Abuja, NIGERIA – Nigeria’s the longest-serving Minister of Education since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has confessed that he was a novice in education sector when President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him the country’s minister of education.
Adamu was appointed by the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 during which the education sector witnessed tons of “ups and downs.”
Adamu’s tenure witnessed the highest number of industrial strike actions from tertiary institutions – based unions such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union among others. Federal Universities were shutdown for 8 months.
February 28, 2022, while the ASUU strike last, representatives of Nigeria Universities’ students were allowed a meeting with the Education Minister, but were thrown into puzzlement when the Minister walked out of them without a word.
On 4 Aug 2022, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) called for the immediate sack of the Minister of Education over failure to resolve the impasse between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
When the strike was eventually called-off, Minister insisted on implementing ‘no work no pay rule’ ASUU, according to him serve as deterrence to other unions who might embark on strike action in future, but ASUU insisted that its members must be paid for the period of the strike.
His tenure also witnessed the implementation of new policies, increase in the number of new institutions among others. The highest number of public and private universities established, over 120 new universities were licensed with some other colleges of education and polytechnics converted to universities.
His tenure witnessed the implementation of new retirement age for teachers.
Speaking at a valedictory session with officials and heads of parastatals of the Ministry on Thursday in Abuja, Adamu said, “I didn’t know anything about education sector when I was appointed Minister except superficially. But when Buhari decided to make me Minister of education, I called some people to assist me work on policy document on education because I was novice in the sector. I shared my idea with them and they assisted me greatly.”
He said he was forced to apply wisdom by appointing some professors of education and other good hands, with the help of the officials of the Federal Ministry of Education to enable him kick off and make progress.
The minister appreciated the President who found him worthy and trusted him with such a responsibility, “even when I was apparently not ready and unprepared for such task”.
He said: “I was busy making recommendations and suggestions to the President on who to appoint into his cabinet in 2015. All of a sudden, he announced my name to my surprise and that was it. We worked together till 2019.
“In 2019, I approached the President, and suggested that he reshuffle his cabinet because, in the eyes of many, it was unusual in our society for a President to work with same Ministers for four years. Buhari had graciously allowed his Ministers to stay in office for four years. Ordinarily, Ministers stay in office for two years before they are reshuffled.
“But I know him very well and I knew it will be difficult for him to do that. But I decided to make it easy for him by promising to bring people that would do the job better for me and others who served as Ministers in the first tenure,” he said.
“I promised him that I will give him names of competent people from at least, 19 northern states. So, I suggested to him to drop all the Ministers that worked with him in the first tenure including me, but I knew it would be difficult for him. But to confirm that I can do the job, I gave him a name from Bauchi state whom I had expected him to replace me with in the cabinet. That was how Maryam Katagun became Minister of the Federal Republic.”
He said he brought her to replace him and somehow but surprisingly, the President kept her and also kept him.
“Up till now, he never explained to me why he did that. However, I remain eternally grateful to the President for trusting me with such responsibilities. He has shown me love and trust over the years. In 1994, when he picked up assignment in Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), he gave me an offer to work with him as Personal Assistant. That was how I found myself in Abuja,” the outgoing Minister said.
Adamu appreciated other people that worked with him particularly the Ministers of State that worked with him. He said particularly Goodluck Opiah, who served briefly as Minister of State for Education and described him as a brother whom he worked closely with to achieve the desired results in education sector.