The Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai on Friday expressed his resolve to adopt the three children of the late Commissioner of Education, Science and Technology, Professor Jonathan Andrew Nok who died on November 21, 2017 after a protracted illness.
Speaking at a valedictory executive session held in honour of the late Professor, El-Rufai said that the state government will sponsor the education of the deceased’s children up to Phd level.
He also said that one of the state’s secondary schools and an health institution would be named after the Professor who he said served meritoriously as the Commissioner for Health and Human Services before he was deployed to the Education ministry.
In tears, the governor recalled his over 40 years of friendship with the late Professor and the indelible marks he left behind as a Commissioner; saying a campus of the Kaduna State Polytechnic will be sited in Nok, the deceased’s home town.
Other Commissioners and top government functionaries also wept as they eulogised their late colleague.
The late professor was born on February 11, 1962 St Ungwar Rimi in Kaduna, He was appointed Commissioner for Health and Human Services in August 2015.
While in that office, he pushed the programme to equip 255 primary health centres with tools to save infants and pregnant women. A programme which is currently ongoing.
He was later moved to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in 2016 following a cabinet reshuffle.
At the education ministry, he championed the renovation and rehabilitation of schools, training of teachers and the provision of better teaching aids to enhance effective learning.
Late Nok was a professor of Biochemistry at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Acknowledged in the science community for his contributions, Professor Nok won the Alexander Humboldt prize in 2013 for his research into finding a cure for trypanosomiasis.
In 2009, he won the NLNG prize for identifying the gene responsible for the enzyme which causes sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis).
The Federal Government of Nigeria also honoured him with the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM).
Funeral service will hold today at ECWA Goodness church, Narayi high-cost while internment will hold NO. 22 Usman Muazu street, Narayi in Kaduna.
