Etiebet mourns Jubril Aminu, says he was an academic of international repute in medicine

A former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Chief Don Obot Etiebet, has described the death of Professor Jubril Aminu as saddening, lamenting that it has dismissed the tribe of conscientious nationalists and statesmen.

Professor Aminu, a former ministerbif Petroleum Resources and Education under the Ibrahim Babangida regime, passed Thursday morning in Abuja at 85.

Etiebet, in a statement sent to THE CONCLAVE online newspaper, said “This is sad, very, very sad indeed. We have lost a gem and an academic icon of international and national repute in medicine who made Nigeria proud.

“This academic guru was a vice chancellor of the University of Maiduguri and an executive secretary of the National University Commussion.

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“He joined full-time politics when the military administration of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida appointed him first as minister of education and again as minister Petroleum Resources.

“He was also our Ambassador to the USA and a two-term Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“We were so friendly, and he used to call me just DON, and I called him PROF as we both lived on a street named after him on Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos.

“Professor Jubril Aminu was an embodiment of Nigerian ethos, humility, and he was an axemplary leader of the northern establishment but very friendly to many in the south both in business and in social circles.

“In 1998 when PDP was formed, he was a founding and an influential member and when the decision was to be made for the Party to cede the presidency to the South as we, southern aspirants, demanded, Professor Jubril Aminu was chosen as the chairman of the northern committee to evaluate the proposal and he came out with that famous agreement for the Southern presidential aspirants to sign on what they would do for the North if the North conceded the presidency to the South.

“He himself was an advocate of ceding the presidency to the South and needed that agreement to convince other members of the committee and northern hawks who were against a southern president.

“He was a good man, a good and dependable Nigerian who preached unity, understanding and togetherness. We shall miss him greatly.

“May his gentle soul rest in peace.

“May God grant his family the grace to bear the irreparable loss with fortitude.”

Chief Don Etiebet, CON
Former Minister of Petroleum Resources.