The Social Science Academy of Nigeria (SSAN) has strongly criticised Education Minister Dr. Tunji Alausa’s claim that Nigeria has an oversupply of social science graduates.
In a statement by SSAN President Professor Chike Okolocha, the academy argued that social sciences are vital for addressing Nigeria’s economic, political, and social challenges.
Alausa made the remarks while presenting provisional licences to 11 new private universities in Abuja, suggesting the country needs fewer social science graduates and more individuals with technical and life skills. Okolocha called the minister’s stance “a violent negation of the Universities Autonomy Law” and an example of “anti-intellectualism” by public officials. “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,” he said, referencing a similar debunked claim by former Labour Minister Dr. Chris Ngige about surplus medical doctors.
Okolocha emphasised the role of social sciences in tackling issues like poverty, insurgency, and inequality, born from historical revolutions and wars. “Nigeria is currently in the throes of poverty, social and political exclusion, economic downturn, underdevelopment… The social sciences were created to tackle these difficulties,” he said, arguing that Nigeria needs more, not fewer, social scientists. He cited successful social science graduates like Aliko Dangote, Jim Ovia, and Tony Elumelu as evidence of their value.
SSAN attributed Nigeria’s challenges to inadequate investment in quality education and job creation, not an excess of social science graduates. “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,” Okolocha said, noting that disciplines like economics and finance are also STEMM fields. “Knowledge is an integrated interdisciplinary inquiry… applied to identifying and solving societal problems.”
The academy urged the government to reject Alausa’s comments and avoid past policy errors, such as the 1982–2007 ban on history in schools, driven by World Bank advice prioritising technical education. “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,” Okolocha said, noting history’s reinstatement in 2017, fully implemented by 2022.
