“In 2024, Anambra’s total budget for the Education Ministry stood at about N33 billion” —Ebuka Onyekwelu
Anambra was missing in a recent report released about three days ago by the National Examination Council (NECO) outlining the top twelve States across Nigeria where students have five credits in their senior certificate examination, for the year 2024. With Anambra State missing on the list, the report has opened conversations and an outrage against Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo.
Though reputable as an academic don and someone who rose to prominence through academic brilliance, education had appeared as one area Soludo would do exceptionally well. However, with these results, it has become difficult to reconcile the governor’s towering academic profile and the State’s declining fortunes in education. In his short stint, Governor Chris Ngige commenced the repositioning of education in Anambra State. When he left, Peter Obi his successor took the same initiative of handing over missionary schools back. This policy was further carried on by Obiano and throughout those years, Anambra schools were remarkably repositioned and dominated academic performance lists.
After only about a year in office, Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, declared free education in all government primary schools. This, he later extended to secondary schools owned by the State Government. Earlier, he had employed some teachers who were deployed in the government schools. After the recruitment, a Special Report in 2023 by The West African Pilot News on the sustainability of secondary education in Anambra State revealed that teaching and learning in government-owned secondary schools in Anambra State were not sustainable. Some of the key and troubling issues observed in the report were a lack of teachers for key subjects and poor welfare packages for teachers, which serve as demotivation, among many others. This report examined key government secondary schools in major Anambra cities, including Awka, Onitsha, and Nnewi. Suburban areas in Anambra, such as Neni, Nteje, Ekwulobia, among others, were also part of the research. Throughout the state, the challenges were the same.
The 2024 senior certificate examination has now brought these issues to the fore, as Anambra nosedived from its regular first three or first five position, to disappearing from the list of the first twelve. Reacting to this, Azuka Onwuka, a popular writer, has described the development as a calamity. He also regretted that not long ago, Anambra was the leading state in education in the country. “Calamity has befallen Anambra State. Not too long ago, no academic record in Nigeria was complete without Anambra State in the top 3. Now, even in the top 10, the Light of the Nation is nowhere to be found. What has happened to the Light?” Onwuka queried. According to the report, the Southeast states of Abia, Imo, and Ebonyi dominated the first to third positions in that order. But Anambra State was missing, after its long years dominating various lists.
Some observers have also blamed the neo-Biafra agitation, which has effectively reduced serious engagements, including academic activities, on Mondays. This has undoubtedly affected learning time, with negative implications for teaching and learning in Anambra State.
Sir Paul Chukwuma, the Young Progressive Candidate for the November 8, 2025, Anambra State Governorship Election, has described the decline as a dangerous signal and a broken promise. According to Chukwuma, “Under the current Anambra State Government, we have witnessed such a decline to the extent that Anambra State was unable to feature in both regional and national lists of top states with students who made five credits in their senior certificate examination. It has never been this bad in over a decade. This is a promise broken into pieces…it is a dangerous signal for our state and the future of our kids,” Paul Chukwuma said.
In 2024, Anambra’s total budget for the Education Ministry stood at about N33 billion. For the same year, the Education Ministry budget in Imo and Abia states stood at about N42 billion and over N100 billion, respectively. Aside the possibility that education might not be a priority of the Soludo’s administration going by the budget appropriation to the ministry compared to projects like the new Government House and Governor’s Lodge, there is also the suspicion that Soludo’s free education is not being properly implemented, forcing the schools to struggle over running costs, among other administrative and policy difficulties.
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