{"id":24733,"date":"2025-09-26T11:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=24733"},"modified":"2025-09-26T11:29:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:29:36","slug":"kano-governor-misrepresents-states-performance-in-2025-neco-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/kano-governor-misrepresents-states-performance-in-2025-neco-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Kano governor misrepresents state\u2019s performance in 2025 NECO results"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim: <\/strong>Kano State <\/strong>Governor Abba Yusuf claimed<\/a> Kano State emerged as the best-performing state in the 2025 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE Internal).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Verdict: False. <\/strong>After reviewing the data for 2025 NECO internal SSCE results, PREMIUM TIMES found that Kano did not rank top in performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On sept. 18, 2025, Kano Governor Abba Yusuf took to his Facebook page<\/a> to claim<\/a> Kano State was the best-performing state in the recently released 2025 National Examinations Council (NECO) internal Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governor Yusuf attributed the spurious feat to the \u2018direct result\u2019 of his administration\u2019s reforms in the education sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is heartwarming that Kano State has emerged as the best-performing state in the 2025 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE Internal), conducted by the National Examinations Council (NECO),\u201d he wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis unprecedented success reflects our education-driven leadership, which has consistently placed funding, infrastructure, and access to learning at the top of our government\u2019s priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Yusuf also claimed that while Kano was ranked first, Lagos and Oyo states came second and third, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His claim has been published by several Nigerian newspapers, including Tribune<\/a>, Business Day<\/a>, Guardian<\/a>, Channels Television<\/a>, and TVC<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the data shows<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After reviewing the data for 2025 NECO internal SSCE results, PREMIUM TIMES can now report that Kano did not rank top in performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened instead is that over half of Kano\u2019s candidates failed to secure five credits, including English and Mathematics, in the 2025 NECO SSCE internal examinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Kano led with was population, as it housed more than 10 per cent of candidates who sat this year\u2019s examination and just five per cent of candidates who secured at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics \u2013one of the prerequisites for admissions into Nigerian tertiary institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kano is one of the bottom 10 states by performance in the 2025 NECO SSCE\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ranked by pass-rate, Kano placed 29th out of Nigeria\u2019s 37 regions (including the Federal Capital Territory), and not first as the governor claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, Kano did not rank above Lagos and Oyo states, as he claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the state is only ranked above eight northern states, namely, Yobe, Adamawa, Plateau, Borno, Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara, and Sokoto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2025 NECO Statistics<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Announcing the release of the result last week, NECO Registrar Dantani Wushishi, a professor, said<\/a> 1,358,339 candidates \u2013 comprising 680,292 males and 678,047 females\u2013 sat for the examination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Wushishi said 60.26 per cent (818,492) of the candidates secured at least a credit in five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that 84.26 per cent secured five credits and above, irrespective of Mathematics and English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top-performing state <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

PREMIUM TIMES review of the performance data revealed that Abia was the top-performing state by pass-rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data obtained from the examination body shows that 83.31 per cent of 11,260 candidates who sat the examination in Abia passed with at least five credits, including English and Mathematics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kano State\u2019s performance in the 2025 NECO SSCE (Internal)<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, more than half of Kano\u2019s candidates \u201350.16 per cent\u2013 failed as only 49.84 per cent of its 136,762 candidates secured at least five credits, including English and Mathematics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only eight Nigerian states have a poorer pass-rate than Kano. They are Yobe (48.13 per cent), Adamawa (47.99 per cent), Plateau (46.46 per cent), Borno (44.72 per cent), Jigawa (43.81 per cent), Katsina (42.89 per cent), Zamfara (42.12 per cent) and Sokoto (35 per cent).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governor Yusuf\u2019s misrepresentation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What the Kano State governor touted as \u2018top-performance\u2019 was actually population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data from NECO, which the governor referenced, was a ranking of states by the number of students who passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the sheer population of candidates from them, Kano, Lagos, Oyo, and Benue were at the top of this ranking. But it doesn\u2019t reflect the actual performance in the states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, only 49 per cent of Kano candidates passed the examination. For Lagos, 71 per cent passed, and 60.07 per cent in Oyo state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, when ranked by sheer figures, Kano has the highest with 68,159, even though it is only 49.84 per cent of its population. In comparison, Lagos\u2019 71 per cent pass rate is 67,007, and Oyo\u2019s 60 per cent is 48,742.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State-by-state performance in the 2025 NECO SSCE: <\/em><\/strong>NECO DATA<\/em><\/strong><\/a> <\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Essentially, Kano has more candidates who failed the NECO SSCE \u2013both in figures and in percentages\u2013 than those who passed. While 68,603 candidates or 51 per cent failed, 68,159 or 49 per cent passed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, while Kano\u2019s 49.84 per cent pass-rate amounts to 68,159 candidates, Abia\u2019s 83.31 per cent pass-rate was from only 9,381 candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, although Kano has 10 per cent of all candidates who sat the examination, it only has five per cent of candidates who passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Top ten states by performance in the 2025 NECO SSCE<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The top 10 states by performance <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Abia \u2013 83.31 per cent<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Imo \u2013 83.09 per cent<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Ebonyi  \u2013 80.60 per cent<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Anambra \u2013 76.80 per cent <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Bayelsa \u2013 73.88 per cent<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Delta \u2013 73.10 per cent<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Osun \u2013 72.64 per cent <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Ogun \u2013 72.21 per cent <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Lagos \u2013 71.76 per cent <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Ekiti \u2013 68.50 per cent<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"
    Bottom 10 states by performance in the 2025 NECO SSCE\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Bottom 10 states by performance<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    28. Bauchi \u2013 52.62 per cent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    29. Kano \u2013 49.84 per cent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    30. Yobe \u2013 48.13 per cent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    31. Adamawa \u2013 47.99 per cent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    32. Plateau \u2013 46.46 per cent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    33. Borno \u2013 44.72 per cent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    34. Jigawa \u2013 43.81 per cent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    35. Katsina \u2013 42.89 per cent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    36. Zamfara \u2013 42.12 per cent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    37. Sokoto \u2013 35.00 per cent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The claim that Kano State emerged as the best-performing state in the 2025 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE Internal) is false. After reviewing the data for 2025 NECO internal SSCE results, PREMIUM TIMES found that Kano did not rank top in performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Claim: Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf claimed Kano State emerged as the best-performing state in the 2025 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE Internal). Verdict: False. After reviewing the data for 2025 NECO internal SSCE results, PREMIUM TIMES found that Kano did not rank top in performance. Full Text On sept. 18, 2025, Kano Governor Abba Yusuf took to his Facebook page to claim Kano State was the best-performing state in the recently released 2025 National Examinations Council (NECO) internal Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE). Governor Yusuf attributed the spurious feat to the \u2018direct result\u2019 of his administration\u2019s reforms in the education sector. \u201cIt is heartwarming that Kano State has emerged as the best-performing state in the 2025 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE Internal), conducted by the National Examinations Council (NECO),\u201d he wrote. \u201cThis unprecedented success reflects our education-driven leadership, which has consistently placed funding, infrastructure, and access to learning at the top of our government\u2019s priorities.\u201d Mr Yusuf also claimed that while Kano was ranked first, Lagos and Oyo states came second and third, respectively. His claim has been published by several Nigerian newspapers, including Tribune, Business Day, Guardian, Channels Television, and TVC. What the data shows After reviewing the data for 2025 NECO internal SSCE results, PREMIUM TIMES can now report that Kano did not rank top in performance. What happened instead is that over half of Kano\u2019s candidates failed to secure five credits, including English and Mathematics, in the 2025 NECO SSCE internal examinations. What Kano led with was population, as it housed more than 10 per cent of candidates who sat this year\u2019s examination and just five per cent of candidates who secured at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics \u2013one of the prerequisites for admissions into Nigerian tertiary institutions. Ranked by pass-rate, Kano placed 29th out of Nigeria\u2019s 37 regions (including the Federal Capital Territory), and not first as the governor claimed. Also, Kano did not rank above Lagos and Oyo states, as he claimed. In fact, the state is only ranked above eight northern states, namely, Yobe, Adamawa, Plateau, Borno, Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara, and Sokoto. 2025 NECO Statistics Announcing the release of the result last week, NECO Registrar Dantani Wushishi, a professor, said 1,358,339 candidates \u2013 comprising 680,292 males and 678,047 females\u2013 sat for the examination. Mr Wushishi said 60.26 per cent (818,492) of the candidates secured at least a credit in five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics. He added that 84.26 per cent secured five credits and above, irrespective of Mathematics and English. Top-performing state  PREMIUM TIMES review of the performance data revealed that Abia was the top-performing state by pass-rate. The data obtained from the examination body shows that 83.31 per cent of 11,260 candidates who sat the examination in Abia passed with at least five credits, including English and Mathematics. Meanwhile, more than half of Kano\u2019s candidates \u201350.16 per cent\u2013 failed as only 49.84 per cent of its 136,762 candidates secured at least five credits, including English and Mathematics. Only eight Nigerian states have a poorer pass-rate than Kano. They are Yobe (48.13 per cent), Adamawa (47.99 per cent), Plateau (46.46 per cent), Borno (44.72 per cent), Jigawa (43.81 per cent), Katsina (42.89 per cent), Zamfara (42.12 per cent) and Sokoto (35 per cent). Governor Yusuf\u2019s misrepresentation What the Kano State governor touted as \u2018top-performance\u2019 was actually population.  The data from NECO, which the governor referenced, was a ranking of states by the number of students who passed. By the sheer population of candidates from them, Kano, Lagos, Oyo, and Benue were at the top of this ranking. But it doesn\u2019t reflect the actual performance in the states. For instance, only 49 per cent of Kano candidates passed the examination. For Lagos, 71 per cent passed, and 60.07 per cent in Oyo state. Yet, when ranked by sheer figures, Kano has the highest with 68,159, even though it is only 49.84 per cent of its population. In comparison, Lagos\u2019 71 per cent pass rate is 67,007, and Oyo\u2019s 60 per cent is 48,742. State-by-state performance in the 2025 NECO SSCE: NECO DATA  Essentially, Kano has more candidates who failed the NECO SSCE \u2013both in figures and in percentages\u2013 than those who passed. While 68,603 candidates or 51 per cent failed, 68,159 or 49 per cent passed.  Therefore, while Kano\u2019s 49.84 per cent pass-rate amounts to 68,159 candidates, Abia\u2019s 83.31 per cent pass-rate was from only 9,381 candidates. Additionally, although Kano has 10 per cent of all candidates who sat the examination, it only has five per cent of candidates who passed. The top 10 states by performance  Bottom 10 states by performance 28. Bauchi \u2013 52.62 per cent 29. Kano \u2013 49.84 per cent 30. Yobe \u2013 48.13 per cent 31. Adamawa \u2013 47.99 per cent 32. Plateau \u2013 46.46 per cent 33. Borno \u2013 44.72 per cent 34. Jigawa \u2013 43.81 per cent 35. Katsina \u2013 42.89 per cent 36. Zamfara \u2013 42.12 per cent 37. Sokoto \u2013 35.00 per cent Conclusion The claim that Kano State emerged as the best-performing state in the 2025 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE Internal) is false. After reviewing the data for 2025 NECO internal SSCE results, PREMIUM TIMES found that Kano did not rank top in performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":24734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1571,122,3815],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[1233],"class_list":["post-24733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-check","category-education","category-homepage"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-6qV","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":1233,"user_id":82,"is_guest":0,"slug":"qosim-suleiman","display_name":"Qosim Suleiman","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49e9c8a7b50bfb6146c40347c6c4527d26802a2471fc8973a18c18a9cf59b955?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Suleiman","first_name":"Qosim","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-26-at-11.20.16-AM.png?fit=591%2C389&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24733"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24741,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24733\/revisions\/24741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24733"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=24733"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=24733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}