Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has admitted that he knew nothing about the sector when he was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Development Diaries reports that Adamu spoke at a valedictory session held in his honour with the ministry’s officials and heads of parastatals in Abuja.
Thanking Buhari for trusting him with such a responsibility that he was not prepared for, Adamu said, ‘I didn’t know anything about education except superficially.
‘When Buhari decided to make me Minister of Education, there is somebody here sitting and looking at me; he was the first person I called.
‘He said “what do you want to achieve?” I said “I want to achieve good things”. And these are my ideas as a learner.
‘After that meeting, professors of education were called and I told them what I wanted to achieve and let them put it in writing for me and they (the professors) did. And then we had a document’, he added.
Recall that in November 2022, Adamu admitted his failure to reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria despite the issue being one of his key priorities for over seven years.
Following that comments, Development Diaries called on the minister to resign or for President Buhari to disengage him. None was done.
The state of education in the country for the last eight years under Buhari and the education minister has been poor.
It was during Adamu’s tenure that students were at home for eight months as a result of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike.
Also, under Buhari and Adamu’s administration, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) announced in 2022 that Nigeria had 20 million out-of-school children.
At the start of Buhari’s tenure in 2015, Nigeria signed a commitment to achieve goal four of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ by 2030’, the goal reads.
However, Nigeria is unlikely to achieve that goal due to current realities, as they relate to low funding for basic education in the country.
It is clear that Adamu could boldly speak about his incompetence because he knows there would be no consequences for his failure.
What that also suggests is that Buhari failed to properly assess his ministerial nominees before appointing them and also failed to review their performance while in office.
Also, the outgoing Senate did not do enough in scrutinising Buhari’s ministerial nominees.
Development Diaries calls on incoming President Bola Tinubu to ensure that he prioritises competence in the appointment of ministers.
We also urge the tenth Senate not to be quick in approving ministers without confirming their competence.
Photo source: Min of Education
