Personality in Focus
Former Petroleum Minister Jibril Aminu Dies @85
A former Minister of Education and Petroleum Resources, Professor Jibril Aminu, is dead.
He died in Abuja on Thursday at the age of 85.
The death was confirmed by House of Representatives member, representing Fufore/Song Federal Constituency, Aloyu Boya Wakili, on Thursday.
The lawmaker wrote in a Facebook post thus: “Innalillahi Wa Innah Ilaihirraji’un, today, we’ve lost a shining light. I’m deeply saddened by the passing of our father figure, uncle, and our mentor who left an indelible mark on our lives, his legacy will live on through the countless lives he touched. May Professor Jibril Aminu’s soul rest in peace. My thoughts and prayers are with the family and loved ones during this difficult time.”
His funeral prayers will hold at the National Mosque, Abuja on Thursday.
He would be buried in his home town Song, Song Local Government Area of Adamawa State.
Prof. Jibrin Aminu was born in August 1939 in Adamawa State, Northeast Nigeria.
He graduated in medicine from the University of Ibadan in 1965, and holds a PhD in Medicine from the Royal Post-Graduate Medical School.
He was appointed a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science in 1972, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians , London in 1980 and a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians also in 1980.
He was made a Distinguished Fellow of the Nigerian Postgraduate Medical College in 2004.
He was a consultant, senior lecturer and sub-dean of Clinical Studies at the University of Ibadan Medical School from 1973 -1975.
He served as the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, NUC from 1975–1979, visiting Professor of Medicine at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington DC from1979–1980, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri, 1980-1985.
He was also Professor of Medicine at the University of Maiduguri from1979–1995.
Professor Aminu held office as Minister of Education and later Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (1989–1992).
He was Nigerian Ambassador to the USA from 1999–2003; and was elected Senator for the Adamawa Central constituency in May 2003 and re-elected in 2007.
On January 2, 2010, Aminu was installed as the “Bobaselu of The Source” by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Sijuwade.
One of the founders of Newswatch magazine, Chief Dan Agbese, is dead.
According to a statement issued by the Agbese family of Ikpilogwu clan of Agila district, Ado Local Government Area of Benue State, he died on Monday.
“We hereby announce the passing away of our husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and mentor: Chief Dan Agbese, the Awan’Otun of Agila.”
“Chief Agbese transited to eternal glory this morning, Monday November 17, 2025. He was aged 81.
“Burial arrangements would be announced by the family in due course.
“Born May 12, 1944 in Agila, Chief Agbese was a renowned journalist and author, famous for his seminal contributions to journalism practice in Nigeria and renowned for his satirical columns.
He was editor of The Nigeria Standard and New Nigerian newspapers, and General Manager of Radio Benue, Makurdi.
“Chief Agbese was one of the founders of the trail-blazing Newswatch magazine and was until April 2010 its Editor-in-Chief.
“Before his passing, he wrote several books and maintained weekly columns in notable newspapers including the Daily Trust and The Guardian, while running a media consultancy with his friends and colleagues, Ray Ekpu, Yakubu Muhammed and Soji Akinrinade.
“He is survived by his wife , Chief Rose Agbese, their six children, and seven grandchildren.”
Japanese stage and film actor Tatsuya Nakadai, who starred in a string of Akira Kurosawa classics, including the lead role in Ran, has died at the age of 92, his acting school announced on Tuesday.
Nakadai first rose to fame in Japan and internationally under director Masaki Kobayashi, who cast him in his epic anti-war trilogy The Human Condition in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
His acting school, Mumeijuku, did not disclose when Nakadai died or provide further details.
Nakadai had a walk-on role in Kurosawa’s 1954 classic Seven Samurai, but later effectively replaced Toshiro Mifune as the famed director’s leading man after Mifune went his own way.
He played the main protagonist in Kurosawa’s Kagemusha (1980), which won the Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Nakadai also portrayed the doomed warlord who divides his kingdom among his sons in Ran (1985), Kurosawa’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear.
One of his former students, Koji Yakusho, won Best Actor at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival for his role in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days.
Nakadai continued performing until recently, appearing this year at a theatre in the Noto region, which was still recovering from a deadly earthquake that struck on New Year’s Day last year.
AFP
American scientist, James Watson, one of the co-discoverers of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), has died at the age of 97.
Watson, alongside Francis Crick, identified the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953, a discovery that transformed biology and medicine. Their work, which revealed how genetic information is stored and transmitted, earned them and Maurice Wilkins the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
“We have discovered the secret of life,” they said at the time.
His death was confirmed by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York, where he spent much of his career. Watson led the institution for decades before stepping down as chancellor following controversy over his remarks on race and sex.
Watson’s reputation declined sharply after comments he made suggesting genetic differences in intelligence between races. In a 2007 interview with The Times, he said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa”, adding that “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours whereas all the testing says not really.”
He later apologised “unreservedly”, but the remarks cost him his position at CSHL. In 2019, further comments linking race and intelligence prompted the lab to strip him of his remaining honorary titles. “Dr. Watson’s statements are reprehensible, unsupported by science,” the laboratory said in a statement.
DNA was first discovered in 1869, but its role as the genetic material in cells wasn’t confirmed until 1943. The molecule’s structure remained unknown until Watson and Crick built their model, using X-ray images produced by Rosalind Franklin at King’s College London images reportedly obtained without her consent.
Though Franklin died in 1958, she is now widely credited for her crucial role in solving the DNA structure. At the time, however, her contributions were largely overlooked.
Watson also drew criticism for sexist remarks in his 1968 memoir The Double Helix, where he commented on Franklin’s appearance. Despite this, some former colleagues noted that he supported women scientists at Harvard in the 1950s and 60s, when few others did.
In 2014, feeling isolated from the scientific community, Watson sold his Nobel medal for $4.8 million. The Russian buyer later returned it to him.
Born in Chicago in April 1928, Watson was the son of Jean and James Watson, descendants of English, Scottish, and Irish settlers. A gifted student, he entered the University of Chicago at 15, where he became interested in X-ray diffraction, a key technique in revealing atomic structures.
Watson later studied at Cambridge University, where he met Crick and began building models of DNA. After their discovery, he joined Harvard University as a biology professor.
He and his wife, Elizabeth, had two sons. One was diagnosed with schizophrenia, inspiring Watson to continue research into the genetic basis of mental illness.
In 1968, he became director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, transforming it into a leading global centre for molecular biology research, the same institution that later confirmed his death.
