List of Ministers of Education in Nigeria and their professional background | EduCeleb
EduCeleb
2nd January 2020
This article provides the list of ministers of education in Nigeria sinceits independence in 1960. That office as it is today has had differentnomenclature and office holders with diverse professional backgrounds.
EduCeleb.com takes into account the titles of the offices held, itstime span, the sex of the office holders and their professional backgroundbeyond the time they held the office. This is done to give a picture of the personalitiesbehind the office and its equivalents at various times in Nigeria’s post-independencehistory.
The Federal Ministry of Education is the main government agency that coordinates the formulation of National Policies and guidelines for uniform standards, collect and collate data for the purpose of planning, financing and ensuring quality control at all levels of Education in Nigeria. This is as enshrined in various statutory instruments, including the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the National Policy on Education amongst others.
Whoever is appointed minister by the president is the overall head of theministry. He/She is assisted in this administration by the Permanent Secretaryof the ministry.
The office of Minister of Education is more of a political appointmentdepending on the choice of whoever heads the country at one time or another.Just as governments change, ministers do too.
In Nigeria, the changes of education ministers have been more than doublethe number of government changes.
Since Nigeria’s independence in 1960, a total of 51 persons have beenminister of education.
The following Nigerians have acted in the capacity of Minister of Educationin Nigeria or Minister of State for Education in Nigeria’s history.
Please, note that EduCeleb.com had done due diligence to ensure thatevery of the information herewith provided is accurate relying on multiplereputable sources based on our research.
The office of minister of education is sensitive as actionstaken by the occupier influences the education sector to a large extent.
According to Section 147 (5) of the 1999 constitution asamended, the only qualification for one to be appointedas Minister is that the person must be “qualified forelection into the House of Representatives”.
A person isqualified to be in the House of Representatives, according section 65 (2) ofthe Nigerian constitution if, they have “been educated up to at least SchoolCertificate level or equivalent” and are “member of a political party and issponsored by that party.”
Clearly, there is no reference to the professionalbackground of a minister of education. In a past interview with EduCeleb.com, a retired professor ofFrench education, Remi Sonaiyasaid that heading the education ministry is basically administrative.
In her words, “Being aminister is more of management. Yes, you should be knowledgeable about thearea. But it is really more about the proper management of resources.”
Albeit, the somewhatirrelevance of educational background, various stakeholders continue to advocatefor the appointment of qualified hands in the ministry. We shall be includingthe professional qualifications here for reference sake.
*There was no Minister of Education within the period of 15 months betweenJanuary 1966 and June 1967. So, the then Permanent Secretary of the ministryassumed the responsibility.