Cross River born Medical doctor and public health specialist Dr. Betta Edu has been nominated for a ministerial appointment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu making her the first female minister to emerge from Cross River State and the youngest minister in the National executive council.
Dr, Betta Edu happened to be the only female among the contenders from Cross River State for ministerial nomination and other federal appointment which included Sen. John Owan Enoh, Sen. Victor Ndogma Egba, Amb. Soni Abang, Hon. Cletus Obun, Former governor Ben Ayade. Senator John Owan Enoh was also nominated as Cross River bagged two ministerial slots.
Over the years Cross River has had the likes of Senator Liyel Imoke, Hon. John Odey, Chief Michael Ani, Chief Edem Duke, Pastor Usani Usani and Goddy jeddy Agba taking the ministerial slot but Betta Edu has broken the jinx as she deservingly emerged as the first female Ministerial nominee from the state.
Dr. Betta who was born and raised in Cross River started her political career from her university days where she served as Vice president of the student union government university of Calabar. She journeyed into circular politics when she was appointed special adviser to Governor Ben Ayade on community health and later promoted to DG of Cross River State Primary health care agency. She was later appointed commissioner for health.
Dr Edu as Commissioner for Health in Cross River state managed COVID-19 pandemic in her state as the chairman of COVID-19 Response Taskforce, where she performed exceptionally well as the state recorded almost the lowest number of cases and mortality in the country.
Her outstanding public health response preparedness and innovation brought about the introduction of face mask as a preventive measure against COVID-19 long before it was recommended by World Health Organization and the countries Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19.
Her unique leadership qualities saw her emerge the Chairman of the Nigeria Health Commissioners Forum between 2020 and 2022.
In this capacity, she reformed the organisation, giving it a legal status, and formally affiliated it with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum. She organized the first ever health summit by the Forum which facilitated strategic engagement of the health commissioners with development partners, private sector, academia and the civil society to bridge information gap that existed between them, review progress towards UHC, identify opportunities for improvement and foster strategic partnerships to serve Nigerians better through policy actions and optimization of investments.
In 2022 she became the youngest National Woman Leader in the history of political Parties in Africa in 2022 and has now broken yet another record as the first female minister from Cross River and Youngest Minister in the National Executive council.