PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE NIGERIAN ACADEMY OF EDUCATION (NAE) AT THE 2026 ANNUAL CONGRESS
Theme: Leading the Disruption: The Academy as a Catalyst for 21st-Century Educational Transformation
Date: 4th November, 2026
The Honourable Minister of Education and Other Ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria;
Members of the National and State Assemblies;
Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Education;
Captains of Industry;
Chief Executives of all Federal and State Parastatals;
Presidents of all Professional Academies;
Commissioners of Education;
Pro-chancellors & Chairmen, of all higher institutions of learning
Vice-Chancellors & other Principal Officers of all higher institutions of learning
Distinguished Trustees, Fellows and Members of the Academy
New Honorary Fellow, new Academic Fellows, and new Members
Relations, friends and well-wishers of our new Fellows and new Members
Friends of the Nigerian Academy of Education;
Members of the Press;
Distinguished Invities, Ladies and Gentlemen.
SECTION 1: WELCOME AND AN ACCOUNT OF STEWARDSHIP
It is with a profound sense of responsibility, humility, and immense gratitude that I welcome you all to the 2026 Annual Congress of the Nigerian Academy of Education. We gather this year not just to celebrate our longevity as an institution, but to rigorously examine our impact on the destiny of our nation’s educational ecosystem.
One year ago, the current Executive Council pledged to transition the NAE into a proactive, technology-driven engine for educational reform.
Today, I am proud to report that through your unwavering support, collaborative spirit, and constructive feedback, we have successfully translated most of these promises into tangible achievements across the four foundational matrices of:
Professionally Sound Leadership
Immersive Digital and AI Integration
Evidence-Based Interventions
Regular Academic and Professional E-Discussions
Our crowning achievement this year is the national recognition of our efforts. At its 13th Regular Meeting in 2025, the National Council on Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy adopted the Future Proof Economy Model as the implementation framework for the National Digital Literacy Framework. The Nigerian Academy of Education has been officially nominated as the national focal institution for digital literacy and future-proof economy leaders in Nigeria. The true test of Nigeria’s commitment to education is not what we declare in conference halls, but what changes in reality with the push from NAE. This monumental designation positions us at the centre of the country’s economic strategy, tasks us with defining the national digital skills framework, and cements our status as the apex brain trust for preparing Nigeria’s workforce for tomorrow’s realities.
SECTION 2: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS, SOBER MOMENTS, AND NEW MEMBERSHIP
While we celebrate these milestones, we must ground our joy in the realities of our shared humanity and national context. It was a thing of joy and a great honour and privilege to celebrate with Emeritus Professor Otonti Nduka, our former President and Trustee, his centenary birthday in Port-Harcourt in May, this year. Now, a few months over 100 years of age, he is still dashing around and dancing. He never fails to attend all the activities of the Academy. Congratulations, Sir.
Even as we look forward, we must pause to remember those who walked beside us but are no longer here. This past year, the cold hands of death snatched away some of our beloved colleagues and structural pillars, and some members of their families. In a special way, while we are unable to mention everyone, we pause to honour the memory of one of our founding fathers, Professor Adamu Baikie, family members of Trustees, Fellows and Members. While for obvious reasons we cannot mention everyone of them we must remember late Mrs Palmata Lassa, the beloved wife of our former President and Trustee, Professor Lassa; and late Mr Omotayo Olarinoye, the eldest son of the immediate Past Vice President 1, Professor Raph Olarinoye. On behalf of the Executive Council, I extend our deepest commiserations to all the families of our lost ones. Their legacies are permanently woven into the epistemic fabric of this institution. We commit to honouring them not only through passive mourning, but through an uncompromising preservation of the scholarly standards they championed.
On behalf of the Executive Council, I extend our deepest, most heartfelt commiserations to the families of all our departed members. Their legacies are permanently etched into the foundation of this Academy, and we commit to honouring their memories by sustaining the high standards they lived by. May we stand up for a minute’s silence in their memory, please.
Conversely, the continuity of our mission depends on the infusion of fresh energy, intellect, and perspective. Today, we celebrate a glorious milestone as we induct our new members and confer fellowships upon outstanding scholars who have proven their mettle.
To our new inductees and fellows: I offer my warmest congratulations. However, you must view this recognition not merely as an ornament of honour, but as a call to heavy national service. The ancient adage holds true for you today: to whom much is given, much is expected and desired. The Academy does not need passive spectators or armchair critics. Nigeria needs your brains, your sweat, and your active involvement. We expect you to immediately populate our working committees, lead our research initiatives, and inject fresh, disruptive vigour into our programmes.
SECTION 3: THE CROSSROADS, SYSTEMIC DISRUPTION, AND THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE
Distinguished invities, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, despite our successes, we cannot afford to be complacent. We must face the brutal facts. Nigeria is currently at a critical volatile crossroads where obsolete educational paradigms collide with an unforgiving 21st-century reality in its education system. Nigeria, therefore, needs raw brains, deep wisdom, rebranding of our educational system, and courageous leadership more than ever before.
The metrics before us are stark. We are battling an unacceptably high population of out-of-school children, outdated curricula at all levels that do not match market demands, underfunded infrastructures, and an acute shortage of teachers equipped for the digital age. The conventional, incremental approaches we have relied upon for decades are no longer sufficient. If we continue to do things the way we have always done them, we will sentence future generations to global irrelevance.
The time for polite, reactive advisory notes is over. Although we are often reminded that we are only an advisory body, Nigerian Academy of Education must become radically proactive. We must step out of our comfort zones, step into the halls of policy execution, and intentionally disrupt the systems that bind our educational potential.
For a start, we call on Government to urgently set in motion the necessary plans to comprehensively revise the National Policy on Education which is several decades outdated. Furthermore, government should implement, very strictly and correctly, the composition of Boards of institutions and parastatals according to the laid down rules, provisions and regulations. We must rewrite the rules of teacher training, force a complete overhaul of instructional delivery methodologies, and champion policies that mandate equitable tech distribution across every rural and urban classroom in Nigeria.
When we point a finger at others, the remaining point at us. NAE members must be transformational. We must embrace all emerging technologies including AI. Hence, as from the next congress, all our programmes and functions will be virtual and online. We should brace ourselves for a paperless NAE come 2027.
As we kick off the deliberations of this Congress and look forward to the next full year of our institutional calendar, I leave every individual in this room, and our corporate body as a whole, with a foundational, disruptive challenge:
How can and should our Nigerian Academy of Education—both corporately as an elite institution and individually as leading scholars—become true, unmistakable transformation agents in the 21st-century educational ecosystem?
Let this question disturb your peace over the next few days. Let it shape your contributions during our technical sessions, and let it dictate the resolutions we pass at the end of this Congress. We have the intellect, we have the history, and we now have the mandate as leaders of a future-proof economy. Let us match our institutional prestige with radical, transformative action.
I wish you all a highly rewarding, intellectually stimulating, and successful 2026 Congress.
Thank you, and
God bless you all. God bless Nigerian Academy of Education.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Emeritus Professor Olugbemiro Jegede, FNAE
National President, NAE
ABUJA, 4 November, 2026
