For over 40 years, one problem broke every education minister who walked in before him. Strikes that shut universities for months at a time. Students who started a four-year degree with no idea when they would actually graduate. He says it took one president and a handful of honest meetings to end it.
When his team asked the president to approve a 40% salary increase for academic staff, he thought the number was too much to ask for. The president looked up and said yes. "It was as if I won a jackpot," he says. "I was about to run out of his office before he called me back."
Dr. Tunji Alausa is a physician and nephrologist who built a career across Nigeria, the UK and the US, and served as chief resident at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He came home to serve as Minister of State for Health, and today he runs education for a country of 220 million people, roughly 70% of them under the age of 30.
In this episode we get into the real number of out-of-school children and why he says UNICEF and UNESCO have it wrong, flipping classrooms from 70% theory to 80% practice, taking nursing enrollment from 28,000 to over 140,000 a year, why he tore up the idea that a plumber ranks below a doctor, bringing Nigerian history and a new national anthem back into the classroom, and a blunt message to the diaspora: come back home before the opportunity is gone.
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WHERE TO FIND DR. TUNJI ALAUSA
X: https://x.com/DrTunjiAlausa
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drtunjialausa
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-tunji-alausa
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
X: https://x.com/NigEducation
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The lines that stopped a 40-year problem
1:41 Quick favor: hit subscribe
1:57 The biggest myth about running education
2:52 "ASUU will be your biggest problem"
4:26 40 years of broken promises and mistrust
7:17 No more bogus agreements
8:06 "No committee between you and me"
8:44 The 40% raise he thought was too much
9:00 "It was as if I won a jackpot"
9:23 Diverting looted funds into education
10:11 "Nigeria is in a renaissance"
11:40 The 20 states that couldn't pay salaries
14:16 The president who reads every paper by dawn
15:32 A message to the diaspora
16:48 Equipping Lagos hospitals from Chicago
18:50 How Tinubu became his mentor
19:20 The year he knew Tinubu wanted the presidency
20:53 "I'd be a hypocrite to stay in America"
21:41 "Polish your shoes" — the offer to serve
22:48 From Health to Education in 18 months
23:25 Flipping the classroom to practical-first
25:10 "Government needs more madmen"
25:52 How technical schools were made to look primitive
27:49 "A plumber earns more than a doctor"
28:37 Suffering in the midst of plenty
30:22 The fight over polytechnic degrees
33:57 The dual-mandate win for colleges of education
36:13 "Why send your child abroad?"
38:03 How Ilorin stayed number one by banning strikes
40:44 24 Nigerian universities ranked, 17 of them public
43:14 Billions into med schools, labs and hostels
47:09 Taking campuses off the grid with solar
50:02 Building job creators, not job seekers
52:53 Nursing: from 28,000 to 140,000 a year
54:55 Medical seats: from 5,000 toward 20,000
57:36 The "Olodo uprising" and graduates of nothing
58:34 When Nigeria had water and light 24/7
1:04:02 Putting real skills back in school
1:05:41 Coursera certificates for global jobs
1:07:48 Rewriting the curriculum from the ground up
1:10:38 "Without data, you're flying blind"
1:12:17 Why history was cut, and how it came back
1:15:39 Why the national anthem changed
1:17:00 "We do not have 15 million out-of-school children"
1:20:20 Counting on the grid: the real numbers
1:25:00 "It's not the West's job to fix us"
1:28:17 Keeping children safe in school
1:32:25 A message to the bandits
1:34:37 Rapid fire: Chicago or Lagos?
1:37:33 What Africa should stop waiting for
1:42:48 Favorite food: beans and dodo
1:43:31 The book that shaped him
1:45:53 Who should be in this chair next
