Education is Power: A Conversation with Nigeria’s First Female Senior Minister in the Federal Ministry of Education
In this podcast, I had the absolute privilege of interviewing Nigeria’s first female Senior Minister in the Federal Ministry of Education – Professor Chinwe Obaji. As the daughter of a Headmaster and a Headmistress of a primary school, Professor Obaji grew up knowing the value of an education. Despite it being difficult for women to earn degrees in higher education, her and her six siblings were able to attend school until they all received their Master’s degree. Since she had an interest in agriculture, Professor Obaji became a lecturer and administrator at Michael Okpara College of Agriculture in Imo State in Nigeria. During her time at Michael Okpara, she noticed some troublesome aspects of the education system. First, she noticed that despite their scores on the JAMB test, or the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board that all students entering university take, the students were failing to meet the expectations of her and the other professors. They couldn’t ask intelligent questions and were simply there to get a degree rather than for love of learning the material. Thus, when she was appointed as the Honorable Minister of Education, she decided to tackle this problem, among other issues she found.
Although her appointment only lasted from 2005 to 2006, she was able to be the catalyst for change and initiate many programs that Nigeria benefits from today. Those include, but are not limited to, the one-meal-a-day program, the administration of a post university matriculation test, and the delivery of one million laptops to children in Nigeria and Africa.
As impressive as these accomplishments were, Professor Obaji still faced difficulty early on in her appointment, as the men initially refused to accept that a woman now occupied her role. Since this class is centered around Black women in political leadership, I asked her why there was such little female representation, and if the lack of women in Congress impacted her role as Honorable Minister. She then listed a few reasons, including how expensive it is to run, that late night meetings were a deterrence for women, and that even when women run, men, and even some women, still vote against them solely due to their gender. Before the interview could take a despondent turn, Professor Obaji reminds us that Nigeria is only 60 years old, and that when the U.S. was our age, they lacked the female representation that we have.
In the final moments you’ll hear Professor Obaji’s inspiring words for young Black women. She says that if we follow our interests and put a lot of hard work in, we’ll succeed. When we want something, “Don’t feel shy – go and grab it. The men are not better than you.”
After this podcast, I feel more inspired to connect with Black women in my future career path, and I now know what to expect. When making this podcast, I expected it to take a reasonable amount of time to hear back from a potential interviewee. In the future, I know to double the time in which I expect to hear a promising response. Since my politician was in Nigeria, I now understand the need to be flexible, as well as try to predict any and all accommodations that will need to be made. For example, I did not anticipate that the interview would take place on WhatsApp and not Zoom, so a second device for recording was necessary. I also had to constantly keep in mind the six hour time difference between Nigeria and North Carolina, and make sure to call within an appropriate time frame. Also, 15 minutes into the interview, Professor Obaji had to deal with an emergency situation, and we had to complete the interview on the following day. This led to some discontinuity in the interview, and made it more difficult to edit the podcast in a way that flowed nicely and well combined the material from both interviews. I think one way I will help resolve this problem in the future is to make sure I ask less dense questions than can be answered in a few sentences rather than largely open ended ones that force my interviewee to consolidate too much information on the spot. Finally, due to the poor connection we experienced throughout the call on the second day, I was unable to respond or offer verbal cues to show my engagement with her speaking, as it would interrupt the conversation, especially since there was a few seconds lag.
Overall, this podcast project was an invaluable experience that I won’t soon forget. I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with her, and I hope that potential listeners feel equally as inspired as me and deeply grateful for their education.
Intro/Outro Music: FROBEAT INSTRUMENTAL- FREE TO USE | No Copyright Music
Bibliography
“Federal Ministry of Education (Nigeria).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 June 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Ministry_of_Education_(Nigeria).
Opaluwah, Atâyi-Babs Ezekiel Opaluwah. “Chinwe Obaji and the Legacy of Post-UME/PCE Test.” Chinwe Obaji and the Legacy of Post, www.gamji.com/article5000/NEWS5563.htm.
“Our Mandate.” FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, 3 Sept. 2020, education.gov.ng/our-mandate/.