EXTRA: I knew nothing about education sector when I was appointed minister, says Adamu Adamu

Adamu Adamu, minister of education, says he knew nothing about the sector when President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him in 2015. 

The minister spoke at a valedictory session with officials and heads of parastatals of the ministry on Thursday.

Adamu said at the time, he sought the support of some people with more knowledge of the sector to assist him with the policy documents needed for the ministry.

“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 to work on a policy document on education because I was a novice in the sector,” he said.

“I shared my idea with them and they assisted me greatly, and I remain grateful to them for these years.”

Reflecting on his experience, Adamu thanked Buhari for trusting him with the position “even when I was apparently not ready and unprepared for such a task”.

“I was busy making recommendations and suggestions to the president on who to appoint into his cabinet in 2015. All of a sudden, he announced my name to my surprise and that was it. We worked together till 2019.

“In 2019, I approached the president and suggested that he reshuffle his cabinet because, in the eyes of many, it was unusual in our society for a president to work with the same ministers for four years. Buhari had graciously allowed his ministers to stay in office for four years. Ordinarily, ministers stay in office for two years before they are reshuffled.

“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 bring people that would do the job better for me and others who served as ministers in the first tenure.”