Former Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, has urged the federal and state governments to drastically increase funding for Nigeria’s health and education sectors, warning that the country’s development will remain stagnant without bold and deliberate interventions.
He gave the charge on Friday while delivering the maiden convocation lecture of the Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTECH), Osara. The lecture, titled “Ill-Health and Illiteracy: Siblings’ Alliance Against Development,” examined the deep-rooted challenges undermining Nigeria’s human capital.
Mimiko said Nigeria has failed to make the necessary investments in education and health, a negligence he traced through indicators such as maternal mortality rates, life expectancy, government expenditure, literacy levels, nutritional status, research output and patent registration.
Citing grim statistics, he revealed that although Nigeria accounts for less than three percent of the world’s population, it contributes a staggering 29 percent of global maternal deaths — roughly one death every seven minutes.
“This underscores the uncomfortable truth that Nigeria is the most dangerous place in the world to give birth,” he declared.
On education, Mimiko referenced September 2025 data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, which lists Nigeria among 10 countries responsible for over half of the world’s illiterate adults, with 43 million Nigerians unable to read or write. He added that UNICEF figures show one in three Nigerian children is out of school — 10.2 million at the primary level and 8.1 million in junior secondary school.
“Nigeria’s 18.3 million out-of-school children account for 15 percent of the global total, a population higher than that of about 160 countries,” he noted.
In a lighthearted remark, Mimiko joked that if the education and health crises persist, the nation could, in a decade, find itself relying on herbalists rather than trained medical professionals.
He also condemned the poor remuneration structure in tertiary institutions, describing it as “fundamentally wrong” that a professor with over 20 years of experience earns less than ₦500,000 monthly. He stressed that better funding and fair salaries are essential to slowing the mass emigration of professionals.
“This remains one of the viable toolkits for addressing the Japa phenomenon,” he said.
Mimiko urged governments at all levels to be intentional about reversing the decline in human development indicators. He encouraged the federal government to sustain ongoing education initiatives such as NELFUND and digital literacy programmes.
He further advocated a revival of the national school feeding programme, recommending a more transparent model driven by state governments.
“Perhaps our free school meal programme should come with an irreducible minimum — one egg, one child, one day. This will make compliance easier to track and boost the livestock industry,” he proposed.
The former governor warned that chronic underfunding of health and education fuels poor human capital, diminished productivity, rising inequality, and worsening poverty, creating a cycle that limits government revenue and hampers meaningful investment.
He emphasized the need to prioritise childhood nutrition, calling for coordinated action at both federal and sub-national levels.
Mimiko concluded that Nigeria’s journey toward sustainable development depends on strong, well-funded health and education systems — the two pillars that determine the nation’s future competitiveness.
Comments