Former Vice-President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar has gone back to school to pick a Masters’s degree in a university in the UK.

Although Atiku had kept this under wraps for some time, the cat was let out of the bag today by Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, AfDB President.

Adesina made this known while delivering the convocation lecture for the graduating students of the American University of Nigeria, in Yola on Saturday.

Adesina said Atiku is studying for a Masters’ degree in international relations.

“He loves education and its power to create transformation change”, Adesina said of Atiku, who he described as his benefactor, mentor, big brother, and friend.

“I was joking with him recently and asked why at his age, he had gone back to study for a Masters’ degree in international relations in the UK.

“He told me that he wanted to obtain the degree, so that he could find out why he did the things he did while in government”.

Atiku who was born on 25 November 1946 in Jada Adamawa state, is 74 years old.

He started schooling at the age of eight, attending Jada Primary School.

After completing his primary school education in 1960, he was admitted into Adamawa Provincial Secondary School in the same year.

He graduated from secondary school in 1965 with a Grade 3 in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.

Following secondary school, Abubakar studied a short while at the Nigeria Police College in Kaduna.

He left the College when he was unable to present an O-Level Mathematics result, and worked briefly as a Tax Officer in the Regional Ministry of Finance, from where he gained admission to the School of Hygiene in Kano in 1966.

He graduated with a Diploma in 1967, having served as Interim Student Union President at the school.

In 1967 he enrolled for a Law Diploma at the Ahmadu Bello University Institute of Administration, on a scholarship from the regional government.

After graduation in 1969, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was employed by the Nigeria Customs Service.

He retired from the Customs in April 1989 and plunged into politics and business.