Govt Urged To Engage More Social Scientists On Nigeria’s Challenges

The Social Science Academy of Nigeria (SSAN) has called on the government to deploy more social scientists in national planning and policymaking.

It asserted that Nigeria’s deepening crises require evidence-based solutions rather than politically driven assumptions.

The president of SSAN, Prof. Chike Okolocha, made the call at the opening of the Academy’s 2025 General Assembly in Abuja with the theme, “Nigeria After 1999: New Contestations and Transformation.”
He said Nigeria is battling multiple social, economic and security challenges that cannot be resolved without the input of experts trained to understand human behaviour, institutions, governance and development dynamics.

“Nigeria has competent social scientists who can see beyond narrow political constrictions to formulate genuine evidence-based policy options,” he said.

Prof. Okolocha noted that the Constitution of SSAN mandates the body to interrogate topical national issues and contribute knowledge to guide policymaking, a role that has become even more critical given

Nigeria’s deepening social, economic and political challenges.

He criticised what he described as the government’s increasing anti-intellectual posture, marked by policy inconsistencies, disregard for research, and public statements from officials that are not backed by facts.

He cited several examples of policy missteps driven by poor consultation with experts, including the 1982 removal of History from Nigeria’s curriculum

He said, “No evidence was adduced for this decision. It took all of 35 years to reverse this ill-advised policy and we certainly cannot quantify the tangible and nontangible losses arising from the misstep.”

He also faulted the 2019 claim by a former labour minister that Nigeria had “too many doctors”; and the 2025 declaration by the Minister of Education that the country “had too many social scientists” and should discontinue social science courses.

He said, “in May this (2025), the Minister of Education declared that the country had too many social scientists and should therefore discontinue social science courses in our universities. As usual, no evidence was adduced to justify this statement.

” However, the truth of the matter is that, if we are to reverse gross civic incompetence and irresponsibility, Nigeria needs to produce more (competent) social scientists. Social science knowledge constitutes a critical building block in national development.”

The SSAN President also faulted the recent reversal of the National Language Policy (NLP), which mandated the use of mother tongues in early childhood education.

He said the policy, developed after a decade of expert consultations, was widely praised and adopted by other African countries, adding that reverting to English-only instruction would undermine national identity and cultural preservation.

He said, “Some of these misleading statements and policy somersaults may be borne out of desperate socioeconomic dire straits (including unemployment). Yet, public policy should never be premised on desperation, panic, falsehood and deceit.”

Prof. Okolocha expressed concern over the state of knowledge production and the persistent instability in Nigerian universities, which he blamed partly on the long-standing conflict between government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

He described the recurring strikes and poor funding as major barriers to knowledge production and innovation.

“It is disheartening that ASUU went on strike again this year over the same issues that have remained unresolved for fifty years,” he said.

He also questioned the continuous establishment of new universities despite the shortage of qualified candidates, arguing that falling admission cut-off marks contradict official claims that Nigeria has an excess of qualified students.

He said, “If, as NUC and other officials claim, we actually have too many qualified candidates, we should expect the cut-off for admission to go up, not down! The cry over falling standards in education will continue as long as we continue flooding the universities’ and other tertiary educational institutions with unqualified candidates.”

Prof. Okolocha reaffirmed SSAN’s commitment to generating research-driven insights for national development, stressing that Nigeria must prioritise expert knowledge if it hopes to overcome its crises.

In his paper presentation, keynote speaker Dr Adam Okene Ahmed, a Professor of Security History & International Studies at the National Defence College Nigeria, Abuja, argued that Nigeria’s trajectory from 1990 to 2020 embodies a central paradox: a formal transition from military authoritarianism to civilian rule, persistently constrained by authoritarian legacies and deep-seated structural contestations.

He said Nigeria’s transformation remains fundamentally unfinished, defined by an enduring negotiation between democratic forms and illiberal practices.

The quest for nation-building, therefore, continues to hinge on reconciling diversity with genuine democratic accountability.