People of the Year (I): New Generation of Leaders Take Charge

Festus Akanbi in Lagos and Deji Elumoye in Abuja

President Bola Tinubu’s resolve to make the youth the nucleus of his administration is beginning to crystallise with the appointment of many youths from different walks of life and across the nation’s ethnic divide.
Tinubu had made a staggering youth involvement in his administration, a major part of his campaign, preparatory to the February 25 presidential poll, insisting that without the youth, real progress might be impossible.
As part of his campaign promises, Tinubu had promised the inclusion of the youth in his administration if elected.
Tinubu said he believed that the youth could play key roles in his administration, while describing them as source of inspiration and commending them for their resilience.

“I promise that you will play a vital role in steering the wheels of my administration,” Tinubu had told the youth at the Tinubu-Shettima National Youth Town Hall meeting, held in Abuja, shortly before the 2023 general election.
Since he assumed office on May 29, the president has not only made the youth the nucleus of his main cabinet, he has also been appointing promising youth into other equally critical agencies and parastatals as the fulcrum of his government, recognising them as tomorrow’s leaders.
Although many Nigerians had reckoned that the president’s soft spot for the youth was further exacerbated by his son, Seyi Tinubu, who not only went round campaigning with him, but had also assured his contemporaries of strategic positions in the government of his father.

In line with his promise, Tinubu has ensured the inclusion of the leaders of tomorrow in his administration.
Having also promised to make Nigeria better for the younger generation, pertinent questions are being asked by some of the critical minds who wish to know if the youths in his cabinet could actually make the “dream statement” and help the president change the course of the nation.
Under Tinubu’s administration, the youth are also represented at the National Assembly and some state Houses of Assembly.
However, while it might be early to start assessing the youth in his cabinet, all of whom are just a few months in office, below is a profile of some of the people in whose hands the future of Nigeria lies.

Doris Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite
Doris Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite is a medical doctor and financial expert.
She is the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment.
Uzoka-Anite started her career in banking at the Zenith Bank Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) unit, then headed the Human Resources and Training department. In 2011, she changed to Treasury and was later named the bank’s treasurer in 2017.
 In March 2021, she was appointed Commissioner for Finance and Co-ordinator of the Economy in Imo State by Governor Hope Uzodimma.
On 27 July 2023, she was one of the first 28 ministerial nominees President Tinubu sent to the Senate for screening.

Betta Edu
37-year-old Betta Edu is a result-oriented hardworking and grassroots politician who until her appointment in August 2023, was the national women leader of the ruling All Progressive Congress.
Edu was Cross River State Commissioner for Health until her resignation in 2022.
She had also served as the National Chairman of the Nigeria Health Commissioners Forum, and former Director-General of Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency.
A Harvard Certified public health specialist and a medical doctor per excellence.
Edu is a PhD holder who had her Master’s in public health from the prestigious London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Olu Verheijen
She currently serves as President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Energy.
She has nearly 20 years’ experience in the gas and renewables sectors across Sub-Saharan Africa, and is currently Managing Director at Latimer Energy, a consulting firm advising clients on value optimization in acquisition, development and management of energy assets.
Previously, she was a Partner at Persistent, an early-stage investment firm with a pan-African portfolio of distributed renewables companies, and a Deal Lead at Shell where he advised on gas commercialisation and M&A transactions.
She also worked for Moody’s Investors Service in New York.
Olu is the Founder/CEO of BFA Foundation, which funds scholarships for women and other disadvantaged groups to expand their career advancement opportunities in high growth sectors, including the energy sector. She is also an investor across various sectors and serves as a Trustee of the Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Association of Nigeria.
She has a BA from Long Island University and Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Hadiza Bala Usman
The 47-year-old Hadiza had served as Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) from 2016 to 2021. She previously served as the Chief of Staff to the governor of Kaduna State from 2015 to 2016. She was appointed special adviser on policy coordination to President Tinubu in June 2023
As a firm administrator, she is expected to bring her uncompromising stance on governance to bear in her task as the Ombudsman for the Presidency.

Joseph Utsev
Until he was appointed Minister of Water Resources in August 2023, Prof. Joseph Terlumun Utsev was Rector, Federal Polytechnic Wannune, Benue State.
He is a renowned Professor of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, politician, entrepreneur, and administrator of great repute who hails from Buruku Local Government Area of Benue State.
In March 2017,  Utsev was appointed as Commissioner, in charge of the Ministry of Water Resources and Environment Benue State in recognition of his hard work and dedication to the growth of the Engineering profession and society at large.
In 2020, he was appointed by then-President Muhammadu Buhari as the Executive Director of Engineering, at Lower Benue River Basin Development Authority, Makurdi.

Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim
Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim is Minister of State for Police Affairs.
He is a consummate and international professional with over two decades of technical, administrative, and executive experience across the public, private, and development sectors.
From August 2019 to December 2020, she served as Special Adviser on Strategic Communication and Partnerships to the Minister of State for Education. In this role, she championed the Alternate School Programme as a key intervention to tackle the out-of-school challenge of the country, and the programme got the approval and commendation of the Federal Executive Council.
She was appointed the DG of The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons in December 2020, where she contributed immensely to the plights of trafficked persons and worked assiduously towards strengthening the national response to addressing Irregular migration.  

Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye
Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye is the Minister of Women Affairs.
Uju’s determination and dedication were further evident when she became the sole female presidential aspirant to contest for the APC presidential ticket in 2022. Her unwavering commitment to the party’s cause was unmistakable during the 2023 APC presidential campaign when she was appointed as the Vice Chairperson of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council in the South-east geopolitical zone.
In the short time that she has served as Minister of Women Affairs, Uju has made significant strides – prominent of which is securing the commitment of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum to establish mobile courts in their states dedicated to ensuring swift access to justice for GBV victims.

Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo
Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo is a Nigerian engineer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and politician who is the current minister of Interior. He was a member of the House of Representatives, representing Akoko North East/Akoko North-West Federal Constituency of Ondo State from 2019 to 2023.
Before going into politics, Tunji-Ojo was an accomplished business and management executive with a flourishing career in ICT, becoming the CEO of a leading indigenous ICT consultant company in Nigeria, Matrix IT Solutions Limited, at the age of 24.

Tunji Alausa
Tunji Alausa is a Nigerian medical doctor specialising in Nephrology who is the current Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare.
From 1997 and 2001, he was a resident in Internal Medicine at Cook County Hospital, where he held the position of Chief Medical Resident.  He then became an Assistant Professor at Rush University Medical School before specialising in Nephrology and Hypertension at the Medical College of Wisconsin from July 2002 to June 2004. He also had a residency in Internal Medicine at both the Royal Bolton Hospital and the University of Newcastle from 1995 to 1997.
President Bola Tinubu appointed him Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare.

Bosun Tijani
Bosun Tijani, 46, is a Nigerian-British entrepreneur who is the current Nigerian minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy
In 2010, Tijani co-founded CcHUB, a technology innovation centre. In the early years, he led several social technology projects, including Lagos Innovation Hotspots and the i-HQ concept (the umbrella initiative for Yaba – the fastest-growing tech cluster in Africa), which involved working with MainOne Cable and the Lagos State Government to lay fibre optic cables in the Yaba area of Lagos accelerating the growth of the area into becoming the home of technology startups in Nigeria.
Under his leadership, CcHUB drove the growth of social innovation and influenced businesses and initiatives in different sectors including – environment (Wecyclers), fiscal transparency (BudgIT), e-commerce (Tracklist), Healthcare (LifeBank), education (re-learn), wellness (Truppr) and transportation (GoMyWay), civic activity (GoVOTE), online and cybersecurity (SafeOnline) among others.

Shuaibu Abubakar Audu
Shuaibu Abubakar Audu is a Nigerian investment banker and politician who is the current Minister of Steel Development since August 2023.
Following the submission and subsequent screening of ministerial nominees by the senate, Audu was appointed Minister of Steel Development on August 16 2023.
Audu is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on whose platform he contested as an aspirant in the governorship primary of the Kogi State chapter of the party.
He lost the gubernatorial ticket to Ahmed Ododo in the primary elections in April 2023.
In August 2023, he was made Minister of Steel Development by President Tinubu.

Jamila Bio Ibrahim  
Jamila Jummai Bio Ibrahim, the 37-year-old Minister of Youth has vast experience with youth affairs having established a non-governmental organisation (NGO) named Yon Seno Foundation in November 2017. She was then named a member of the think tank of the National Policy Summit in 2017.
As the face of the President on youth matters, all eyes are on the young minister to dish out policies that resonate well with the nation’s youth population.
She volunteered to serve on the presidential committee of the North-east Initiative (PCNI) established by former President Muhammadu Buhari to serve as the primary national strategy, coordination, and advisory body for all humanitarian interventions, and transformational and developmental efforts in the region.

Ayodele Olawande
Olawande, the 34-year-old minister served in the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari as the Personal Assistant to the Special Adviser on Innovation to the Vice President from 2019 to 2023.
On October 16, 2021, he was elected as the Ondo State APC Youth Leader and exactly two years after – 16 October 2023, he was sworn in as the Minister of State for Youth.

Zacch Adedeji
Adedeji’s appointment as the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) was confirmed by the Senate on October 30, 2023. He expected to bring his vast experience to bear in mobilising revenue for the administration. The 45-year-old chairman was previously the Special Adviser on Revenue to the President.
Adedeji worked at Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) where he rose to the position of Manager. He became a Commissioner for Finance, in Oyo State from 2011 to 2015 under Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s administration.

Aminu Maida
Aminu Maida was appointed the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) by President  Tinubu on October 11, 2023.
The 44-year-old administrator holds an MEng in Information Systems Engineering from Imperial College, London in 2002, and in 2006, he bagged a PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Bath, United Kingdom.
Until his latest appointment by the President, Dr. Maida was the Executive Director of Technology and Operations at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), the country’s central switch company owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and all licensed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria.

Hannatu Musawa
Musawa is a Nigerian lawyer, politician, and author. She is the daughter of renowned politician Alhaji Musa Musawa from Katsina State. In addition to being a barrister and attorney of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the 43-year-old Hannatu is a qualified solicitor in England & Wales, the United Kingdom.
She is currently the Minister of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy.

John Ugochukwu Uwajumogu
He is a Nigerian entrepreneur and politician. He currently serves as the Special Adviser on Industry, Trade, and Investment to President Tinubu.
Uwajumogu has a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, United States.
He is an expert in energy and infrastructure and is a partner in strategy and transactions at Ernst & Young, a British multinational accounting firm.
Prior to his appointment, Uwajumogu had also worked as director with Grant Thornton from 2012 to 2016 and PwC in 2009 to 2012.

Salma Ibrahim Anas  
Salma currently serves as the Special Adviser to the President on Health. She has over 25 years of experience in Health Sector Development. She has experience in health sector policy formulation, strategic development, resource mobilisation and implementation of various health programmes at international, regional and national levels.
She is vastly experienced both in the public and the private sector.  She served as the Director, Family Health Services at the FMOH where she leads key Divisions including Reproductive Health, Child Health and Gender, Adolescent, School Health and Elderly Care (GASHE), Nutrition and Health Promotion Divisions.
At the state level, Salma has been a two-time Commissioner for Health, Borno State, where she led the state at the peak of that region’s humanitarian crisis where her excellent performance accorded her many awards from various organisations, including an award for the best performing Commissioner in the North-east on Polio Eradication.

Asuquo Ekpenyong
Ekpenyong was born 25 August 1985. He is financial analyst and former Cross Rivers State Commissioner for Finance and is currently the senator representing Cross Rivers South senatorial district in the Senate.
He had his secondary education at King’s College, Lagos and further obtained a degree in Economics from the University of Reading in 2007 and a master’s degree in International Banking and Financial Services in 2008.

Ekpenyong moved to Cross River where he worked for two years as a lecturer in the Banking and Finance Department of the University of Calabar. He established Iquasu Ventures Limited, a haulage and logistics company, in 2010 and later took over as Managing Director of Chamley Bureau de Change Limited. Asuquo was later appointed Executive Director for finance at Pearland Energy, an indigenous oil and gas company, and member of the board of directors at Ekondo Microfinance Bank Limited.
In December 2015 Asuquo was appointed Cross River State Commissioner for Finance by Governor Ben Ayade the age of 29, making him the youngest commissioner in Nigeria. He is the longest serving Commissioner for Finance in Cross River State.

Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan
Akpoti-Uduaghan is a Nigerian lawyer and social entrepreneur and politician. She ran for the post of senator for Kogi Central senatorial district on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the year 2019.  She contested in the 2019 Kogi State governorship election which was held on 16 November 2019. She is the founder of Builders Hub Impact Investment Programme (BHIIP). She attended University of Abuja where she obtained her law degree before she proceeded to the University of Dundee for her LLM and MBA.

Rukayat Shittu
Twenty-six-year-old Shittu stunned many when she declared the winner of the Owode Onire state constituency of Asa Local Government Area of Kwara State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Though her election was nullified by the tribunal, the Court of Appeal upturned the judgment and reinstated her.
She is a former Senate President of the Congress of Students at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).
Shittu attended Kwara State College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies, an affiliate of Bayero University Kano (then), where she obtained a diploma certificate in Mass Communication and Islamic Studies in 2015. After the diploma, RMS enrolled herself in a fashion design school where she learned about sewing women’s clothes. In 2017, she got admission to NOUN. She graduated in 2022 with Second Class (Upper Division) from the Mass Communication department.”