SSAN tackles education minister over social science graduates

The Social Science Academy of Nigeria (SSAN) has strongly rejected recent comments by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, who claimed that Nigeria has produced too many social science graduates. 

SSAN in a statement by its president, Professor Chike Okolocha, insisted that social science disciplines are vital to addressing the country’s deep-rooted economic, political, and social chchallenges.

The minister, while presenting provisional licences to 11 newly approved private universities in Abuja on April 30, 2025, argued that Nigeria needs fewer social science graduates and more “problem-solving” graduates with technical and life skills. 

 Okolocha, however, described the minister’s remarks as “a violent negation of the Universities Autonomy Law” and an example of “anti-intellectualism” by public officials.

He said: “The position of the minister is not guided by facts. He was silent on the current number of social science graduates in the country and the quantum deemed desirable. Nigerians challenged a similar unproven statement on the surplus of medical doctors in Nigeria by Dr. Chris Ngige, former Minister of Labour. We verily believe that Dr. Alausa’s statement does not reflect public policy.

“Social sciences were birthed out of the quest and intellectual introspection to find solutions to the social problems that arose from the Industrial, American and French Revolutions and latterly, World War I and II. In the 21st century, these social problems have multiplied by leaps and bounds. 

“Nigeria is currently in the throes of poverty, social and political exclusion, economic downturn, underdevelopment and unwieldy dependency, insurgency, terrorism, ethnic irredentism, gender exclusion and social inequality, crime and delinquency and violence, illegal migration and human trafficking, overurbanisation and rural decay, agricultural atavism, religious intolerance, insecurity and instability among others. 

“The social sciences were created to tackle these difficulties. Indeed, the subject matter of the social sciences and humanities are the foundation of societal development. We therefore require more social scientists, not less. A nation that has no social scientific and humanistic enquiries into its values, structures, political and socio-economic relations cannot achieve sustainable development and security.”     

Citing leading Nigerian figures such as Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote and top bankers Jim Ovia and Tony Elumelu, who all studied social science disciplines, SSAN argued that Nigeria’s most successful entrepreneurs and public administrators are products of social science education.

SSAN also said the problem is not the number of social science graduates, but the persistent failure of government to invest in quality education and create meaningful job opportunities.

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He said: “While SSAN agrees that Nigeria should produce more graduates in the (pure) sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM), this cannot be exclusive of the social sciences and humanities. 

“By the way, social science disciplines like finance, accounting, economics, marketing and management are also classified as STEMM courses. Even so, STEMM alone cannot save us. In fact, knowledge is not classifiable as medicine versus the social sciences because it is an integrated inter-disciplinary inquiry, explanation and understanding applied to identifying and solving societal problems.”

The academy urged the federal government to distance itself from the Minister’s comments, emphasising that national development requires the contributions of both technical and social science professionals.

It said Nigeria must not repeat the policy mistakes of the past, such as the misguided ban on history in our curriculum. 

“The new affront from the Minister of Education is a signifier that we ought to be wary of the anti-intellectualism of public officials in Nigeria. We recall between 1982 and 2007 we pandered to the advice of the World Bank and International Finance Institutions suggesting that Africa needs technical knowledge and polytechnics, not the social sciences and humanities. 

“Government duly adopted the 60/40 formula which gave priority to the sciences and actually banished history from the Nigerian education curriculum. Yet unemployment, poverty and underdevelopment did not vanish. Wisdom eventually prevailed and history was unbanned in 2017 (although the actual implementation of the reversal waited until 2022),” Okolocha said.