Murtala Muhammed; Head of the short-lived military government whose face adorn the twenty naira note. Muhammed became Nigerian Head of State on July 29, 1975 following the overthrow of General Yakubu Gowon, who had ruled the country for nine years. A civil war hero, Muhammed was assassinated on February 13, 1975 on his way to…
Samu’ila Danko Makama; Demographer who conducted the first population census in Nigeria as chairman of National Population Commission NPC. Makama’s 2006 Census was a head count that was tailored to suit the millennium Development Goals. It showed the actual number of persons living in the country, the number of males and females, the age composition…
Ogunlesi Adebayo; Investment Banker and Lawyer, member of the short-lived 16-man American Economic, Strategic and Policy Forum under President Donald Trump was trained in Harvard University, serving as an editor in the Harvard Law Review as student. He worked as a law clerk to a Justice, and attorney in a New York law firm. After…
Ndayako Umar Sanda; Monarch and administrator, was the chairman of the Technical Committee set up by the federal government on the review of the structure of local government councils in Nigeria. Young Ndayako’s first appointment in the former Northern Nigerian Government was as an assistant secretary in the old Ministry of Local Government. In February,…
Babatunde Fafunwa Aliu; Nigerian educationist, only Nigerian academic to have been involved in all the reform processes of the country’s education sector since independence. Fafunwa was an advocate of free education and of the mother-tongue policy which supports the notion that primary school pupils should be taught in their native languages for better assimilation. As…
Dabiri-Erewa Abike; Member, Nigerian House of Representatives of the 4th to the 6th Assembly and at different times, Chairman of the House Committees on Diaspora Affairs and Media and Publicity respectively. Dabiri-Erewa was first elected into the House of Representatives to represent Ikorodu Constituency of Lagos State in 2003 and reelected in 2007. She also…
Irene Chigbue; Director-General Of the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) who succeeded Dr. Julius Bala in March 2005. She was first involved with the Nigeria’s privatization programme between 1989 to 1991 when she was engaged as a legal officer with the then Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation (TCPC). With the transformation of the TCPC…
Simeon Adebo; Public servant of the Nigerian first post-colonial generation. He was head of the Western region civil service during the political impasse that led to the Emergency rule which was declared on 29 May 1962, hence had had to interpret the role of civil servants in the uncertain passage of leadership from Premier Ladoke…
Stephen Oluwole Awokoya; Educationist, who as minister was responsible for launching the Awolowo administration’s Universal Primary Education in the West. Awokoya contributed in various ways to the development of the physical sciences. He was a member of the 1934-36 set at the Yaba Higher College where he received his education alongside future parliamentarian, Adelabu, and…