News & Updates
The latest published political news from Nigeria, reviewed and approved by Baraza editors.
Saheed Popoola: a proven servant ready to deliver for Kwara South
Council chairman, commissioner and two-term lawmaker, Prince Saheed Popoola has served Offa and Kwara State at every level of government. Now the PDP’s consensus candidate for Kwara South, he brings a lifelong commitment to the grassroots, a pioneering voice for local government autonomy and the experience to deliver from day one in the Senate.
Keeping girls in the classroom: the Wellbeing Foundation's quiet revolution
A 2025 study found that more than half of school-age girls in Nigeria miss school each month because sanitary products are unaffordable or unavailable. A girl who misses a week every month will, sooner or later, stop going at all. Founded in 2004 by Toyin Ojora Saraki as a maternal health charity, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa has built its work for girls on that insight. It runs school programmes on menstrual hygiene, nutrition and girls’ rights, and by its own account its Hygiene Quest curriculum has reached 57,900 girls in schools. The aim is that no Nigerian girl should have to choose between her dignity and her desk.
When the moon stopped talking: Africa's lost classroom of values
For generations, African children learnt right from wrong not from textbooks but from a grandmother’s voice under the full moon. Through the greedy tortoise and the cunning spider, they absorbed honesty, respect for elders and loyalty to the community, often without anyone spelling out the moral. Urbanisation, television, smartphones and the retreat of African languages have since silenced that nightly classroom. The moon still rises over every village and city. What is missing is the circle beneath it.
Can a screen fill Africa's empty teacher's desk? 18 Oct 2026 · @Richard Awoseyin
Sub-Saharan Africa needs 15 million more teachers by 2030, more than any other region, and it cannot train them fast enough. But a shortage of teachers is really a shortage of teaching, and teaching can travel. In Ghana, live satellite lessons from a studio in Accra raised rural pupils’ maths scores by about a quarter of a standard deviation. In Botswana, a weekly text message paired with a 20-minute phone call cut innumeracy by 31 per cent. Virtual classrooms will not replace Africa’s missing teachers. Used wisely, they can make every good one go much further.
Osun's classroom revival: how Adeleke is rebuilding the state's schools
Four years ago Osun languished near the bottom of Nigeria’s examination tables. In the National Examinations Council’s ranking of states for the 2024 Senior School Certificate Examination, it climbed from 33rd to seventh. The state government called that its best showing in 18 years, and the pass rate rose again to 72.64 per cent in 2025. Freshly re-elected in August, Governor Ademola Adeleke has rebuilt classrooms, restored bursaries and begun hiring teachers. He now has four more years to make good on his boldest promise: taking Osun from seventh to first.
From Ayedun to Paisley Abbey: the Nigerian engineer who made Scottish history
She trained as a chemical engineer in Benin City, sold oilfield technology in Aberdeen and built a marketing business from scratch. When Yekemi Otaru was installed as Chancellor of the University of the West of Scotland at Paisley Abbey, she became the first woman of colour to hold the post. Her appointment was widely reported as making her the first Black woman to serve as chancellor of a Scottish university. More than 3,000 miles away, in the Kwara community of Ayedun where her father’s family has its roots, her story is told with particular pride.
What Africa's schools can learn from Obama's paperless presidential library
Obama’s new presidential centre has no traditional archive building. Its records are online, and its library serves the neighbourhood, not just scholars. The lesson for Africa: stop measuring education by buildings opened, and start measuring it by lives changed inside them.
Ayedun Educational Summit: three years on, a community vision delivers classrooms, computers and scholarships
Three years after its first gathering, the Ayedun Educational Summit has inspired a new classroom block, a solar-powered ICT centre with more than 100 computers, a school borehole and scholarships for indigent students. As the community meets this week for four days of school visits, project commissioning and debate, it also pays tribute to the late Obajisun, Oba Dr Olusegun Abayomi Rotimi.
Artificial Intelligence: Its Merits, Demerits and the Future of Humanity
Artificial intelligence is transforming education, healthcare, business and employment across the world. While its benefits are enormous, growing concerns about job displacement, intellectual dependence, privacy and human creativity raise important questions about how society should embrace this technology.
From Old Lecture Halls to AI Labs: Nigeria’s New University Courses
From Beijing to Abu Dhabi to Ohio, schools and universities are rewriting what students learn for an age of artificial intelligence. Nigeria is moving too. The NUC has approved new degrees such as Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security and Telecommunication Science. Here is what is changing, what stands in the way, and why today’s secondary school students may be the biggest winners.
Youth Group Launches Initiative to Train 300,000 Volunteers Against Electoral Violence Ahead of 2027 Polls
The original report identifies both Blessing Oyefeso and Aminu Shagari as chairmen of the YEGO National Stakeholders Steering Committee. Their respective designations should be verified before publication. The original also attributes statements to Dickson Akor through two different representatives; those attributions have been retained pending confirmation.
What We Praise, We Plant
When a young mother in my family gently explained why she and her husband don't praise their children's looks, she opened my eyes to something deeper. Too often, we praise looks, wealth and results while ignoring character, effort and process, and the cost shows up in our homes, schools, workplaces, public life and even our churches. But none of this is fate. This article looks at the values we pass on, and at how each of us can choose to plant better seeds in our children today.