•Tinubu’s new Ministers
1. Dr Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda (Minister-designate Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction ) was born on the 8th of August, 1968 in Dungung, Kanke Local Government in Plateau State, to the family of a clergy, the late Rev and Mrs Toma Yilwatda.
He was Plateau State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in last year’s election.
He got his First Degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering in 1992 from the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi and his Master of Engineering and PhD from the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka respectively, majoring in Digital systems engineering.
He received training on Building Electronic Governance Structure at the United Nations University International Institute for Software Tech., Macau, China.
He has served as project consultants on the first Integrated Financial Management Information System for the Ministry of Finance, CBN, FOS, OAGF, Debt Management Office, OAuGF, National Planning Commission and Budget Office.
He was also part of the team that worked on the grant by World Bank to implement a Unified Network and ICT Solution for Nigeria Education and Research Network (NgREN) through the World Bank STEP-B project.
2. Mohammed Maigari Dingyadi (Minister-Designate Labour and Employment) was born in 1953 in Dingyadi, Sokoto State. He had his Secondary Education at Government College, Sokoto and attended the School of Basic Studies for a two-year course. He is a 1978 graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
He represented Bodinga Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives.
He was one time, the Secretary to the Sokoto State Government and Chairman, National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) Abuja.
He was appointed the Minister of Police Affairs in 2019 by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
3. Bianca Odinakachukwu Olivia Odumegwu-Ojukwu (Minister of State-designate, Foreign Affairs), born 5 August 1968, is a politician, diplomat, lawyer, business woman and former beauty queen..
The widow of former Biafra leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, she is a multiple international pageant titleholder, having won Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, Miss Africa, and Miss Intercontinental.
She attended Ackworth School, Pontefract, St Andrews College, Cambridge, and Cambridge Tutorial College where she obtained her A-levels. She began a combined honours degree in Politics, Economics and Law at the University of Buckingham, but transferred to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka after her father, insisted she concentrated solely on Law and join the family business.
In 2016, she received a master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from Alfonso X el Sabio University in Spain.
In 2011, Mrs Odumegwu-Ojukwu was appointed Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora Affairs by President Goodluck Jonathan.
She became Nigeria’s Ambassador to Ghana and later, Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain in 2012.
4. Dr. Jumoke Oduwole (Minister-designate Industry, Trade and Investment) is an academic, former government adviser, and advocate. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government.
Prior to this, she served as Special Adviser to President Buhari on Ease of Doing Business from August 2019 to May 2023.
Before her appointment to this role, Dr. Jumoke was Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade & Investment in the Office of the Vice President. Her team was responsible for Nigeria moving up an unprecedented 39 places in the World Bank’s flagship Doing Business Report.
Dr. Oduwole led a corporate banking unit of the telecommunications sector team in Guaranty Trust Bank Plc’s Corporate Banking Group. She was an investment banker with FCMB Capital Markets Ltd from 2000 to 2003.
She was on the boards of Ecobank Nigeria Plc and Positive Action for Treatment Access (PATA), a leading HIV/AIDS advocacy NGO; as well as the Advisory Board of the “Know Your Constitution” Initiative, a civil liberties movement pioneered by a United Nations Young Ambassador for Peace.
Dr. Oduwole graduated from University of Lagos with a Bachelor’s degree in Law in 1998 and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1999.
She obtained an LL.M. degree in Commercial Law from Cambridge University in 2000, where she was a DFID-Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar. In 2007, Dr. Oduwole received a master’s degree in International Legal Studies from Stanford University and obtained her doctorate degree in International Trade and Development from Stanford Law School.
5. Mukhtar Maiha is the Managing Director of Zaidi Farms Limited. If cleared he will be the pioneer minister of Livestock Development.
6. Yusuf Abdullahi Ata (Minister-designate Housing and Urban Development) was born on the 22nd June, 1962 at Fagge Local Government of Kano State. He started his Quranic education at the age of three and later began his western education in 1968 at Fagge Primary School.
He attended the Kano Community Commercial College, which is now called Aminu Kano Commercial College for his secondary education. He obtained a degree in Economics from the Bayero University, Kano.
Ata was first elected as member, Kano State House of Assembly to represent Fagge constituency in 1999. He served for three terms after winning elections in 2011 and 2015.
Ata became Speaker, Kano State House of Assembly in 2021 when the former Speaker, Kabiru Alhassan Rurum, resigned, following attempts to impeach him.
7. Dr Suwaiba Said Ahmad (Minister of State -designate Education) is a trained educationist, gender advocate and consultant. She served in various capacities in the university including level coordinator, examination officer, PG coordinator, Sub Dean Academics, and Head of Department, Science Education.
Her consultancy portfolio centres on governance and development. Dr Ahmad research interests focuses around political economy and institutional analysis, policy planning, development and strategy, capacity building and training.
She has participated in funded researches as a consultant, including for the British Council (won a research grant in 2015 as team lead), Education Data, Research and Evaluation in Nigeria (EDOREN), Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) and Aafaaq Educational Foundation.
