The Nigeria Union of Teachers has criticised the Federal Government’s decision to concession the management of King’s College, Lagos, to the school’s Old Boys’ Association.
The union said the arrangement could undermine the government’s responsibility to provide quality and accessible public education, particularly for children from less privileged families.
NUT National President, Audu Amba, described King’s College as an important national institution and said government should continue to provide the resources needed to preserve the 117-year-old Federal Government-owned school.
Speaking on Thursday, Amba said, “It’s worrisome with this kind of development. I don’t know how it all happened, but the basic thing is that by so doing, it has further portrayed that the Federal Government is trying to shy away from its own responsibility of providing free, qualitative and accessible education to all Nigerian children.”
He said Federal Unity Colleges were established as part of efforts to promote national integration, particularly following the Nigerian Civil War.
According to him, King’s College remains one of the institutions that represent national unity and should therefore receive adequate government funding.
Amba added, “Unity King’s College, Lagos, is one of the symbols of our unity in this country. And it is expected that if there is any way that government needs to spend resources to be able to sustain the legacy of that institution, I think it wouldn’t be overemphasised if government should do that.”
The NUT leader also questioned the consultation process preceding the concession, arguing that teachers and their representatives were not sufficiently involved.
He said, “If you say you have consulted with stakeholders, and teachers are now coming out to say that they are not aware and they don’t want it, so are they telling you they were invited? Of course not.”
Amba warned that excluding key stakeholders from policy discussions could create mistrust, even where the government’s intentions were genuine.
“Government may have a good policy, but not carrying everybody along makes it look as if there is something beneath it that people are yet to understand what is actually happening. So that is why you see both teachers and parents are saying no,” he stated.
He further expressed concern that transferring the school’s management could eventually affect fees and other policies, potentially making the institution less accessible to children from low-income households.
Meanwhile, educationist Helen Idiong called for greater openness in the concession process.
Idiong said stakeholders’ concerns were largely being driven by the absence of sufficient information about the terms of the agreement.
She urged the Federal Government to publish the concession agreement and establish a board with representatives of relevant stakeholders to monitor its implementation.
“The major issue is that there seems to be a lack of transparency in the concession agreement, which is generating fears from various stakeholders,” Idiong said.
She added, “The first thing would have been to consult widely and act based on input from stakeholders from the beginning. This would have been averted now.”
The Federal Government on Wednesday announced a two-week suspension of the concession arrangement after the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, met with representatives of education-sector labour unions.
The parties also agreed to suspend the industrial action linked to the dispute, withdraw police personnel deployed to the school and establish a seven-member committee, with labour representatives included, to review and negotiate the agreement.
The Federal Government has maintained that the arrangement is not a sale or privatisation of King’s College, stressing that ownership of the school remains with the government.
Alausa said the concession was intended to attract additional funding for the rehabilitation and modernisation of the historic institution while preserving government ownership and oversight.
He also stated that the government had no intention of extending the concession model to other Federal Unity Colleges and assured that the agreement would not result in an automatic increase in school fees.
The concession dispute followed protests by workers, parents and other stakeholders and was further heightened by a confrontation at the school, leading to the deployment of police personnel to the premises.
