Rita Akpan is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...

teacher who was Federal Minister of Women affairs in the cabinet of President

Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo (; ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian former army general, politician and statesman who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its president from 1999 to 200 ...

between July 2003 and June 2005.

Career

From 1968 to 1986, Rita worked with the American International School,

Victoria Island, Lagos Victoria Island (VI) is an affluent area that encompasses a former island of the same name neighbouring Lagos Island, Ikoyi and the Lekki Peninsula by the Lagos Lagoon. It is the main business and finance, financial centre of Lagos State, Niger ...

and the Federal Ministry of Education. She served as Head of French Department, Federal Government Girls' College, Calabar, Federal Inspector of the

French Language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

and later as Vice Principal, Federal Government Girls College, Calabar. Akpan was once a secretary to the

Akwa Ibom State Government Akwa Ibom State Government is the government of Akwa Ibom, concerned with the administration of the state ministries. The government consists of Executive, Legislative and Judiciary. The government is headed by Udom Gabriel Emmanuel who is the ...

during the first tenure of the Governor Victor Attah administration. She was also a cabinet member during the first civilian administration of Akwa_ibom State. In 1992, she was appointed Special Adviser on Information and Culture to the Akwa_Ibom state Governor. She later served as State Commissioner for Education in 1993 and Secretary to the State Government of Akwa-Ibom State from 1999 to 2000.

Minister of Women Affairs

In October 2004, during a workshop on the socio-economic implications of

human trafficking Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving individuals through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. This exploitation may include forced labor, sexual slavery, or oth ...

and child labour, Akpan noted that

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

was the first and only country in

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

to enact an anti-human trafficking act. In January 2005, Akpan introduced the second periodic report on Nigeria to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Committee on the Rights of the Child The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is a body of experts that monitor and report on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The committee also monitors the convention's three optional protoco ...

. She said Nigeria had taken concrete steps toward the Rights of the Child Convention since it had presented its initial report. She was reported to have fallen from favor with President Obasanjo as being an associate of Akwa Ibom Governor Victor Attah, with whom Obasanjo had a disagreement. She was dropped from the cabinet in June 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akpan, Rita Living people People from Akwa Ibom State Federal ministers of Nigeria 21st-century Nigerian politicians 21st-century Nigerian women politicians Women government ministers of Nigeria Year of birth missing (living people) Women's ministers of Nigeria