When Buhari Appointed Me As Education Minister, I Had No Background In The Field - Adamu Admits

Adamu Adamu

Adamu Adamu, the minister of education for Nigeria, admitted on Thursday that when President Muhammadu Buhari selected him, he had no prior knowledge of the field.

At a farewell event hosted in his honor in Abuja with representatives from the ministry and the leaders of parastatals, Adamu thanked Buhari for entrusting him with a role he wasn't ready for.

He 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."

Adamu claimed that because he was inexperienced in the field, he called several experts to help him work on a policy statement on education.

He said he shared his idea with them and "they assisted me greatly, and I remain grateful to them for these years."

"In 2019, I told the President that it was time for him to change his ministers. 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 make bring people that would do the job better for me and others who served as Ministers in the first tenure.

"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. I had brought her to replace me, and somehow and surprisingly to all, the President kept her and also kept me. Up till now, he never explained to me why he did that."