Ex-Minister Jibril Aminu Dies at 85

A former Minister of Education and former Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Prof. Jibril Aminu, is dead. He was 85.

Aminu, who was the pioneer Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and a former vice-chancellor of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), died on Thursday in Abuja.

He equipped the NUC with legal and regulatory frameworks such as the Minimum Academic Standards (MAS). He also established seven additional universities as the head of the NUC.

As Education minister, he established the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) and the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE).

He served as the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States from 1999 to 2003 and was elected senator for Adamawa Central Senatorial District in 2003, and re-elected in 2007.

Aminu was born in Song, Adamawa State, in 1939. He is a respected cardiologist who got his first medical degree from the University of Ibadan in 1965.

He later earned a PhD in medicine from the Royal Post-Graduate Medical School in London in 1972.

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