Every 5th day of October, the world stands still in celebration of the role that teachers have played over time in shaping society, and the role they continue to play even in this ever-changing world of teaching and learning. The teaching and learning environment may change, but the teacher’s role as the torchbearer continues to gain prominence.
The theme of this year’s celebrations, “Standing with teachers: 60 years of protecting the profession, advancing its status and shaping our future,” is apt. The theme very correctly captures the deliberate policies and actions of the Governor of Kebbi State, Dr. Nasir Idris (Kauran Gwandu), who has put education and the welfare of teachers at the forefront of his government so far.
Himself a teacher and former president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Gov. Idris perhaps knows better than most how to advance the cause of teachers and push policies in education that are gradually reshaping education in Kebbi State.
Perhaps the best way to understand what Governor Nasir Idris is doing in education is to look beyond the individual projects and consider the philosophy behind them. A governor who came from the classroom and rose through the teachers’ union movement appears to have brought that experience into government, particularly in the way his administration has responded to the needs of teachers, university workers, students and the institutions themselves.
While the bells of industrial action have been ringing across Nigeria, Kebbi State has been spared some of the disruptions that have affected universities elsewhere. This is largely because the Governor has chosen to get ahead of some of the issues by releasing funds to settle allowances that had become sources of grievance among university workers.
Gov. Idris approved and released N172 million for the payment of the Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance (CATA) and Consolidated Non-Teaching Tools Allowance (CONTTA) to the ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAAT chapters of the state-owned Abdullahi Fodiyo University of Science and Technology, Aliero. He also approved the inclusion of the CATA/CONTTA structure in the university’s monthly subvention, creating an annual financial commitment of more than N2 billion, alongside N151.51 million released to settle identified annual increment arrears owed to staff.
But the intervention goes beyond salaries and allowances. The demand for better facilities has also received attention, with more than ₦2.07 billion approved and released for interventions in tertiary institutions across the state. The money is intended to strengthen facilities while improving the welfare and learning environment for both staff and students.
The recent distribution of seven 32-seater, fully air-conditioned coaster buses to seven state-owned tertiary institutions is one of the more visible examples. The buses, distributed to Abdullahi Fodiyo University of Science and Technology, Adamu Augie College of Education, Kebbi State College of Nursing Sciences, Kauran Gwandu College of Nursing and Midwifery Sciences, College of Health Sciences and Technology, Kebbi State Polytechnic and College of Advanced and Legal Studies, Yauri, are not merely about transportation. They speak to the often-overlooked conditions that affect the daily experience of teaching and learning.
And this is where the story becomes bigger than the latest intervention. Governor Idris has faced the accusation that he has a certain bias towards education. The argument is understandable. Since assuming office in 2023, education has remained prominent in his administration’s priorities and budgetary commitments.
But perhaps that is not really an accusation. Perhaps it is simply the natural consequence of having a governor who spent years inside the education system.
Gov. Idris did not discover education after becoming governor. He came into government from the classroom and, more importantly, from the teachers’ union movement. He was a teacher and former President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers before becoming Governor of Kebbi State.
So, when he talks about teachers, he is not talking about some abstract figures on a government payroll. He has been one of them. He understands what it means to stand before a classroom without adequate teaching materials, to work in a school where infrastructure is failing and to teach when motivation is low.
That perspective appears to have informed a broader approach to education in Kebbi. Because, within the first eight months of his administration, more than N9 billion was spent on repositioning education, with interventions covering classroom construction, boreholes, toilets, furniture, renovation of dilapidated classrooms, textbooks and writing materials. The administration also trained 2,000 teachers, all in a bid to strengthen pedagogical competence, alongside the construction of six mega schools aimed at improving access for Almajiris and other out-of-school children.
Between June 2023 and May 2024, the State Universal Basic Education Board also spent more than N8.17 billion in expenditure on construction, renovation, procurement, furnishing and other infrastructure across schools in the state.
But a teacher cannot teach an empty classroom, just as a classroom cannot teach a child. This perhaps explains the attention to recruitment and training. In January 2024, 2,400 primary school teachers commenced training under a state programme designed to strengthen teaching capacity. The administration later recruited 2,000 teachers in 2025 to address manpower shortages, an exercise that attracted 18,000 applications and involved the screening of 4,000 candidates.
There is also the proposed return to teachers’ training colleges, with Governor Idris announcing plans in 2024 to establish two institutions, one for males and another for females. The argument was straightforward: the disappearance of such institutions had contributed to the weakening of teaching quality and methodology.
Then there is the student. As we know, the education equation does not end with the teacher or the classroom. It ends with the child who must remain in school long enough to benefit from the system. This explains the attention to scholarships and tuition obligations, including the N309.58 million approved in 2024 for foreign scholarship obligations covering 63 students in India and 23 in Egypt.
By 2025, the administration had spent about ₦2.7 billion on tuition fees for Kebbi students studying within Nigeria and abroad, while more than ₦4 billion in outstanding scholarships, tuition fees and related expenses had also been cleared.
Taken together, these interventions suggest an administration trying to approach education as a chain rather than as a collection of projects. The classroom needs infrastructure; the infrastructure needs teachers; the teachers need training and motivation; the students need access and support; and the tertiary institutions need the facilities and human resources to function. Break one link and the consequences eventually travel through the entire system.
Interestingly, this thinking appears to be finding its way into government planning as well. Kebbi’s 2025 approved budget allocated more than ₦10.56 billion to basic education capital expenditure, including the construction and renovation of schools, ECCDE centres, JSS facilities and the provision of furniture. Another N3 billion was provided for the digitisation of primary school employees.
The state’s Medium Term Basic Education Strategic Plan for 2024–2027, teacher baseline mapping and the final report on the 2025 basic education teacher recruitment also point towards an attempt to move education from isolated interventions to a more structured system of planning, data and continuity.
And this, for me, is the real story of Kebbi. Yes, it is not simply that Gov. Nasir Idris is a teacher. No, far from it. It is that his experience as a teacher appears to have influenced the way he sees education and, perhaps more importantly, the way he responds to its problems.
Maybe every governor does not need to have taught in a classroom, but every governor needs to understand what happens inside one. Yet, every governor needs to understand that when a teacher is unhappy, the student eventually pays the price; when a school has no furniture, the child sits on the floor; and when a university worker is owed legitimate allowances, the frustration eventually finds its way into the university system.
Governors also need to understand that when there is no laboratory, science becomes theory; when there are no teachers, buildings become monuments; and when scholarship obligations are not paid, education gradually becomes a privilege rather than a right.
Kebbi may therefore be making a simple but important argument for the rest of Nigeria: sometimes, what education needs is not another policy document, but someone who understands the pain points of the system well enough to act before the crisis arrives.
Maybe we don’t need all governors to be like Nasir Idris. But perhaps we need more governors who would look upon the theme of this year’s teacher’s day commemoration and make the commitment to stand with them, help them evolve and better positioned professionally, as we help them to help us shape our future.
Kera, a Journalist writes from Abuja