The Kaduna State Commissioner of Education, Science and Technology, Professor Andrew Nok is dead.
The state government in a statement signed by the spokesman to the governor, Samuel Aruwan, said Professor Nok died at the age of 55, at his residence in Kaduna on Tuesday, November 21, 2017.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai said the Professor Nok before his death was, “one of the best this country has produced, and one of the most committed persons to have served Kaduna State.”
The Kaduna State governor said the late commissioner was a pillar of his cabinet, a capable administrator who was adept at getting things done and dedicated to the progress of the state.”
“Professor Nok was one of the best this country has produced, and one of the most committed persons to have served Kaduna State. He was steadfast, rigorous and very successful in implementing our project to improve Health and Education in the state. He will be sorely missed,” El-Rufai said.
The late commissioner was a professor of Biochemistry at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.
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)
He was appointed Commissioner for Health and Human Services by Governor El-Rufai in August 2015, and later redeployed to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in 2016.
