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Ufot Ekaette

Ufot Ekaette

Former Minister of the Niger Delta

Date of Birth: 17 April 1939
Place of Birth: Ikot Edor, Onna, Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria

Education: BSc Economics, 1964, University of Ibadan.

Career: Secretary to Major General Yakubu Gowon, Head of State of Nigeria, 1968-1975; served at the Federal Ministries of Industry, 1975, Information, 1977-1979, Education, 1979, and National Planning, 1979-1983; Secretary, Office of the Secretary to the Military Government and Head of Service,1984; Director, External Finance, Federal Ministry of Finance 1985-86; Alternate Governor for Nigeria on the Board of the African Development Bank (AfDB) 1985-86; appointed Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Industries, January 1986; reassigned as Permanent Secretary of Federal Ministry of Works and Housing,1988; Director General, Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI), 1988-89; Director General, Federal Ministry of Social Development, Youth and Sports,1989; Director General (Planning), Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning, 1990; Deputy Governor of Akwa-Ibom State, 1990; retired from the Federal Civil Service, February 1994; appointed Non-Executive Director of First Bank of Nigeria, 1996; Secretary General of the Federation 1999-07; appointed head of the newly created Ministry of the Niger Delta, December 2008-10. 

Commentary: Nicknamed 'Mr Civil Service', Ekaette joined the Federal Civil Service in 1964 after graduating from the University of Ibadan with a BSc in economics. He has served in numerous positions under every government since. His wife, Eme Ekaette, a retired manager at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, was elected to the Senate in 2007. As head of the Ministry of the Niger Delta, it falls to Ekaette to begin to do what no Nigerian government has ever done - bring development to the Niger Delta.

For all his long service in various governments, one more corrupt than the other, Ekaette enjoys something of a reputation for honesty, but not for humour. On the day his wife was elected to the Senate, Ekaette fulminated that accusations he had been a liability to his state were 'false, libelous and untrue'.