THE CLASS THAT NEVER WAS The Unintended Consequences of Policy Change

THE CLASS THAT NEVER WAS: The Unintended Consequences of Policy Change

In Honour of the Missing Generation - 1987@40

By Temitope S. Ogunnusi
23 October 2026

Every generation has a story. But what happens when a generation is missing from the record?

This morning, on my way to the venue of tomorrow's 50th Plenary of the Unity Schools Old Students Association (USOSA), I wore a facecap bearing an unusual inscription: 1987@40.

In 2027, forty years after 1987, many secondary school alumni will commemorate their fortieth graduation anniversaries. But at my alma mater, Federal Government College Maiduguri, something is different. We have graduating sets from 1986 and 1988, yet no corresponding Class of 1987 in the graduation sequence as we presently understand it.

This apparent gap is more than a historical curiosity. It offers a compelling illustration of how well-intentioned public policies can produce consequences that outlive their architects, affect institutional identity and reshape individual journeys in ways rarely anticipated or documented.

A Generation Between Two Systems

Nigeria's transition from the earlier five-year secondary education structure to the 6-3-3-4 system was driven by legitimate aspirations: a more practical, skills-oriented education capable of preparing young Nigerians for productive participation in society.

Implementation of the new secondary structure began in 1982, with its first graduating cohort emerging in 1988. The additional year of secondary schooling created a discontinuity between the old and new graduation sequences in institutions following that transition.

At FGC Maiduguri, the apparent absence of the Class of 1987 may reflect this structural change, although the precise circumstances require verification through school records and testimonies from those who experienced the transition. Not every institution necessarily followed an identical implementation pathway.

The broader lesson, however, is unmistakable: a policy can achieve its intended structural objectives while generating unintended consequences for those caught between systems.

Nobody physically disappeared. Students continued their education, entered professions, established families and contributed to society. Yet an identifiable graduating year appears absent from our institutional history.

Why does that matter?

Because graduating sets are more than administrative classifications. They are lifelong communities of shared identity, friendship, professional networks, mutual support and institutional responsibility. Across Nigeria, alumni sets fund scholarships, support schools, mentor younger generations and sustain relationships long after graduation.

When a graduating year disappears from an institution's conventional sequence, the corresponding alumni identity may never develop in quite the same way.

This is hardly the gravest conceivable consequence of educational reform, but it reveals an often-overlooked reality: public policy changes not only systems and measurable outcomes, but also the social relationships, identities and institutions through which people organise their lives.

The Unintended Consequences of Good Intentions

Public policies are frequently evaluated against their stated objectives: improved efficiency, expanded access, modernisation or better economic outcomes. These are necessary measures of success, but they are insufficient.

Equally important are the questions often left unanswered: Who bears the cost of transition? What happens to those already operating under the previous arrangements? Which expectations, investments and relationships are disrupted? What safeguards protect individuals whose circumstances no longer fit the new policy framework?

These questions extend beyond education.

Changes in retirement rules affect workers who planned their futures under previous arrangements. Revised admission or professional certification requirements can disadvantage candidates already committed to existing pathways. Economic reforms may promise long-term national benefits while imposing immediate adjustment costs on households, businesses and vulnerable communities.

Unintended consequences do not automatically invalidate a reform. Indeed, research into Nigeria's 6-3-3-4 system has identified positive welfare outcomes alongside limitations in achieving some anticipated labour-market benefits.

The issue is not whether reform should occur, but whether its implementation adequately protects those affected.

The transition itself is part of the policy. A reform cannot be considered successful solely because a new system has taken effect; its success must also be measured by how fairly and effectively people are carried from the old system into the new.

The Missing Variable: The Human Journey

My years of work in youth transition support have reinforced a fundamental conviction: a transition is not complete merely because one stage has ended; it is complete when the individual has become meaningfully established in the next.

This principle underpins our work at WhatNext Africa, supporting young people as they move through educational, professional and life-stage transitions.

It applies equally to government reforms.

An additional year of schooling may improve learning outcomes, but what does it mean for family finances, university admission timelines, educational infrastructure or students already planning their futures? Who absorbs the additional costs? What happens to those least able to adjust?

These human considerations must be integral to policy design, not afterthoughts.

Without deliberate transitional safeguards, the burdens of national improvement can fall disproportionately on those least equipped to bear them.

Equally troubling is the erosion of institutional memory. Governments, ministers and policies change, but their consequences remain. Decades later, we may still encounter the imprint of a policy decision without adequate records explaining its implementation or effects.

How many comparable disruptions remain undocumented? How many institutional gaps have become accepted features of history simply because their origins were never properly preserved?

Institutional memory is not a luxury. It is essential infrastructure for responsible governance.

Effective reform requires historical baselines, transition-impact assessments, clearly defined safeguards, reliable documentation and retrospective evaluations that establish not merely what policymakers intended, but what actually happened.

From a Missing Generation to Intergenerational Responsibility

This reflection has particular personal significance.

As the Class of 1997 of Federal Government College Maiduguri approaches its thirtieth graduation anniversary in 2027, we are advancing a broader vision through the 1997@30-led Global Reach-Back Legacy Initiative , anchored on the principle:

From Reunion to Responsibility.

Our intergenerational framework connects seven anniversary milestones:

1967@60 | 1977@50 | 1987@40 | 1997@30 | 2007@20 | 2017@10 | 2027@00

Together, they represent sixty years of educational experience, institutional memory and opportunities for successive generations to support those coming after them.

Not every school possesses every graduating cohort. Institutional histories differ, and some contain gaps arising from establishment dates, educational restructuring or other circumstances.

At FGC Maiduguri, the apparent absence of the Class of 1987 challenges us to recognise that intergenerational continuity is not always reflected in an uninterrupted graduation register.

Yet absence should never mean exclusion.

The 1987@40 milestone invites the surrounding generations to acknowledge, investigate and preserve a story that might otherwise be overlooked.

It also reminds us that alumni responsibility extends beyond celebrating our own graduating sets. It includes safeguarding institutional memory, honouring those whose experiences differed from ours and helping younger generations navigate their own transitions more successfully.

That is why I chose to wear the 1987@40 facecap.

It represents more than an anniversary. It symbolises a place in our collective history that deserves recognition.

What Policymakers Must Learn

As Nigeria continues to pursue educational, economic and institutional reforms, previous transitions offer enduring lessons.

Every major policy change should include a credible assessment of its likely effects on different groups, particularly those already committed to existing arrangements. Appropriate transitional protections should preserve legitimate expectations and minimise avoidable disruption.

Evaluation must extend beyond aggregate performance indicators to capture lived experiences, social consequences and institutional continuity. Historical records must be preserved, while implementation should include practical support infrastructure: information, guidance, mentoring, accessible grievance mechanisms and mechanisms for correcting unforeseen difficulties.

Most importantly, governments must remain accountable for the transition process itself, rather than treating implementation as complete once new rules take effect.

These are not peripheral administrative considerations. They are essential elements of responsible policymaking.

The Generation We Must Not Forget

In 2027, alumni across Nigeria will celebrate significant anniversaries. Friendships will be renewed, photographs revisited, school songs sung and memories shared.

But amid those celebrations, we should remember that not every generation's experience fits neatly into an anniversary calendar.

Some lived through institutional restructuring. Others crossed between educational systems or inherited the consequences of decisions made long before their implications became apparent.

Their experiences deserve recognition.

The missing Class of 1987 at Federal Government College Maiduguri offers an opportunity for that reflection - not as an indictment of reform or an argument against progress, but as a reminder that progress must be measured not only by what a new policy achieves, but also by what happens to the people whose lives it changes.

For every reform, we must ask what it promises future generations and what it requires of those caught in between.

For every transition, we must ensure that individuals and communities do not become invisible merely because the system has moved on.

A generation may be absent from the register, but it must never be absent from our memory.

As we approach the generational milestones of 2027, let us remember that the true purpose of looking back is to assume responsibility for those coming next.

From Reunion to Responsibility.

Decades later, we reach back. Across generations, we move forward together.

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Dedicated to the missing graduating Class of 1987 at Federal Government College Maiduguri, and to all whose educational journeys were shaped by transitions between old and new systems.

Temitope S. Ogunnusi
FGC Maiduguri, Class of 1997
whatnext.ng/reachback
tsogunnusi@gmail.com