EDITORIAL: King’s College concession: Mirroring government’s bad decisions

Academic activities at King’s College, Lagos, have not taken off since the 2026/2027 session began about three weeks ago, as the government’s concessioning of the school to its Old Boys Association has hit a brick wall. It was utterly riotous at the gates of the school on 15 September, when members of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA), opposed to the move, squared up to the Old Boys and prevented their access to the college for a meeting. The resulting chaos, which led to some people getting hurt, subsequently attracted heavy police presence.

In Abuja, it was the same tumultuous scene at the Federal Ministry of Education, masterminded by organised labour, the staff and PTA delegation of the college. The Joint Congress of Unions of the Federal Ministry of Education and Trade Union Congress (TUC) ensured that solidarity actions were held simultaneously nationwide in other federal Unity Colleges.

Earlier, the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa’s announcement in August that the school had been transferred to the Old Boys Association in a 35-year concession plan had set off a wave of condemnation and resistance from various stakeholders, who in our view have genuine concerns.

King’s College (KC), Lagos, set up in 1909 by the colonial government, is one of the heritage institutions in the country, in the mould of Government College, Ibadan; Barewa College, Zaria; and Government College, Umuahia.

Regrettably, King’s College has become a shadow of its former self, run aground by the federal government, like other public institutions. This is obvious in its deplorable infrastructure – dilapidated buildings, overcrowded hostels, fallen standards, and moral decadence. In 2025, a 12-year-old pupil died in the hostel from diphtheria.

For many senior students, bullying of their junior ones is a pastime. This has often elicited the outrage of parents, who then pull their children out of the school’s dormitory. The Old Boys Association was concerned about all this, and sought to rebuild the college and restore its fame.

While there is nothing wrong with such intentions, yet what really mattered was the method of the intervention. All over the world, Old Boys give back to their alma maters through a number of measures, such as the building and rehabilitation of classrooms, hostels and the setting up of educational endowments.

In the context of KC, the parents are concerned about the sort of access their children/wards would have to the school and the amount of fees they would be required to pay once the government’s funding ceases. The teachers and other members of staff equally fear for the security of their jobs, salaries, and pension benefits in a private ownership structure.

Unable to prevail in its enforcement of the concession, the government suspended its order for two weeks following consultations with union members. This is to enable a seven-member committee that was set up to review the disputed concession agreement. Its work began last Monday, and will focus on the duration of the concession, the school fees payable, continued public funding, staff welfare, operational control and financial obligation of the Old Boys.

This ought to have been the federal government’s first step, rather than its accustomed policy of putting the cart before the horse. Such informed the fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Tinubu in 2023.

The PTA Chairman of the school, Peter Oluwaleye, in decrying the concession, stated categorically that the federal government would cease funding the school after the concession is completed. Equally enraged is the forum of ex-principals of the college, which described the plan as being “inconceivable.” It declared that, “A system under which the federal government ceases to fund the daily operations and infrastructural development of King’s College would amount to abandonment of one of its critical social responsibilities – the education and development of the nation’s future human capital.” We couldn’t agree more with this.

The minister’s uncompromising stance of “no going back” on the concession is not salutary in the present circumstance. In fact, it presents a fait accompli to the seven-member committee tasked with a review, which makes an amicable resolution very difficult. PREMIUM TIMES is of the position that KC should remain a public school; its place in our national history protected, and it should be properly funded.

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A controversial policy like this dramatises the government’s historical amnesia, time and time again. It would be recalled that in 2006, the policy of the concession or sale of 102 Unity Colleges was attempted under the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency, with Oby Ezekwesili as the education minister.

Nigeria is probably the only country in the world where the government would glibly choose to auction off or concession national monuments. The Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Lagos – the iconic site where the country’s independence was observed on 1st October 1960 – was almost sold off 19 years ago. Revenues from the transaction were projected to fund the deficits in the 2007, 2017 and 2022 budgets, which were riddled with corruption and opacity.

However, the sale stalled as a result of the legal tango between the federal government and the Lagos State government at the Supreme Court, for about two decades now, over the real ownership of the structure. The National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, presently renamed the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts, has gone through almost the same fate, for the sake of lucre.

If the government sails through with its concession agenda at KC, being the most pre-eminent public college in the country, the prospect of other unity colleges going the same way would likely be just another walk in the park. This is why the solidarity of the 104 such schools with KC needs to be sustained for the sake of public education in the country.

The progressive decline of the education budget since 2024 (from 7.9 per cent of the total, to 7.08 per cent in 2025, and 6 per cent in 2026), amid the receipt of more revenues to the public treasury is an oxymoron that the government would be hard put to explain. It should let public schools be!