Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education, revealed that he knew nothing about the field when President Muhammadu Buhari nominated him in 2015.
On Thursday, the minister delivered a farewell speech to ministry officials and heads of parastatals.
Adamu stated at the time that he sought the assistance of some experts with deeper experience of the industry to assist him with the policy documents required by the ministry.
He said, “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.
“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 expressed gratitude to Buhari for entrusting him with the post “even when I appeared to be unprepared and unready 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,” Adamu said.
