Top 10 Policies That Stressed Nigerian Students in 2025. If the Nigerian government isn’t actively frustrating Nigerian students one way, it’s disappointing them in another. Policies don’t just arrive, they pile up. Before students can adjust to one, another lands, louder, harsher, and somehow worse.
For students, policy is not theory. It’s food money. Transport fare. Data subscription. Exam anxiety. Graduation delays. And in 2025, the federal government delivered a masterclass in how to stress young people who are already hanging on by a thread.
Here are ten of the worst policies Tinubu gifted Nigerian students this year.
Telecom Price Hike: “Can you hotspot me?”
Nigerian students began 2025 screaming, and not because of New Year excitement. On Monday, January 20, 2025, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) approved a 50% increase in telecom tariffs.
For students, this wasn’t just a price hike. It was an education cut.
The telcos — through ALTON and ATCON — told the government they were drowning. Business costs were too high. They hadn’t increased prices since 2013. They asked for a 100% hike. The NCC negotiated it down to 50%, like that was mercy.
Students were expected to clap.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) threatened protests but eventually backed down after talks with the government. Students, of course, had no seat at that table.
The result? Less internet usage. Less research. Less access to online lectures, YouTube tutorials, Google Scholar, Coursera, WhatsApp study groups, and everything else students rely on to survive an unstable academic system.
In a country where strikes shut down classrooms regularly, expensive internet quietly shuts down learning. If that isn’t anti-student policy, what is?
Shea Nut Export Ban: The “Development” That Cost Students’ Mothers Their Jobs
On August 26, 2025, President Tinubu announced a six-month ban on shea nut exports.
Nigeria produces 40% of the world’s shea nuts but earns just 1% of the $6.5 billion global market because we export raw nuts and import finished butter.
Valid concern. Absolutely wild solution.
The ban didn’t magically create processing plants. What it did do was destroy the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians, many of them women whose children are students depending on that income for school fees, feeding, and accommodation.
When parents lose income, students drop out quietly. No press release covers that.
Passport Fee Hike: “Study abroad ke?”
On September 1, 2025, the Nigeria Immigration Service doubled passport fees.
₦50,000 became ₦100,000.
₦100,000 became ₦200,000.
For students, passports aren’t luxury items. They’re gateways to scholarships, conferences, exchange programs, competitions, internships, and hope.
Doubling the price priced students out of opportunity. A document that should enable mobility now requires financial privilege. It is now easier to dream about leaving Nigeria than to afford the paperwork to try.
$11.5 APIS Levy: “Have you tried Zoom instead?”
If a student somehow manages to afford a passport and a visa, the government waits at the airport.
On December 1, 2025, the NCAA introduced an $11.5 APIS levy on international flights.
Aviation stakeholders protested. Alex Nwuba called it “another blow” to an already struggling sector. The key issue? Other countries absorb this cost. Nigeria passes it to passengers.
Students already pay:
- VAT
- Ticket sales charges
- Passenger service charges
- Security surcharges
- Fuel surcharges
- Airport development fees
In many cases, fees now cost more than the actual flight.
For students chasing academic exposure, this levy quietly cancels dreams before applications are even submitted.
New Tax Reforms: “Who exactly is paying this?”
Four new tax bills, NRS Act, JRB Act, NTA, NTAA — were signed in June 2025 and take effect January 2026.
The government says it’s about modernisation and widening the tax net. Students hear one thing: pressure.
When revenue projections fail, schools suffer. Funding drops. Facilities decay. Lecturers strike. Students stay longer in school and graduate later into a worse economy.
Yes, Taiwo Oyedele says anyone earning under ₦800,000 is exempt. But students know how Nigeria works. Informal costs always find a way to reach them.
Fuel 5% Surcharge: Transport just got harder
The proposed 5% fuel surcharge may not have started yet, but students are already bracing.
Transport to school is now a calculation. Labs, libraries, night classes — all affected. When fuel rises, everything students depend on follows.
Even transport unions and petrol retailers say enforcing it could shut businesses down. Students already know who suffers first when that happens.
Tinted Glass Permits: Revenue over reason
The return of tinted glass permits feels less like security and more like fundraising.
At ₦14,200 per vehicle, this policy isn’t stopping crime. It’s creating another avenue for harassment — especially for students commuting in older cars, ride-shares, or family vehicles.
The legal back-and-forth has left everyone confused. Pay? Don’t pay? Wait?
Uncertainty is now official policy.
4% FOB Levy: Imported textbooks, equipment, laptops — gone
The proposed 4% Free-on-Board levy threatens to triple import clearing costs.
For students, that means:
- more expensive laptops
- pricier textbooks
- higher equipment costs
NECA estimates ₦2.84 trillion added to import costs. Translation: students pay more, learn less, and fall further behind.
New Education Curriculum: Chaos as policy
The revised curriculum announced in September 2025 should have been good news. History returned. Updates were overdue.
Instead, the rollout was rushed and disastrous.
SS3 students were suddenly told they’d write WAEC on new subjects in 2026 — after spending three years studying the old system.
That is not reform. That is panic engineering.
Even the Senate had to intervene to prevent mass failure. When lawmakers are saving students from education policy, you know something is wrong.
The Biggest Budget Ever: Where are students inside it?
The ₦54.99 trillion 2025 budget was Nigeria’s largest ever.
By July, the IMF warned revenue projections were unrealistic.
This budget inspired many of the taxes, levies, and hikes students felt all year. Bigger numbers. Smaller relief.
Let Nigerian students breathe
Nigeria is a poor country. That is fact. And Nigerian students sit at the centre of that poverty.
When Tinubu said “let the poor breathe,” students assumed they were included. 2025 proved otherwise.
Policies that raise costs, limit access, disrupt education, and reduce mobility do not let students breathe. They suffocate them.
Yet students adapt anyway — learning online, freelancing, streaming, creating, tutoring, coding, hustling.
Not because the system supports them.
But because they refuse to stop.
If there’s one thing Nigerian students learned in 2025, it’s this:
the government may not like them —
but they will survive it anyway.
