The longest serving Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu has disclosed that he was an angry journalist and knew nothing about education when President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him to head the ministry in 2014.
He stated this during a send forth ceremony organised by staff of the ministry on Thursday, May 25, 2023 in Abuja.
Adamu, who served as Minister of Education throughout the two tenures of President Buhari informed that everything he knows now, he learnt on the job and appreciated the staff of the ministry, especially the Permanent Secretaries for their tremendous support throughout his stay.
He also said his closeness to the outgoing President influenced his appointment:
“I was a poor and angry journalist and never saw myself in rising to become a Minister.
“I have to thank Muhammad Buhari, because I became a Minister simply because of my relationship with him.
“I didn’t know anything about the 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 a policy document on education because I was a novice in the sector. I shared my idea with them and they assisted me greatly, and I remain grateful to them for these years,” the minister said.
Also speaking at the valedictory ceremony, the Minister of State for Education, Nanah Opiah expressed gratitude to President Buhari and the entire ministry of education for the great opportunity and cooperation he got during his course of work.
According to Nanah Opiah, the ministry of education had helped him discover the problems bordering the education sector such as, out of school children problem, adolescent girl problem, inadequate facilities and so on which helped him to eloquently present the challenges to the National Assembly.
Some of the milestones achieved during his tenure as Minister of education include: elongation of retirement age of teachers and increment of their salary, clearing of backlog of owed scholarship fund and increase in number of beneficiaries.
