Unity Colleges at a Crossroads: Workers Resist Government’s Concession Plan

By Matthew Eloyi

The gates of some Federal Unity Colleges across Abuja may have remained quiet at the start of the 2026/2027 academic session, but a growing battle over the future of Nigeria’s public secondary education system is gathering momentum.

On Monday in Abuja, workers and trade union leaders in the Federal Ministry of Education took their opposition to the proposed concession of Federal Unity Colleges to the ministry’s headquarters, turning the premises into a scene of placards, solidarity songs and demands for the immediate abandonment of the plan.

The protesters vowed to sustain their industrial action until the Federal Government reverses the proposal and commits additional resources to the affected institutions.

At the heart of the dispute is the proposed concession of King’s College, Lagos, to private interests or its Old Boys’ Association. What began as a disagreement over the management of one of Nigeria’s most prominent secondary schools has now widened into a broader debate over whether public institutions established to provide affordable education and promote national unity should be transferred to private hands.

For the workers and their unions, the issue goes beyond ownership. They argue that Federal Unity Colleges represent an important social investment, particularly for families that cannot afford the cost of private secondary education.

Comrade Gali Habib, a trade union leader in the ministry, said the workers were protesting in solidarity to protect the public ownership and national-integration objectives of the colleges.

According to him, the institutions have historically provided children from less-privileged families with access to quality secondary education at subsidised rates while bringing together students from different ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

“If you are selling these schools to private organisations, will the children of the poor be able to access quality education again? No,” he said.

Habib maintained that while wealthy Nigerians could afford private schools, many ordinary families continued to depend on government institutions for affordable and quality secondary education.

Rather than concession, he urged the Government to channel resources into rehabilitating infrastructure, improving teachers’ welfare and meeting other educational needs.

The argument has also resonated among workers within the ministry who see the Unity Colleges as more than ordinary schools.

A staff representative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the institutions as important platforms for national integration, where children from different parts of the country live, study and interact together.

The worker warned that transferring the schools to private management could weaken that function while making quality secondary education increasingly inaccessible to families unable to meet private-school fees.

For another ministry officer, identified simply as Uko because of concerns about possible victimisation, the proposed concession of King’s College should instead be an opportunity for Government to renew its investment in the institution.

He described King’s College as a national heritage institution that had contributed to the development of generations of Nigerians and urged the Federal Government to rehabilitate its facilities and improve the welfare of teachers and other workers.

“Instead of handing these institutions over to private interests, the Federal Government should inject adequate funding and properly cater to teachers and staff,” he said.

The controversy raises a fundamental question about the future of public education in Nigeria: should struggling government schools be transferred to private interests, or should the Government strengthen its investment in them?

For proponents of the concession approach, private participation could potentially improve management and infrastructure. But for the protesting workers, such a move risks transforming institutions designed around public access and national integration into schools increasingly shaped by commercial considerations.

The affordability question is particularly significant. If concession ultimately results in higher fees, critics fear that children from low- and middle-income families could gradually be excluded from institutions that were established to widen educational opportunity.

The national-integration argument is equally important. Federal Unity Colleges were designed to bring young Nigerians from different parts of the country together at an impressionable stage of their lives. Their value, therefore, extends beyond classroom instruction to social interaction, cultural exchange and the development of a shared national identity.

The dispute has already affected the new academic session.

The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, directed the Federal Unity Colleges to resume for the 2026/2027 academic activities. However, a visit by a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent to some Unity Colleges in the Federal Capital Territory showed that the directive had not been fully implemented.

The schools remained deserted, with neither students nor teachers on the premises.

At the Federal Government Boys’ College, Apo, inscriptions opposing the proposed concession were prominently displayed at the school gate, signalling the depth of resistance among workers and other stakeholders.

The deserted campuses have thus become a visible symbol of a wider unresolved confrontation between the Federal Government and education-sector unions.

Beyond the immediate dispute over King’s College, the controversy presents Government with a difficult policy choice. Nigeria needs better-funded, better-managed and better-equipped public schools, but the method of achieving that objective could determine who ultimately benefits from them.

For the protesting workers, the answer is clear: Federal Unity Colleges should remain public institutions and national assets. Their demand is not simply for the concession plan to be abandoned, but for Government to increase funding, modernise infrastructure and improve the welfare of those responsible for educating the nation’s children.

Until that disagreement is resolved, the future of the Unity Colleges remains at a crossroads — caught between the Government’s search for alternative management and investment models and the unions’ insistence that public education should remain a public responsibility.