A former Minister of Education, Jibril Aminu, is dead.

Mr Aminu, a professor, who turned 85 on 15 August 2024, died on Thursday in Abuja, PREMIUM TIMES gathered.

He served as the pioneer Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and is a former vice-chancellor of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID).

Mr Aminu also served as the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States from 1999 to 2003 and was elected senator for Adamawa Central constituency in 2003, and re-elected in 2007.

Many Nigerians have paid their tributes to the late scholar.

In his condolence message, Katsina State Governor Dikko Radda said Mr Aminu embodied the finest qualities of leadership, scholarship, and public service that have long distinguished the North.

The governor praised the late professor’s remarkable journey from academia to the highest levels of government, noting his transformative tenure as minister of education and later minister of petroleum.

“Professor Jibril Aminu was not just a great northerner but a Nigerian icon whose contributions to education, energy sector development, and diplomacy left indelible marks in our nation’s history,” Mr Radda stated, according to a statement by his spokesperson, Ibrahim Mohammed.

In his tribute, a former senator, Shehu Sani, eulogised the former minister, reeling out his achievements.

“He was the best medical student at the UCH Ibadan in the 60s, a rare feat for a northerner at that time. The Nation has lost one of its greatest Intellectuals and visionary leaders,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

Mr 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.

His legacy is widely recognised in the Nigerian university system for his role in equipping the NUC with legal and regulatory frameworks such as the Minimum Academic Standards (MAS) and his role in establishing 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).