“Algeria has 116 million students”: was Kamel Bidari drunk in public?
Algeria’s Minister of Higher Education, Kamel Bidari, on February 11, 2025, at the Faculty of Information and Communication in Ben Aknoun,before professors and students from the Higher National School of Political Sciences, the Faculty of Media and Communication, and various media and organizations,declared that the nation now has 116.8 million (one hundred and sixteen point eight million) university students, a figure that is more than twice Algeria’s total population of 47.2 million (forty-seven point two million).
In a serene, calm, and almost zen tone, with slurred elocution and nonchalant smiles, where he showcased what can only be described as Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s “new Algeria” imbecility and stupidity, Bidari further asserted that this figure represents a 3,500-fold (three thousand five hundred) increase since 1962, implying there were roughly 33,371 (thirty-three thousand three hundred and seventy-one) students at the time of independence.
Our fact-checkers verified and found that Algeria’s population was about 11.78 million (eleven point seventy-eight million), with only around 3,000 (three thousand) university students enrolled.
A brief calculation reveals the error: a 3,500-fold increase on 3,000 students in 1962 should yield approximately 10.5 million (ten point five million) students today, a figure far more in line with the nation’s 47.2 million population than Bidari’s claim of 116.8 million.
Was Kamel Bidari under the influence or drunk?
The minister’s statement is a glaring display of incompetence, raising serious questions about his grasp of basic arithmetic and his suitability for a role demanding precision and accountability. Students at the event, speaking anonymously, wondered if Bidari even listened to himself as he repeatedly claimed “116 million students” without pausing to correct the obvious mistake. Others said that his behavior at the event, marked by a shuffling, nonchalant attitude, suggested that he was intoxicated and under the influence of alcohol. It is not the first time that public opinion has wondered whether Algerian authority officials got drunk during their public appearances and speeches.
This raises another question: do Algerian leaders hold the public in such disregard, and have they acquired such an unprecedented level of self-confidence, that they feel exempt from accountability, to the point where they no longer care about the consequences of appearing drunk in public and exhibiting their drunkenness without restraint?
Abderrahmane Fares
