By Niran Bamisaye
The ₦20 million cash gifts presented by Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to the two best graduating students of Lagos State University are more than a reward for academic excellence. They are a reminder of what Nigeria can achieve when talent is recognised and encouraged.
At LASU’s 29th and 30th convocation ceremonies, Ayilara Lawal Olawale, who graduated with a 4.96 CGPA in Project Management, and Adebanjo Samuel Oluolamide, who achieved 4.97 in Aerospace Engineering, received ₦20 million each for emerging as the overall best graduating students in the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 sessions.
The gesture is commendable. Excellence deserves recognition, and such recognition can inspire other young Nigerians to understand that discipline, hard work and intellectual achievement matter.
But it also raises a bigger question: are we investing enough to produce more excellence?
That question becomes particularly relevant with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent directive that liquid funds recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, alongside certain unclaimed funds, be channelled to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to strengthen student financing.
This is another initiative deserving commendation. If resources recovered from corruption can help a young Nigerian remain in school, acquire a degree and build a future, then recovered wealth is being returned to society in one of its most meaningful forms: opportunity.
NELFUND has already become an important intervention for students struggling with the cost of tertiary education, with more than 1.3 million students registered on its platform and over 1.6 million loan applications.However, access is only one part of the education problem.
A student may receive a loan and still arrive at an institution with inadequate laboratories, dilapidated lecture theatres, poorly equipped libraries, overcrowded hostels and insufficient research facilities. Education should therefore no longer be treated merely as a social-service obligation. It is economic infrastructure. The engineer who designs better roads, the doctor who keeps workers healthy, the teacher who develops the next generation and the entrepreneur who creates jobs are all products of the education system.
There are encouraging examples across the states. Anambra allocated 46.9 per cent of its 2026 budget to education, while Enugu committed about 32.3 per cent. Other states, including Kano and Jigawa, have also made substantial commitments. These efforts deserve recognition and, more importantly, emulation.
But increased funding must come with accountability. Governments must demonstrate what is being spent, institutions must show what investments have achieved, and educational interventions must increasingly be measured by outcomes rather than announcements, ceremonies and commissioning photographs.
The same urgency applies to research and innovation. Too many brilliant student projects end with graduation and eventually find their way onto library shelves, even when they could become businesses, technologies or solutions to Nigerian problems. This is why the Federal Government’s Student Venture Capital Grant is encouraging. In March, ₦2.2 billion was awarded to 45 student ventures to help transform ideas into viable enterprises.
Nigeria needs more of this. We need universities where a promising final-year project can become a patent, a medical device, an agricultural solution, a technology company or a solution deployed at scale. Government, universities and the private sector must build stronger pathways through which promising research moves from the laboratory to the marketplace.
This has become even more urgent because of the brain drain affecting the country. Nigeria spends years and enormous public and private resources educating young people, only for many of them to deploy their skills elsewhere because the opportunities and conditions at home are inadequate.
The answer to Japa cannot simply be condemnation. We must create an environment in which talent has compelling reasons to remain: functional institutions, meaningful research opportunities, competitive careers and an economy that rewards innovation.
Renovating tertiary institutions must therefore be treated as an investment, not merely expenditure. Lecture halls, laboratories, libraries, hostels, workshops, ICT facilities and other infrastructure directly influence the quality of education students receive.
The ₦20 million awarded to two exceptional LASU graduates is commendable. NELFUND is commendable. State governments investing substantially in education deserve recognition. Federal support for student innovation is also encouraging.
But Nigeria must go further.
Rewarding excellence tells students that achievement matters. Building the system that produces excellence tells an entire generation that the country believes in their future. Nigeria needs both.
We should not only celebrate the few students who manage to excel despite the limitations of the system; we must invest in a system capable of producing excellence on a much larger scale.
The real measure of educational investment should therefore not only be how many scholarships are awarded or buildings commissioned, but how many students remain in school, how many innovations reach the market, how many research projects solve real problems, how many graduates create value and how many talented Nigerians can build meaningful lives without having to leave the country to find opportunity.
Our best students have shown us what is possible. Now, governments at every level must build an education system worthy of their potential.
Niran Bamisaye wrote in from Lagos, Nigeria
Amazing, i agree with Federal government support 4 excellent students @ all levels.