There are few public institutions in Nigeria that evoke the nation’s founding aspirations as much as the Federal Government Colleges, the popular Unity Schools. Initiated after the country’s independence and expanded after the civil war, they were designed not just to provide an education, but as instruments of national reconciliation, social mobility and nation-building. Through a rigorous merit-based system, they brought together the children of Nigeria from every region, tribe, creed and social class, and produced generations of Nigerians whose first encounter with national integration happened in the dormitories, classrooms, playing fields and assembly halls of the Unity Schools.
Currently, there is intense national debate over the potential concessioning of these schools through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement. Labour unions, parents, teachers and civil society groups fear that the initiative could change the essential character and purpose of one of Nigeria’s most cherished national institutions. There have been reports that the concessioning of King’s College, Lagos, is a pilot test that will eventually cover the nearly 120 Federal Government Colleges.
Although well-executed PPP arrangements have brought considerable improvements in infrastructure, healthcare and education around the world, PPPs have been a woeful failure in Nigeria. This raises the question as to whether Nigeria has the institutional capability, regulatory discipline and governance culture needed to ensure that the proposed concessioning of Unity Schools serves the public interest, and not private pockets.
Nigeria’s experience with concessioning and privatisation over the last few decades have not been encouraging, and offers some caution. Apart from the telecommunication sector and selected ports, concessioning and privatisation of many publicly owned enterprises have led to a host of contentious outcomes, including the deterioration of public access to some strategically important national assets, poor investment, labour disputes, asset stripping, or prolonged legal tussles. Concession agreements have often been compromised by lack of transparency in procurement, poor oversight by regulators, political interference, and inadequate performance management. Hence, the caution, deep suspicion and alarm over the prospect of changing ownership structures for these vital public assets.
The Unity Schools occupy an even more sensitive category because they are ‘merit goods’ – public assets whose social benefits exceed their commercial value. Their mission has never been just to educate, but to promote national integration, ensure that exceptional children from poor families compete alongside children of the privileged, and to cultivate national identity at a stage of life when prejudices are still forming. Concessioning them therefore amounts to injecting commercial principles and market incentives into institutions whose success depends on a socially conscious culture, rather than commercial viability. Evidence from Nigerian private universities, and premier public schools in several African countries, suggests that once privatised, institutions become progressively priced out of the reach of ordinary citizens, shifting from equitable inclusion. This could also threaten the job security of millions of workers.
It is undeniable that these schools require intervention. Years of neglect have taken their toll on many of the Unity Schools, with crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded hostels, deficient laboratories and ICT facilities, shortage of teaching staff, and an inability to manage basic maintenance, all undermining their former prestige. Experts maintain that falling standards are the result of insufficient funding, deteriorating infrastructure, and weak governance structures, rather than public ownership. Therefore, what is required is to address the structural weaknesses, not change ownership. Moreover, concessioning can lead to decreased public accountability if, as in others, contracts fail to include well-defined performance indicators, clear reporting procedures, and effective sanctions for non-performance.
Rather than concessioning, government should establish professionally governed Education Infrastructure Trusts dedicated exclusively to Unity Schools. The country should move towards modernising the Unity Schools into centres of excellence. For example, alumni associations can be encouraged to invest in building new hostel blocks, laboratories, libraries, sports facilities, and innovative spaces, as well as providing scholarships, without necessarily taking operational control of these institutions. Corporate organisations should be incentivised through tax rebates to sponsor capital projects under transparent agreements that guarantee public ownership.
Equally important is reforming governance. Each Unity School should have an independent Governing Board, with representation from the Federal Ministry of Education, the alumni association, the parent-teacher association, education professionals, the private sector, and broader civil society. This Board should annually make available to the public audited financial statements, an infrastructure scorecard, reports on learning outcomes and independent assessments of performance.
This level of transparency is likely to achieve more than a change of ownership. In addition, the government could concession individual non-core services of the schools through transparently and competitively procured performance-based contracts, while retaining overall ownership and control.
The most successful countries hardly abandon ailing strategic public educational institutions; they instead reform and modernise them for better efficiency and productivity. As a country struggling with insecurity, growing ethnic tensions, and political fragmentation, Nigeria needs institutions that promote national integration. The Unity Schools were not founded to provide another opportunity to enter into the long, complex history of public assets that are eventually handed over to a few individuals.
Before Nigeria considers its national heritage and symbolic educational institutions as disposable public assets, it must recognise that reforming and modernising them to achieve their original purpose of national unity and integration is preferable to handing them over to private interests for commercial gain.