Who will be Peter Obi’s Minister of education?

By Akachukwu Ifeanyichukwu

The Public Education Sector in Nigeria is currently in a critical state, staff unions of federal universities have been on an unending industrial action for the last five months.

Federal Institutions are dilapidated as they are poorly funded and the approved funds are rarely used for the approved task. If elected on the 25th of February,
2023. The Obi-Datti lead administration will have to face the uphill task of rebuilding the sector from the foundation.

During his tenure as Governor, Peter Obi revitalized the education system of Anambra State using strategic partnerships with the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations International Children’s
Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank, the Department for
International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom and the
European Union. The State was the first to procure and distribute more
than 30,000 computers to secondary schools, including 22,500 from
Hewlett-Packard.

The Managing Director for Personal Systems Group, Hewlett-Packard Inc., described the deployment as the biggest of such projects in the Middle East and Africa. The Anambra State Government
provided Microsoft Academies to more than 500 secondary schools, which
the Head of Microsoft in Nigeria described as the biggest such
deployment in Africa so far.

The State provided Internet access to
more than 500 secondary schools, which were characterized by the Director of Galaxy Backbone as ”incomparable to any in the country”.

More than 700 buses were provided to secondary schools in the State by
the Government. Boreholes were provided in schools all over the State
and lastly, numerous classrooms were built in all the 177 communities
of the State. This led Obi to receive awards from the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and
other prestigious organizations.

Here is a short list of the qualified members of the Nigeria Academia
for the post of Minister for Education:
A. Emeritus Professor Umaru Shehu (North). A must-know name in the Northern Region of Nigeria is Professor Umaru Shehu, a distinguished physician, academic, and administrator, who is
the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Human
Virology, Nigeria (IHVN).

Professor Shehu, who was educated at the University of Ibadan and
Liverpool, is a distinguished fellow of the National Postgraduate Medical College. He was a Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic) of the Ahmadu
Bello University, Zaria from 1977-1978. From 1978-1980, he was the
Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; and Chairman of
the Board of Management of the University College Hospital (UCH),
Ibadan 1991-1994. He was also Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing
Council of Bayero University, Kano, and the University of Lagos
between 1993 and 1999. He has also chaired the Boards of the National
Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) and STOPAIDS.

A one-time President of the Academy of Science and consultant to the
World Health Organization, Professor Shehu holds the prestigious
national award of the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR). A
world-renowned scholar with many publications to his credit and
membership in international and local professional bodies, Professor
Shehu is a Professor Emeritus of Community Medicine, at the University
of Maiduguri, Nigeria.

B. Professor Kayode Adebowale (West)
A popular name in the Western Academia of the country is Kayode
Oyebode Adebowale, a Nigerian professor and scientist and the 13th
Vice-chancellor of the University of Ibadan. In October of 2021, he
became the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, having
formerly served as the deputy vice-chancellor (administration) of the
University of Ibadan, and as the dean of the faculty of science in the
same institution.

Prof Kayode Adebowale was born on the 11th of January, 1962 and he is
a native of the Gateway state, Ogun in Western Nigeria. He had his
primary education at St. Marks Primary School, Oke-Ijaga, Ijebu Igbo
between 1967 and 1972 while his secondary was at Ayedaade Grammar
School, Ikire between 1973 and 1978. He bagged his B.Sc in Chemistry
in 1984 from the University of Ibadan at the age of 22. He received
his Master’s Degree and Ph.D. from the same university in 1986 and
1991 respectively. He began his academic career as a Graduate
Assistant at the University of Ibadan and became a professor of
Industrial Chemistry in 2006.

He was once a lecturer at the Federal University of Technology. He has
a record number of 137 published and peer-reviewed scientific papers,
14 conference papers, and 3 technical reports. He was formerly the
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), at the University of Ibadan.

C. Professor Aniebiet Inyang Ntui (South)
A name strongly involved in the Nigerian Academia is that of Professor
(Dr.) Aniebiet Inyang Ntui, an International Author in the field of
Library and Information Science and the Current University Librarian
of the University of Calabar.

Dr. Ntui holds a B.Sc.(Ed), Dip(Computer Techniques), M.Ed., MLS, and
a Ph.D. in Library and Information Science. She has over twenty (20)
years of experience in the library and classroom of the University of
Calabar, Nigeria. Professor Aniebiet is an Associate of the European
Union Research Initiative – Europeana, the University of the West of
Scotland’s Center for African Research on Enterprise and Economic
Development, and the University of Glasgow’s UK-COP 26 Universities
Climate Network. She is also a Fellow of various International Library
Associations and Institutions. She has served as a Consultant of
Information Management to the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization, United Nations Development Programme, and
the World Bank. She is a recipient of the Nigerian Library Association, the 2020 Award of Excellence, and the 2021 Award of Honor for her contributions to the development of librarianship in Nigeria.

She is one of the most Read Researchers in Nigeria according to information available on the Web of Science Site.

Who do you think will eventually become a member of the Obi-Datti Cabinet?