGES
The most convincing tribute to Governor Nasir Idris on World Teachers’ Day should not be written by a political aide.
It should be written by the children of Kebbi.
It should be written by the teacher who enters a properly equipped classroom every morning.
It should be written by the rural pupil who no longer has to walk several kilometres to school.
It should be written by the parent whose child can attend school safely.
It should be written by the graduate whose education has genuinely prepared him or her for employment, entrepreneurship or higher education.
And it should be written by independent evidence showing that learning outcomes are improving.
That is the standard by which every education administration should ultimately be judged.
A CALL FOR ACCOUNTABILITY, NOT POLITICAL WAR
This Right of Reply is not an argument that Governor Nasir Idris has done nothing in education. That would be unfair and inaccurate.
There have clearly been reported interventions in school infrastructure, teacher welfare and learning materials. The NUT has also publicly acknowledged several of those interventions.
But acknowledging progress does not require us to ignore the remaining crisis.
Kebbi still faces serious educational challenges connected to insecurity, school access, infrastructure and the wider national out-of-school crisis.
Therefore, rather than turning World Teachers’ Day into an occasion for excessive political praise, it should become an opportunity for the government, teachers, parents, civil society and journalists to ask harder questions.
How many Kebbi children are actually learning?
How many schools are fully functional?
How many children remain excluded because of insecurity?
How much has been spent, where has it been spent, and what measurable educational results have been achieved?
These are not attacks on Governor Nasir Idris.
They are legitimate questions from citizens whose taxes and public resources fund government.
A teacher in Government House deserves respect.
But the true measure of a teacher-governor is not how beautifully his political aides describe him.
It is the condition of the classroom he leaves behind.
If the classrooms are safe, the teachers are motivated, the pupils are learning, the schools are functional and every child—rich or poor, urban or rural—has a genuine opportunity to receive quality education, then Kebbi will have a story worth celebrating.
Until then, praise must be accompanied by scrutiny, statistics must be accompanied by evidence, and political loyalty must never be allowed to silence the legitimate concerns of Kebbi’s children.
World Teachers’ Day should belong first to the teacher and the child—not to political propaganda.
The children of Kebbi deserve nothing less.
This version is deliberately forceful but defensible: it does not deny the governor’s reported achievements, but shifts the debate from praise to measurable outcomes and accountability.
DemocracyNewslineNewspaper October 6th, 2026
