Meet Nigeria’s new education ministers

President Bola Tinubu reshuffled his cabinet on Wednesday, dismissing some ministers and re-assigning some to other ministries. The president also merged some ministries “for optimal efficiency”.

At the Ministry of Education, Mr Tinubu removed Tahir Mamman, a professor. He also reassigned the Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.

Mr Tinubu announced Tunji Alaussa as the new Minister of Education and Suwaiba Ahmad as the Minister of State for Education.

Meet the new ministers

Mr Alausa, the new education minister, is a successful medical doctor. Mr Alausa earned his Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Lagos in 1993. He practised as a Nephrologist in the United States for many years. He served as Chief Medical Resident at Cook County Hospital, Chicago, Illinois. He was also an Assistant Professor at the Rush University Medical School.

Mr Alausa was named one of America’s Best Physicians in 2007, 2012 and 2020. Before his latest appointment as education minister, he served as the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare.

Mr Alausa, from Epe, Lagos State, is a personal physician to President Tinubu and has been involved in the decisions around the education sector behind the scenes since the new administration appointed him as the Minister of State for Health.

Many stakeholders in the education sector who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES on condition of anonymity as soon as his new portfolio was announced hailed the President’s decision, describing him as a perfect replacement for Mr Mamman.

Suwaiba Ahmad

Mr Tinubu also appointed Suwaiba Ahmad as the Minister of State for Education.

Ms Ahmad, an associate professor of education, has extensive experience in the sector. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education and Chemistry from Bayero University, Kano (BUK), in 2003 and her Master of Education in Curriculum Studies from the same university in 2009. Ms Ahmad also obtained her doctorate in Science Education from Ahmadu Bello University in 2014.

She has worked as an academic staffer at the Bayero University Kano since 2004. She is also an associate of the Policy Practice, an organisation working on political economy analysis on governance, conflict and fragility, economic development and social development.

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She was also the Director of the Centre for Gender Studies at BUK, a position she assumed in 2020.

She was the consultant for the state-level situation report for Jigawa State and part of Kano State on the Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE), a seven-year education programme funded by the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

She was also the consultant for Jigawa State for Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) flagship, another FCDO-sponsored programme on core governance reforms and service delivery improvements in Nigeria.