By Emma Ogbuehi
Barely a day after the assassination of ex-presidential aide and All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Ahmed Gulak, in Owerri, Imo State, gunmen have struck again, this time in Minna, Niger State, killing the Registrar of the National Examinations Council, Prof. Godswill Obioma. Reports claimed that Obioma, a professor of mathematics education and evaluation, was killed in his residence, shortly arriving from an Abuja trip.
Peoples Gazette, an online medium, quoted his wife, Elizabeth, as stating that he was strangled and that his assailants did not take anything from the house. “The assassins came in and killed him and left without taking anything,” the Paper quoted the wife as saying on telephone on Tuesday morning.
The late Obioma was appointed NECO Registrar by President Muhammadu Buhari on May 14, 2020, for a five-year tenure. Before the NECO appointment, Obioma had served as the director, monitoring and evaluation of the National Primary Education Commission, Kaduna from 1994 to 2000 before becoming the director, monitoring and evaluation, Universal Basic Education Programme, Abuja in 2000. He also served as the director, monitoring, research and statistics, National Board for Technical Education (NABTEB), Benin City from 2003 to 2005.
He was at a time, special assistant to the minister of education, before serving for two terms as the executive secretary, Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, Sheda, Abuja from March 2005. He later joined Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, becoming the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Ebonyi State.
The late NECO boss was a native of Amaokpu, Nkpa, Bende Local Government Area, Abia State. He attended Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education where he studied mathematics and physics, graduating with distinction and as the overall best graduating student, in 1975. In 1979, he graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he studied mathematics and education, graduating as the best graduating student. In 1982, he graduated with a master’s degree in educational measurement and evaluation in the same university. In 1985, he furthered in the same university and graduated with doctorate degree in the same field and won the vice chancellor’s award for the best doctoral dissertation.
In 1979, Obioma began his career at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka as a research fellow, after his retention by the same institution when he graduated. He left the university in 1988 and moved to the University of Jos and became the head of the research division of the institute of education as a senior research fellow.
In 1991 at the age of 38, he was appointed a professor of mathematics education and evaluation at University of Jos.
