TAHIR MAMMAN – (Minister of Education)
Tahir Mamman is a lawyer and educationist who has risen to the peak of both legal and teaching professions. He became the Director-general of the Nigeria Law School, the apex institution for legal education in Nigeria, as well as the Vice-Chancellor of Baze University, a conventional university based in Abuja. For his excellence in the two professions, he earned the prestigious professional ranks of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, and Professor of law.
Mamman’s appointment and deployment as Minister of Education is another good example of President Bola Tinubu’s ability to put round pegs in round holes. The minister’s responsibility at the new duty post is to lead the ministry in the discharge of its functions which include: formulating a national policy on education; collecting and collating data for purposes of educational planning and financing; maintaining uniform standards of education throughout the country; and controlling the quality of education in the country.
Others are: harmonizing educational policies and procedures of all the states of the federation through the instrumentality of the National Council on Education; effecting co-operation in educational matters on an international scale; and developing curricula and syllabuses at the national level in conjunction with other bodies.
For someone who has had an illustrious career spanning all the levels of Nigeria’s educational system, Professor Mamman no longer has to learn the ropes on his new assignment.
Mamman was born in 1954 at Michika in Adamawa State. He holds an LL.B degree from the Ahmadu Bello University in 1983 and was called to the bar in the Nigerian Law School in 1984. He earned his Master’s degree from the University of Warwick, England, in 1987 and his PhD in 1990 from the University of Warwick, Warwickshire, England.
He began his working career with the Adamawa State Judiciary before witching over to teaching at the University of Maiduguri as a lecturer in the Faculty of Law. He rose to become Head of Department of Common Law and Dean of the faculty. He was appointed member of the National Universities Commission and member of Local Government Election Tribunal, Adamawa State in 1997. He was the Dean of Students Affairs in University of Maiduguri from 1997 to 2000 and Adviser/part-time consultant in the State House of Assembly of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno States from 1999 to 2000. He was also Steering Committee member for the establishment of Adamawa State University; external examiner at the Ahmadu Bello University from 2001 to 2002 and patron for Youth Federation of Nigeria and Nigeria Youth Organization of University of Maiduguri. He became the Deputy Director of Nigeria Law School, Kano Campus, from 2001 to 2005 before his appointment as the Director General of the institution.
Professor Mamman joined party politics in 2014 after completing his tenure as Director-General of The Nigeria Law School. He ran for Adamawa state Governorship election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in December 2014 along with three other aspirants. In June 2020 the pary’s National Executive Committee appointed and inaugurated him as a member representing the North-East geopolitical zone as the Acting National Vice Chairman in the National Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of APC.
He is a member of the Body of Benchers, Council of Legal Education, Nigerian Bar Association, Nigerian Association of Law Teachers, Commonwealth Legal Education Association, Centre for Computer- Assisted Legal Instruction, USA; and National Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigeria. He is also a member of the United Kingdom Centre for Legal Education; African Network of Constitutional Lawyers; International Bar Association; Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN); and Governing Board of International Association of Law School, Washington DC.
He holds the chieftaincy title of Dan Ruwata Adamawa Emirate and Dokajin Mubi of Adamawa state. In recognition of his contributions to the development of the country, the Federal Government of Nigeria bestowed on him the national honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON).
