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Innovative policies and practices in mainstreaming adult education on the basis of UNESCO's model of Education for All (EFA) among Member States take different forms. In Nigeria, EFA has been conceptualised as the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme. UBE has dominated some of the major political options that governments have had to make in Africa, and Nigeria has sought to incorporate adult literacy within this programme. This development is a marked departure from the usual manner of proceeding in the past, and we seek in this paper to explore past adult literacy policy, practices and reviews and the present policy thrusts culminating in the UBE initiative. Such an exploration has become even more necessary because it is being alleged that the adult literacy component of the UBE initiative is diminished by the emphasis placed on the primary education component. The expected outcomes in the UBE programme have not been fully realised, and this implies that the need for policy review aimed at informing literacy policy formulation and implementation practices in Nigeria, as well as other developing countries confronting the problem of mass illiteracy, is long overdue.