Abuja – The Federal Government has disowned responsibility for the controversial ₦200,000 cash reward presented to Nafisah Abdullahi, the teenage prodigy who won the prestigious TeenEagle Global English Contest, insisting the money came from the personal purse of the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa.
The clarification, issued Thursday by the ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Boriowo Folasade, followed a wave of public outrage and condemnation from students’ groups, particularly the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), who described the paltry sum as an insult to Nigeria’s intellectual pride.
SaharaReporters had earlier reported that the minister handed the cash gift to Abdullahi at a ceremony in Abuja on August 28. The gesture sparked a storm of criticism, with many Nigerians comparing it to the government’s flamboyant rewards for sports achievements.
Only weeks ago, the Tinubu administration showered Nigeria’s Super Falcons with a staggering ₦152 million ($100,000) each, national honours, and three-bedroom apartments in Abuja’s Renewed Hope Housing Estate after their 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) triumph. Similar largesse was extended to D’Tigress, the women’s basketball champions, along with their technical crew.
By contrast, the ₦200,000 offered to Abdullahi—who brought global recognition to Nigeria through intellectual brilliance—was branded “a slap on the face of the nation’s education sector” by NANS.
“This gross disparity shows how Nigeria prioritises entertainment and sports over intellectual achievement. The Federal Government must urgently review the reward upward to global best practices. Anything less undermines the dignity of Nigerian students and further discourages academic pursuit in a country already struggling with a collapsing education sector,” NANS declared in a statement.
Responding to the backlash, the education ministry insisted:
> “For the avoidance of doubt, the monetary tokens presented at the national recognition event were personal gifts from the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa. These gifts were not funded by the Federal Government or the Ministry of Education.”
The ministry further stressed that it has no budgetary allocation for cash awards, reiterating that its financial provisions are reserved strictly for scholarships and structured educational support for students in public tertiary institutions.
Quoting Dr. Alausa, the statement read:
> “This gift was just a token of my personal appreciation of the effort made by these young girls and to serve as encouragement to other children in Nigeria to excel.”
Still, the disclaimer has done little to calm the backlash, with critics arguing that the Tinubu government has once again exposed the yawning gap between Nigeria’s rhetoric on valuing education and the reality of its actions.
The ministry nonetheless assured Nigerians of its commitment to President Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope” vision of building a robust, globally competitive education system where every child has access to world-class learning opportunities.
But for many Nigerians, the question remains: Is academic excellence worth less than sports glory in today’s Nigeria?
PIONEER NEWS 