Kate Omenugha
Commissioner for Basic Education
In office 2014 – March, 2022
Governor	Willie Obiano
Personal details
Born	30 January 1965 (age 57) Anambra State, Nigeria
Profession	Educationist

How Old is Kate Omenugha?

She was born on the 30th of January 1965.

Early life and education

Kate Azuka Omenugha (nee Nwagwu) is from Ubaha Nnobi, a town in Idemmili South Local government area, Anambra State Nigeria. Her father Chief E. B. Nwagwu was a teacher and she grew up moving from one school to another as her father was transferred thus she had her primary school education in St. Mary’s Primary School, Neni (1971-1972, Girls Practising School, Adazi Nnukwu (1972-1974) and Community Primary school, Adazi Ani (1975).  She started her secondary school education at Ojiakor Memorial Secondary School, Adazi Ani (1975-1976), and completed it at Maria Regina Comprehensive Secondary School, Nnewi (1976-1980).

She taught as an auxiliary teacher in Metuh Secondary School Onitsha (1980-1981) before gaining admission into the College of Education, Nsugbe (now Nwafor-Orizu College of Education). In 1983, she obtained a National Certificate in Education from Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe, Anambra State Nigeria, a Bachelor’s degree in Education/English from the University of Nigeria in 1987, and a Masters’ degree in Mass Communication in 1998 from the same university. She also has a Ph.D. in Gender, Media and Cultural Studies (2005) from the University of Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.^[3]

Career

Omenugha served as a secondary school teacher in Queen of Rosary College, Onitsha briefly in 1988 before moving over to Girls’ Secondary School, Awka Etiti where she spent 10yrs and rose to become a Vice Principal before joining the University system as a lecturer in 1998. She was the Head, of the Department of Mass Communication, Nnamdi Azikiwe University (2006-2012). She was also the Director, UNIZIK 94.1 FM, a community Radio station run by her University. She was made the Commissioner, Ministry of Education (2014-2018), Anambra State, and became Commissioner of Basic Education from 2014 to date in the same State. She is the Vice President (South East), Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals, Nigeria (ACSPN).

Under her watch as a commissioner in the Ministry of Education in the State, students and teachers have won many laurels all attributed to her leadership. These include;

• Students of Regina Pacies Secondary School Onitsha, who represented Nigeria and Africa at the World Technovation Challenge in the Silicon Valley in San Francisco, and won the Gold Medal in the contest (August 2018)
• Students Advancement Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE) competition
• 2019 President’s Teachers and Schools Awards for Excellence in Education organized by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Education
• bronze medal in Tunisia at the African Science and Technology competition (IFES)
• 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th positions in the National Essay competition
• Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN) Project competition

Family

Omenugha is married to Dr. Michael Omenugha, a private medical practitioner from Umuru Ebenesi, Nnobi. They have six children.

Networth

$5 to $10 million

Excerpt From Her Interview With SunNews

How did you earn the sobriquet of Madam Integrity?

Is that what they call me? (laughs) I grew up in a deeply Catholic family, having what I call a Catholic conscience, which is very important. So it’s a question of giving everybody his or her own due and insisting you do the right thing. It’s not that I am strict, but I want you to do the right thing. I am not a saint, anyway, but I try to do the right thing. Kate Omenugha is a brand, so I can’t begin to change myself. The governor said, “Everybody I asked about you said good things about you when I wanted to make you a commissioner; I am glad they are still saying the same thing 8 years after.” I take it as a positive thing.

Sometimes some people come to me to write referees, and I tell them, “If I write what I know about you, you won’t like it”. And they will run away. So I don’t just write for the fun of writing. I like people to do the right thing. I can’t employ a teacher who has fallen below the standard we have set. Governor Obiano understands this. He supports me. I want to thank him for giving me the opportunity to serve the state for 8 years and to give our students the confidence to excel. Waec wrote to us in 2017 and last year commending us for the credible conduct of exams.

We are organizing “Celebrating Excellence: Our Eagle, Our Pride”, which is our parting gift to all of us in our education family. We want to celebrate these people who have won awards over the years.

Eight years at the helm of the education ministry, how would you like to be remembered?

As you said, as Mrs. Integrity; was the person who brought herself down to the level of the children she was looking after. I go on low-cut because I don’t want to look too glamorous. I want the children to see me as somebody they can relate with. I would love to be remembered as that woman who brought passion to education, that woman who developed the capacity of the teachers (in 2015, we beat Kaothon Convent School in the first Nigeria-Singapore debate), we went to Indonesia for the World Debate Championship and, in the preliminary debate, we beat Barbados.

Don’t forget in 2018, the Regina Pacis Girls won gold in the Silicon Valley, while Saint John’s Technical College, Alor, went to Tunisia in IFEC (International Festival of Engineering and Science). Anambra State Government now has the President School Debates cup for keeps, having won it thrice consecutively. That goes to show that the promise the state government gave to the students of Anambra to give them an education that is globally competitive has worked.

Finally, where do you go from here? Are we expecting the first female governor of Anambra or another female senator from the state?

(laughs) I am not really a politician. I will quietly go back to the university and continue from where I stopped. I am a professor of mass communication, the second female professor of mass comm in Nigeria. And if I am called again to serve, God helping me, if I am In good health, I surely will.

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Publications

• Prof Kate Omenugha has more than sixty (60) publications published locally and internationally as book chapters, journal articles, conference papers, solicited papers, technical reports, books, and monographs including;
• Kate Azuka Omenugha – Education for Sustainable Development, Education for Employment (E4E), Chief Willie Obiano, Value based education, Anambra State
• Omenugha, Kate & Uzuegbunam, Chikezie & Omenugha, Nelson. (2014). Good Governance and Media Ownership In Nigeria: Dilemmatic Practices, Stoic Challenges. Global Media Journal African Edition. 7. 10.5789/7-2-133.
• Ngugi, Muiru & Fayoyin, & Azuka, Omenugha. (2018). New Media and African Society.
• Omenugha, Kate & Uzuegbunam, Chikezie & Ndolo, Ike. (2016). Celebrity culture, media and the Nigerian youth: negotiating cultural identities in a globalised world. Critical Arts. 30. 200-216. 10.1080/02560046.2016.1187791.
• Omenugha, Kate., Omenugha Nelson, Obinna & Duru Henry Chigozie (2019) The Audience’s Cognitive Attitude to Nollywood Films’ Representation of Pre-Colonial South-East Nigeria.
• Omenugha, Kate & Uzuegbunam, Chikezie. (2012). Media, Government and Good governance in Nigeria: arch foes or potential allies?
• Pratt, Cornelius & Omenugha, Kate. (2014). “My God is Not Your God”: Applying Relationship Management Theory to Managing Ethnoreligious Crises in Sub-Saharan Africa. International Journal of Strategic Communication. 8. 100-125. 10.1080/1553118X.2014.882338.
• Omenugha, Kate & Uzuegbunam, Chikezie. (2015). Exploring the ethical challenge of media ownership: Is Nigerian media’s role in good governance possible? Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies. 4. 397-415. 10.1386/ajms.4.3.397_1.
• Kate Azuka Omenugha, Chikezie Emmanuel Uzuegbunam & Ike S. Ndolo (2016) Celebrity culture, media and the Nigerian youth: negotiating cultural identities in a globalised world, Critical Arts, 30:2, 200-216, DOI: 10.1080/02560046.2016.1187791
• Kate Azuka Omenugha; Majority Oji (2008). News commercialization, ethics and objectivity in journalism practice in Nigeria: strange bedfellows?