SALIHU BAKARI GIREI

He was Special Assistant to the Executive Secretary UBE Commission, Abuja; Assistant Director and Special Assistant to the Executive Secretary, Education Trust Fund, Abuja; Coordinator, International Training and Support, Adamawa State; Director-General, Special Projects and Programs, Government House Adamawa State; Executive Chairman, Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Board; Commissioner, Ministry for Local Government Affairs, Adamawa State; Commissioner, Ministry for Higher Education, Adamawa State; Deputy Director Research and Development, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Abuja; and several others too numerous to mention. Presently, he is the Director, Research and Development/Centre’s of Excellence Department, and Member, Top Management, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Abuja – a position he has held since 2020.

The weight of Dr Bakari’s administrative positions could sink another Titanic if stringed together; a few of which are Dean, School of Education, FCE Yola; Secretary, National Committee on the Development of Criteria and Conditions for Accessing and Utilizing Federal Government UBE Intervention Funds; Member, National Ministerial Committee on the Development of Madrassah Education in Nigeria; Chairman, Adamawa State Committee on the Development of State Strategic and Operational Plan for the Education Sector; Member Adamawa State Executive Council; Member, Impact Assessment Committee on the Implementation of Project Intervention of TETFUND; Member, National Research Fund Monitoring and Screening Committee, TETFUND; Member, Technical Advisory Committee on Book Development Fund, TETFUND; Co-ordinating Director, Committee on Deepening Research and Development, TETFUND; Chairman, Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit, TETFUND; Member , TETFUND Research and Development Standing Committee.

Dr. Bakari has been a visiting Senior Lecturer to Federal University Kashere and is presently a visiting Associate Professor at Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto.

Our Dr. is a member of several professional bodies and learned societies, among which are Comparative and International Education Society; British Association for International and Comparative Education; Institute of Leadership and Management, and Nigeria Academy of Education.

In keeping with ASUU’s injunction to “publish or perish”, our Lecturer is an unrepentant academic who has to his credit several articles in learned journals, several book chapters and conference proceedings in circulation nationally and internationally. He has also successfully supervised and graduated three international post-graduate students to the glory of God.

Dr. Bakari’s key achievements as Executive Chairman, Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Board; Head, Special Projects and Programs, Adamawa State; Commissioner for Local Government, Adamawa State and Director, Research and Development/Centre’s of Excellence, TETFUND are multi-pronged, all standing taller than the man who achieved them. He established 51 Model Primary Schools in all the 21 local government areas in Adamawa State; he introduced the distribution of free school uniforms for girls and all class one pupils in primary schools; he procured monitoring vehicles for all Education Secretaries and Directors as well as Motor Cycles for school supervisors in the state; he built and rehabilitated over 4,000 classrooms in Primary and Junior Secondary Schools; he established six(6) Model Boarding Junior Secondary Schools in the state; he collaborated with UK Volunteers to retrain teachers, especially in English Studies, Pedagogy, ICT, and school leadership; he cleared promotion backlog from 2006 to 2008, affecting 6,785 teachers; he led Adamawa State to win the overall best position in Nigeria in the implementation of the UBE program for the year 2008;

He established Farming Skills Acquisition Centers in Adamawa State to train farmers and youths on 21^st century farming techniques and skills; he established Local Apprenticeship Scheme to develop skills in youths and generate employment in the non-formal sector; he built standard slaughter houses/abattoirs in all the Local Government Headquarters to boast the local economy and improve hygiene; he implemented the Cashless Policy in the local government system to curb corruption and entrench transparency and accountability of public funds; he supervised the establishment of 26 centers of excellence in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in Nigeria; he judiciously managed the award and disbursement of 457 National Research Funds to deserving academics in public tertiary institutions in Nigeria; he initiated the establishment of model entrepreneurship centers in the six (6) geo-political zones of the country and a litany of other achievements which time and space would fail me to enumerate.

In recognition of his massive and enviable contributions to humanity, our exemplary Public Lecturer has a plethora of awards and recommendations in his kitty; among them are NYSC Merit Award; Local Government Merit Award for outstanding Service; the British Chevening Scholarship Award; the Youngest Achiever and Ambassador of Youth Award; Most Innovative SUBEB Chairman on Education Development in the Northeast Zone of Nigeria Award; Arewa Inspirational Leadership Award and President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Excellence Award in Public Service.

Dr. Bakari’s is not one who is in any way disconnected or divorced from his community. He was conferred with the traditional title of WAKILI MAKARANTA ADAMAWA by HRH Lamido of Adamawa in 2010. He was also conferred with the traditional chieftaincy title of MAGAJIN GARIN GIREI by the Adamawa Emirate Council; making him a double chief and title holder.

The Public Lecturer today is unarguably a citizen of the world having traversed over 30 countries among which are the United Kingdom, Seychelles, the USA, Mexico, Kenya, Tanzania, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, China, France, Brazil, Greece, the Netherlands, Brussels, Israel, Indonesia, Egypt, Rwanda, Belgium, and several others too numerous to mention.

It is an honour and privilege to present this many capped, many feathered highly accomplished and quintessential academic gem, a star of no diminishing brightness, an administrative scholar par excellence, an epitome of hard work, resilience and dedication, a worthy title holder, a two-time Commissioner, two-time master’s degree holder, and an exemplary Great Josite, Dr. Salihu Girei Bakari, Member, Nigeria Academy of Education (MNAE).