Don’t deny your citizens quality education, Onuora-Oguno tasks African leaders
By Abubakar Imam
A Professor of International Human Rights at the University of Ilorin, Azubike Chinwuba Onuora-Oguno,has urged governments across Africa to ensure that their people are not denied access to education and other rights that are necessary to live a dignified life.
Prof. Onuora-Oguno gave this advice penultimate Wednesday (August 19, 2026) while presenting a paper, titled “When Development Denies Education: Legal Mobilisation, Justice and the Future of Constitutionalism in Africa” at the Conference on Constitutionalism in Africa hosted by the University of the Free State, South Africa.
The don, who is also a former Head of the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, University of Ilorin, said that stakeholders should look beyond roads, bridges, mines, oil wells, pipelines, foreign investment, GDP figures and government revenues in measuring development but consider the quality of education available and opportunities to obtain such.
He explained that more efforts should be made towards ensuring that citizens are not denied the rights to receive quality education.
Prof. Onuora-Oguno said that while Africa possesses enormous mineral and natural-resource wealth, many extractive communities across the continent remain educationally disadvantaged.
He said that it is unfortunate that human activities in many African communities have exposed such places to pollution, displacement, insecurity and poverty, which more often than not disrupt the educational development of their citizens.
He insisted that economic priorities should never be allowed to overshadow educational rights, saying that if not corporate accountability would be weakened.
Prof. Onuora-Oguno said that the question is not whether Africa needs development, but rather what kind of development does the continent deserve and who should bear its costs.
He urged participants and others to engage in activities that would enhance legal consciousness and influence constitutional development in diverse contexts but particularly from the context of ensuring that the right to education is not sacrificed.
Prof. Onuora-Oguno canvassed a constitutional obligation that would ensure that the right to education is not truncated as he said that education should not be seen as a social service provided by the benevolence of government but a right that citizens should not be denied.
