Ahead of imminent inauguration of President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu, concerned citizens of Kebbi State have endorsed a Federal Commissioner at the National Population Commission (NPC), Dr. Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu for consideration as Minister of Education in the new cabinet, describing his sound background as a teacher, competent administrator, well-traveled scholar and deep passion for education reform as critical tool for overall national progress.
The concerned citizens, operating under the aegis of a pressure group, Committee for the Appointment of Dr. Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu as Honourable Minister of Education, Federal Republic of Nigeria, in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by the Coordinator, Ahmad Muhammad Aliyu and Secretary, Zamzam Rilwanu respectively, said that the call became necessary following the safe return of the President-elect to the country for his much-awaited inauguration on Monday, May 29, 2023 and the scramble for ministerial positions that has been triggered.
They said that their move was inspired by a widely-publicized pronouncement of the President-elect recently that he needed a crack cabinet of competent persons to run a government of national competence capable of executing his Renewed Hope Manifesto to meet the aspirations and yearnings of over 8 million Nigerians who ensured his victory at the February 25 polls.
According to the statement by Messrs Ahmad Muhammad Aliyu and Zamzam Rilwanu, their team has the support and backing of various segments of Kebbi State, home and abroad, ranging from first-class monarchs, leading clerics, clergy, political class, civil servants, artisans, professional groups, elders’ councils, community groups, students, teachers’ unions, farmers’ associations, non-indigenes to professional groups especially okada and Keke operators
‘’Expectedly, names of possible candidates and nominees for ministerial positions have started flying around. Not surprisingly, Dr. Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu’s name has also been repeatedly mentioned in many circles. Important people are loudly calling on the President-elect to include competent hands such as Dr. Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
‘’To us in Kebbi State where our support to APC and particularly to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the last elections was total and unambiguous, we ask to be part of his incoming government of national competence in the person of Dr. Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu as Minister of Education, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Our quest is justified, legitimate and merited because our Nominee is competent.
‘’ Though there are other equally qualified Nigerians eagerly aspiring to be appointed as Ministers, the President-elect would do well to be on the lookout for competent people with national and global exposure, people with integrity, courage and discernible leadership qualities, tested problem solvers, highly creative and innovative leaders. On the basis of competence, Dr. Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu ticks all the boxes’’, the group said.
They noted that even where he had not been directly involved in day-to-day political activities as NPC Federal Commissioner, Dr. Jikan-Daudu as a political animal had taken more than a ringside interest in political events as they had unfolded in the Kebbi state’
‘’He is cognizant that his appointment came from an APC-led Federal Government for which he had always expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari and the political party for recognizing and enabling him to rise to national prominence as a public servant of repute.
‘’ Therefore despite not being directly involved in partisan politics, Dr. Jikan-Daudu played major roles in the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari, out-going Governor Atiku Bagudu, and supporting out-going Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN (Attorney General and Minister of Justice) and recently Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President-elect and Dr. Nasir Idris Kauran Gwandu, as Kebbi State Governor-elect in the just-concluded Presidential and Gubernatorial Elections of February 25, and March 18, 2023 respectively’’, they said.
They expressed their conviction that President Tinubu would need a man of Dr. Haliru Bala’s pedigree as the next Minister of Education where they claimed he had spent over 40 years starting as a Grade 2 teacher where he had as a class mate APC’s endorsed candidate as Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas.
‘’Having been a major player in the Nigerian education sector for over four decades, it is self-evident that Dr. Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu is a most suitable and eminently qualified candidate to be considered for the office of Minister of Education in the incoming dispensation.
‘’As a senior Member of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr. Jikan-Daudu will, as a matter of national urgency and priority, utilize his progressive spirit, wealth of experience, deep sector knowledge and wide network of colleagues and contacts to put an end to the perennial issue of STRIKE actions that currently bedevil Nigerian public Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education. His mantra for University education is: FOUR YEARS IS FOUR YEARS.
‘’He has been in the vanguard of advocacy for massive reforms in the education sector to make it more forward-looking, people-oriented, result-driven and government-led, running on his firm belief that a progressive government under the presidency of a dyed-in-the wood democrat and an untainted progressive such as President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu, education should be treated as a major, inalienable constitutional right for all Nigerians.
‘’In a bottom-up manner, he is sure to return quality to the critical education sector as well as restore the gold standards for which Nigerian’s tertiary educational system was well known and celebrated in the Commonwealth and other jurisdictions in times past’’, they averred.
According to them, Dr. Jikan-Daudu has developed achievable and workable action plan to ensure that Nigerian Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges and Universal Basic Education (UBEC) meet global benchmarks and standard operation practices in record time, adding that he is ready-made to hit the ground running from the first day of his appointment as Minister of Education, and will not succumb to the unnecessary institutional distractions that have bedeviled Nigeria’s educational system.
‘’He is a round peg in a round hole, and will work in concert with sub-national actors to ensure that the foundational levels of education regain their quality delivery and become true feeders of suitably qualified candidates to the tertiary levels of education’’, they said, pointing out Inter-University Agencies and Examination bodies needed fresh energy under a retooled Federal Ministry of Education under the guidance of Dr. Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu as Honourable Minister.
‘’We believe that none other aspirant to the position of Minister of Education has the practical vision, mission and pragmatic action plan that has been developed by Dr. Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu to turn things around in that critical Ministry; and which is why he deserves due consideration for the position of the Honourable Minister of Education of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
‘’As Honourable Minister of Education in Dr. Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu has a “Social Contract” with Nigerian youths of school age, educators and educational managers to bring back quality education to all levels of the system. This is a solemn pledge that he will keep from the beginning to the end of his tenure as Honourable Minister of Education’’, the statement said.
Born on 17 December 1959 in Birnin-Kebbi, Dr. Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu, a Fulani, began his elementary education at Central Primary School, Birnin Kebbi between 1970 -1976 proceeding to Government Teachers’ College, Dogon Daji, Sokoto State from 1976-1981 where he was in the 1976-1981 set with Major General Aminu Mohammed Bande (rtd), the 2023 gubernatorial candidate of Peoples Democratic Party in Kebbi State.
In the account presented by the group, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas also passed his Grade 2 in the same year (1981) while Dr. Jikan-Daudu was two years ahead of two eminent persons, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the Executive Governor of Sokoto State and now Senator-elect of Sokoto South senatorial district and His Excellency, Dr. Nasir Idris Kauran Gwandu, the Governor-elect of Kebbi State.
In 1986, he enrolled as an undergraduate student at the famous Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto State where he obtained Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) degree in Management Studies in 1991 and Master of Business Administration (MBA) considered as great feats in the Northwestern part of the country at the time.
Not done with tertiary education, he enrolled into The Polytechnic in Birnin Kebbi in 1992 and in 1993 obtained a Higher National Diploma in Business Administration with a Postgraduate Diploma (PGD).
After another stint from 1994 to 1995 at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, the stage was set for Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu to turn his educational compass to the Southern part of Nigeria where he enrolled and obtained a Master of Philosophy (M. Phil) degree in Business Administration from the famous Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in 2005 before placing the icing with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Business Administration (PhD) from the same University in 2008.
From there, and with a missionary zeal, he had set out to take on the world, foraging and foraying to all States of the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria attending, receiving and delivering lectures straddling the country and four continents at seminars, workshops and conferences as well as contributing to peer-reviewed academic journals that had won him awards, acclamation and applause.
‘’His cross-cutting appeal among all Nigeria’s ethnic groupings is something to take home. It is note-worthy that the Hon. Federal Commissioner, Dr. Bala Haliru Jikan-Daudu has traversed the length and breadth of the nation’s academic map as undergraduate student at Usmanu Dan Fodio University in Sokoto, as a post-graduate student in the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and as an Associate Professor at the University of Port Harcourt. That makes him a well-traveled academic whose place in Tinubu’s cabinet is most needed at a time now that this nation is terribly divided’’, they said.
