When it comes to the matter of education, Nigerians cannot be set aside. There is a lot of genius living in Nigeria and making the country proud.
In this article, we will talk about the most educated family in Nigeria which has nine Professors and seven PhD holders. The family is known as Amali family. This family is the most educated in Nigeria if not in Africa. In Amali family, four of their wives are professors.
The family has a huge interest in professorship and scholarship. The only difference between the Amali family and the Ijaiya family in Kwara state is that the Amali is a group of professors within a nuclear family while the Ijaiya family is an extended big family.
The Amali family are originated from Benue state in Upu village of Otukpo local government. Their father was a low-grade farmer who had a keen interest in his children’s education.
He didn’t allow his children to seek jobs with their first degree but rather they are focused on the first son to attain great height to help others. This is how they learnt the lesson of helping others to rise in the family.
The family also placed importance on marrying educated women. None of their wives has less than masters degree before marriage. All the women (wives) in Amali’s family are professors, associate professors and PhD holders.
The first son of the family is Professor Shamsdeen Onyilokwu Amali and he is the first person to become a Professor of Modern Drama in Nigeria. His wife, Ebele Amali is also a Professor of Economics.
Professor S.O Amali is a mentor to his brothers and other people from their community who are now also professors. He is the first Theatre Arts Professor to head a university as vice-chancellor in Nigeria.
He was once a Deputy Vice-chancellor at the University of Jos and also the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin and Nasarawa State University. He bagged a national honour “Order of the Federal Republic” (OFR) from Olusegun Obasanjo during his term as President of Nigeria. For four years (2005-2009) he was the vice president of the Association of African Universities (AAU).
Professor Idris Amali
He is the second person to become a Professor in the family. He is a prominent professor of Oral Literature. Presently, he is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Lafia. Halima Amali, his wife is also an Associate Professor.
Professor Okwoli Amali
He is a Professor of Microbiology at Markurdi in the University of Agriculture. He has done a lot of scholarly works and his wife is Professor Apache Amali.
Other prominent scholars in Amali family are; Dr Amali, a Nuclear Physicist who works with United States government, Professor Emeli Amali, Otuofo Mohammed Amali and many more.
