President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday appointed seven new ministers designate into his cabinet. Yesterday, the president requested the Senate to confirm his new ministerial nominees in a letter read by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, during plenary.
Profiles
Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi (Labour and Employment)
Dingyadi is a former Minister of Police Affairs under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, a position he held in the second tenure of the former president.
Born in 1953 in Dingyadi, Sokoto State, he graduated from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1978.
The former member of the House of Representatives represented Bodinga Federal Constituency in the House.
He had served in different ministries, including, the Sokoto State ministries of education and water resources.
He is also a former Chairman of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) Abuja and former Secretary to Sokoto State Government.
Professor Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda (Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction)
Yilwatda, who has been asked to handle Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, is a Professor of computer engineering. He is an accomplished academic, administrator and politician. He recently contested for the governorship of Plateau State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He was Chairman, Plateau State APC general election campaign council 2022-2023. The Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from 2017 to 2021 in Benue State bagged his PhD Electronic Engineering in 2013 at University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Masters of Engineering (Electronics), 2000 at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; and Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical/Electronics), 1992, at Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi.
Dr Suwaiba Said Ahmad (Minister of State, Education)
The ministerial nominee was born in 1981 in Jigawa State. Dr Ahmad is a trained educationist and gender advocate. She was a lecturer at the Bayero University Kano, and currently the Director, Centre for Gender Studies at the university.
She has served the university in different positions, including level coordinator, examination officer, PG coordinator, Sub Dean Academics, and Head of Department Science Education.
She attended Bayero University Staff Schools for primary and secondary education before proceeding to Bayero University, Kano, where she got a Bachelor of Science Education, Chemistry in 2003, a Master of Education in Curriculum Studies in 2009, and a Ph.D. in Science Education from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 2014.
Her expertise centers on governance and developmental work in the areas of political economy and institutional analysis, policy planning, development and strategy, capacity building and training.
Mukhtar Maiha (Livestock Development)
Maiha, appointed as Minister of Livestock Development, is a former Managing Director of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company.
He is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zaidi Farms, Kaduna – an integrated enterprise that is said to apply world-class best practices in animal husbandry located in Kaduna State.
Yusuf Abdullahi Ata (Housing and Urban Development)
Yusuf Abdullahi Ata, born on June 22, 1962, in Fagge Local Government Area of Kano State, is an educationist.
Ata was the Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly from 2017 to 2018.
He attended Fagge Primary School and Aminu Kano Community Commercial College and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and a Master’s in Development Studies from Bayero University, Kano.
Ata worked as a Principal Planning Officer at the Kano State Housing Corporation before joining politics in 1998.
He was first elected to the Kano State House of Assembly in 1999 as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but lost his seat in 2003. He returned to the assembly in 2011 and was re-elected in 2015, during which time he was appointed Majority Leader. Ata later became Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly.
Bianca Odinaka Odumegu-Ojukwu (Minister of State, Foreign Affairs)
Among those nominated subject to senate confirmation as ministers is Bianca Olivia Odumegwu-Ojukwu.
She is the widow of the late Ikemba of Nnewi, Sir Chukwuemeka Ojukwu. She is also Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, a former Nigerian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and Ghana. A lawyer and businesswoman, Bianca Ojukwu was appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan as Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora Affairs in 2011.
Bianca attended Ackworth School, Pontefract, St Andrews College, Cambridge, and Cambridge Tutorial College where she obtained her A-levels. She also began a combined honours degree in Politics, Economics and Law at the University of Buckingham, but transferred to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
She is a business woman and diplomat.
Jumoke Oduwole (Industry, Trade and Investment)
Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, an entrepreneur, was born in Lagos.
She was Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade & Investment, where she helped to establish the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations.
Dr. Oduwole has also contributed significantly to international economic law, serving on the Executive Council of the Society of International Economic Law and member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Trade & Investment.
Jumoke earned L.L.B. from the University of Lagos in 1998, and an LL.M. in Commercial Law from Cambridge University in 2000.
In 2007, she received a master’s in International Legal Studies from Stanford University and later completed her Ph.D. in International Trade and Development at Stanford Law School, focusing on WTO Negotiation Strategy.
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