By Bodunde Tenabe
The Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman SAN, on Wednesday September 7, 2023, began the process of receiving comprehensive briefings on the state of affairs from all the departments under his ministry and all the agencies he supervises.
Mamman, who is a former Director General and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Law School was sworn in by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria’s new Minister of Education.
The new Minister alongside his Minister of State, Dr. Yusuf Sumonu received Dr. David Shofoyeke, the Ag. Director General and Chief Executive of the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), Ondo, and his management team at the Federal Ministry of Education Complex in Abuja.
Dr. Shofoyeke reeled out the Institute’s mission, vision, and objective and informed the Minister that NIEPA is the only recognized organization in Nigeria and the sub-Saharan region saddled with the responsibility of building the capacity of education planning and administration as contained in the National Policy in Education (NPE) of Nigeria.
He informed Prof. Mamman that the Institute is endowed with the requisite manpower, facilities and structures to discharge its mandate towards improving the education sector.
Shofoyeke further added that; NIEPA founded through a national and international collaboration (FME & UNESCO IIEP) has recently concluded plans to partner with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on education sector plans, operational plans as well as strategic operational plans.
The Ag. Director General solicited the Minister’s help in the area of patronage for the Institute’s training programmes, implementation of the policy on Mandatory Capacity Building for planners and managers, and increased funding for more productivity amongst others.
Responding, Prof. Tahir Mamman said NIEPA is a very strategic and important agency when it comes to building the leadership capacity in any organization.
“Leadership training is very important in any organization and that NIEPA is still struggling is a function of the lack of premium we place on capacity development in our various organizations”.
He urged the Management of the Institute to be more proactive and spread its tentacles to the private sector in its drive for patronage while assuring them of his commitment to ensure that NIEPA’s mandate is achieved.
Also present at the briefing was the Institute’s Ag. Registrar, Mr. Dada Inakoju and the Institute’s Ag. Bursar, Mr. Bola Adejori.
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