Anambra’s New National Education Awards Versus The Falsehood In Philips Ratings

By Christian ABURIME

Jonathan Swift’s 1710 observation that “falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it” has proven prophetic in ways he could never have imagined. The saying captures a fundamental lop-sidedness in social dynamics: lies are unburdened by the weight of evidence, verification, or nuance. Truth, by contrast, is processed by complexity, context, and the slow, painstaking work of investigation and proof. A lie can be crafted in seconds in a chair and spread with a single click; the truth often requires hours of research, fact-checking, and careful explanation that few have the patience to consume.

In our society today, this imbalance has become a crisis of information integrity.
Yet Swift’s metaphor also offers a subtle note of hope: truth does eventually arrive. It may limp, it may lag behind, but it persists. History tends to correct the record, and lies eventually collapse under the weight of their own contradictions as is now happening to the dubious Philips Consulting poor rating of Anambra’s educational development which impulsive critics hastily jumped on to castigate Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo recently. In an age of ‘microwave’ propaganda, we must learn to wait for truth to put on its boots rather than running alongside every lie that passes by.

When Philips Consulting earlier released its flawed report, Anambra had put forward a robust denunciation backed by irrefutable facts and records that show that the state’s educational sector has considerably improved under Governor Soludo rather than regressed.

Today, more evidence has emerged. The 2025 President’s Teachers and Schools Excellence Award, conferred just few days ago at Eagles Square in Abuja by the Honorable Minister for Education, Dr. Olatunji Alausa, has once again spotlighted Anambra’s unparalleled excellence in Nigeria’s educational landscape. With an astonishing nine awards sweeping across public and private schools, teachers, and administrators, this haul is a resounding affirmation of Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s visionary polices facilitating the enabling environment for educational excellence, exposing the PCL report as the methodological mirage it truly is.

Let us consider the sheer breadth of Anambra’s success in the latest prestigious national award, which honours the best of Nigeria’s educational ecosystem. Leading the charge is Woliwo Primary School II in Onitsha, clinching the star prize, a sixteen-seater bus, as the all-round best school in Nigeria. Pinkberry International School in Odume Obosi followed suit as the first runner-up for the best approved private primary school nationwide, while its teacher, Nkechi Ikedi, earned the first runner-up spot for best approved private primary school teacher. In the senior secondary category, Emmanuel Ndibe of St. Theresa’s Secondary School in Enugwu Ukwu was recognised as the first runner-up for best approved private senior secondary school teacher.

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The public school sector’s prowess was equally unassailable, with Government Secondary School (GSS), Ojoto taking first runner-up as the best public junior secondary school in the country. Individual educators and administrators shone brightly too: Cosmas Nwata of Igbariam Farm Settlement Primary School as first runner-up for best public primary school teacher; Amaka Ubaka of Prince Memorial Secondary School in Onitsha for best public senior secondary school administrator; Okafor Ngozi of Community High School in Nkwelle Ezunaka for best public junior secondary school administrator; and Edozieobi Nnenna of Model Primary School in Akabor Ojoto for best public primary school administrator.

Each of these academic luminaries walked away, in addition to other prizes, with a laptop as symbolic reward for their excellence.

These awards, bestowed after rigorous national evaluations, reflect a deliberate strategy under Governor Soludo to elevate education from rhetoric to reality. Since assuming office, the governor has championed free education from nursery to JSS3, extending it to SS3 in 2024 across all public schools, a policy that has driven a 50% surge in public schools enrolments, reducing out-of-school children to a mere 2.9%, the lowest in Nigeria according to UNESCO in 2023 but current indications show it is almost at zero percent as at today.

The recruitment of 8,115 teachers in his first two years, coupled with massive investments in infrastructure and technology, has also created a fertile ground for excellence. It is no coincidence that Anambra’s students and schools continue to dominate not just nationally but globally, from winning the 2023 International Debate Championship in Malaysia to securing gold in the 2024 World Affairs Challenge and topping the 2025 UTME with scores like Okeke Chinedu Christian’s nation-leading 375.

Yet, amid this cascade of empirical successes, PCL’s report peddles a narrative of decline that borders on misinformation which has fed the desperation of paranoid politicians. Their ranking of Anambra at 33rd in education infrastructure reeks of methodological malpractice: a minuscule sample of 78 respondents for a state of over 8 million, skewed 76% male without proper stratification, and an over reliance on expenditure figures devoid of outcome assessments. No field visits, no stakeholder engagements; just perceptions from afar, likely Lagos or Abuja desks.

That is not credible analysis, but assumption dressed as authority. When juxtaposed against verifiable benchmarks like the President’s Awards or UNESCO data, PCL’s findings crumble, revealing a consulting firm out of its depth in performance indexing.

Critics exploiting PCL’s report to label Governor Soludo’s tenure a failure obviously love entertaining negative false narratives about their state, ignoring the inconvenient truth: Anambra’s education sector is not slumping; it is soaring. Governor Soludo, the economic technocrat and pragmatic visionary, has applied a ‘Doing More with Less’ ethos to maximise impact, fostering an ecosystem where public and private institutions thrive in tandem. The nine awards today are the latest chapter in an evolving story of sustained progress, from debate championships to ICT innovations. To dismiss this as coincidence or result of some distant past regime is to deny the policy-driven momentum Governor Soludo has unleashed.

With the November state governorship election fast approaching, Ndi Anambra must beware of microwave propaganda and the mischief of flawed ratings that undermine genuine governance. PCL’s venture, while ambitious, risks eroding trust in data-driven discourse. For Anambra, however, the proof is in the national podiums of recognition and prizes. As our new-mint awardees return home with their honours, they carry the promise of a brighter future: one that Governor Soludo will meticulously continue to nurture. Nigeria is watching, and perhaps learning, that true excellence is not ranked in some fancy consulting offices; it is nurtured in classrooms, celebrated in national arenas, and defended against the tides of misinformation. Anambra is rising, and it will continue to lead the way.