On the election campaign trail in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, Chike Ukaegbu is visiting a private
school.
He's the youngest-ever Nigerian presidential candidate, and education is his central theme.
Ukaegbu lived in the US, where he worked as a mathematics professor.
He's calling for 35 per cent of the country's budget to go towards education.
The school's principal is surprised to see a politician who understands education.
The school receives no state support and is financed by fees affordable only to those
earning good money.
The political failures of the past few decades
can be seen three hours' drive from Abuja.
In Kaduna, in north Nigeria, is a state-funded school barely worthy of the name.
Parts of it have collapsed; the classrooms have neither desks nor chairs.
Abdul is 14 years old - himself a student but currently responsible for his whole class.
"I take care of them because I'm older and want to help my brothers and sisters like
this.
The teachers aren't here again, that's why I'm doing it."
Here, there are no books, jotters or chalk.
Abdul's only learning aid is a whip.
It's 9am - and only now has the first teacher shown up for work.
The school has only four teachers for 800 students.
Muhammadu Hassan's sons go to school here - a fact their father rues daily.
The teachers are poorly paid, he says.
No one would want to teach at such a school.
"My children should become doctors or soldiers.
They should have a worthwhile job and a good future.
That's my dream.
But under these circumstances, nothing will come of it."
If he had enough money, the motorbike-taxi driver says, he would have long ago sent his
children to private school.
The ruling party of President Buhari has been in power for five years in the federal state
of Kaduna.
The Commissioner of Education has shifted the blame for the educational situation onto
previous governments.
70 per cent of teachers were unqualified.
More than 20,000 teachers have been let go due to illiteracy.
Kaduna State spends a third of its budget on education - but, at a federal level, education
spending makes up only 7 per cent of the budget.
The issue plays no role in President Buhari's election campaign.
Chike Ukaegbu wants to change that - but he and his small party are struggling to be taken
seriously in Nigeria.
In spite of a minimal campaign budget, he wants to lay down
a marker.
Ukaegbu says it's a simple equation: if Nigeria, with its booming population, no longer invests
in education, the next crises will not be far away.
That, he says, is something every politician should understand.