A Nigerian Catholic Bishop has criticized the Imo State Commissioner of Education in north-east Nigeria for enforcing overly controlling and authoritarian educational policies.
This condemnation was contained in a press statement titled “Condemning the totalitarian policies of Imo State Commissioner of Education,” by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Owerri, Most Rev. Dr. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji.
“We are compelled to speak out against the increasingly despotic and overreaching directives issued by the Imo State Commissioner of Education in recent times on social media.
“A healthy education system relies on collaboration, open dialogue, academic freedom, and mutual respect among administrators, teachers, parents, and students. Instead, the current leadership in the Imo State Ministry of Education has chosen to embrace dictatorship and high-handedness, and to operate through intimidation, silencing dissenting voices, and dismantling democratic procedures.
“This top-down approach threatens the foundational principles of our educational system, strips educators of much-desired initiative and decision-making power and replaces them with rigid and flawed directives,” Archbishop Ugorji stated.
The statement dated 4 September 2026 noted that “We call upon the Imo State Commissioner to immediately halt these unilateral directives and engage in a transparent, meaningful dialogue with all educational stakeholders. We appeal to His Excellency, Senator Hope Uzodinma, Governor of Imo State, to call the overzealous Commissioner to order to avoid misrepresenting his government and giving the misleading impression that the State and Church are in conflict.”
Archbishop Ugorji further stated, “We urge our elected representatives to investigate these abuses of power and to restore accountability to the Ministry of Education. We stand firmly with the educators in our schools and families in resisting these undemocratic overreaches.”
The Archdiocese also decried the impunity regarding the absolute control of private schools in the state.
Metropolitan Archbishop of Owerri, Most Rev. Dr. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji.
“Of particular concern are recent policies that centralize absolute control and mismanagement of mission and private schools, compelling Christian schools in Imo State to observe Islamic holidays, dictating dates for the resumption and closing of schools, issuing threats of punitive measures against educators who voice professional concerns and trying to exclusively choose textbooks from the list of government-approved textbooks and unilaterally fixing their prices.
“These actions do not serve the best interests of our children; rather, they seek to foster an environment of fear, coercion, as well as intellectual subjugation and stagnation. Education should inspire critical thinking and diversity of thought, not enforce rigid ideological conformity.”
The prelate maintained that “The administration of our schools cannot be run like an autocracy where absolute compliance is demanded with threats and without openness to the informed opinions of stakeholders.”
