Andrew Oziel DONYE is an indigene of Lamurde Local Government Area of the present Adamawa State. He was born in a village called Ngbakowo in the then Numan Local Government Area of the former Gongola State (comprising the present Adamawa and Taraba States). He started his primary school education in the same village. After the completion of his primary school, he was admitted into Government Day Secondary School, Lamurde in 1979. He studied in the school for two years up to what used to be known as Form II. Before entering form III, the Gongola State Government decided to emphasize the need for training young boys and girls in science-based subjects. This led to the employment of expatriate science teachers from India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and a few other countries to carry out the job. This policy led to the specialization of five formally existing arts and science secondary schools into entirely Science Secondary Schools. Statewide written and oral examinations were conducted in all the existing secondary schools in the state (Gongola) with the sole aim of selecting the best science students that were to be enrolled in the newly created Science Secondary Schools. Donye was selected as the best out of the 76 students in Government Day Secondary School, Lamurde, along with two others who scored the second and third highest marks. He was, therefore, moved to Government Science Secondary School, Ganye, comprising only boys in 1981. He completed his secondary school education in that school in June 1984. The school is known today as Federal Government College, Ganye, comprising both boys and girls.

Though Donye was very intelligent and was always a firstcomer in his class throughout his secondary school period, he feared going to the university. The fear was informed and consolidated because he was naturally a young man who hated failures and misfortunes and was very poor at managing them same. He was uniquely cautious not to do anything that would put him to shame. For him, failure to graduate as a result of carryovers when in the University was best avoided by not looking for admission at all in the first place. Therefore, he stayed at home and waited for what God would do for him. After staying at home for just above one year, Donye secured employment with the then Gongola State Government as an Agricultural Extension Agent in the then Gongola Integrated Rural Development Project (GIRDP) in July 1985. He underwent a nine-month induction training in one of the then two Farm Training Centers in the state. Having worked in the rural areas and became bored and discouraged with the nature of the work, he was forced by circumstances and hence he finally determined to further his education, without which he realized that life would be too difficult. After eleven years of extensive extension work, he sought admission and was admitted into the University of Maiduguri. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science (B. Sc.) degree in General Agriculture in 2002. Tempted by the great and unbelievable performance and success of his graduation, Donye quickly enrolled in a higher degree program and bagged his Master of Science (M. Sc.) degree in Agricultural Extension in 2007, while still working with the Adamawa State Agricultural Development Programme to which the GIRDP was changed.

Due to the popular “who you know determines what you get and what you become syndrome” in Nigeria, Donye was not given any specific office that could commensurate his qualification and specialization. Towards the tail end of his uncommon and very unique patience and dependence on God, he waited and was eventually appointed as the Zonal Coordinator of one of the four zones of the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) in 2008. SAA is a Foundation in Japan that has saddled itself with the duty of assisting some selected African nations to minimize the poverty that was, and of course is still, bedeviling farmers to make better their living standards. In January 2009, Donye decided to join the academics which he erstwhile feared greatly. He, therefore, took a lecturing appointment with the Adamawa State University. Just barely three months in the lecturing profession, he once again got admission into the University of Maiduguri for his Ph. D. in 2009. As a result of the incessant ASUU strikes and the emergence of the Boko Haram insurgency, the program was painfully elongated. However, with the help of God, he finally earned his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D) degree in Agricultural Extension in 2014. While still in his Ph. D. program, he was appointed as the University Coordinator for the Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education (SAFE) Programme. SAFE is a degree program that admits mid-career workers in agriculture and/or agriculture-related organizations who have HND qualifications in agriculture and related fields of study. It is being sponsored by the NIPPON Foundation in Japan as the main headquarters. Ethiopia is the headquarters of the SAFE Programme in Africa. Donye served in that capacity for eight years. As the University Coordinator of the SAFE program, Donye has traveled to the following African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, the Republic of Benin, Mali, Togo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he contributed to the development of agriculture and farmers and the promotion of agricultural extension in West Africa and East Africa, the two regions in which the SAFE Programme is being run.

Donye served the Adamawa State University and rose from Lecturer II on which he was first employed in the university in 2009 to the rank of Associate Professor in 2018. After serving the Adamawa State University for four years after obtaining his Ph. D., Donye made an appointment with the University of Jos on transfer of service in October 2018. After three years of service at the University of Jos, he was promoted to the rank of Professor in October 2021.

Professor Andrew Oziel Donye has a very deep and keen interest in agricultural communication, agricultural journalism, and rural sociology. If given the desired opportunity and if supported by the authorities saddled with the responsibility for the promotion of research and scientific investigations, he is unquestionably determined and undoubtedly able to do great work in his field of specialization and interest. Professor Donye is happily married with two children. His unrelenting hobbies are composing and singing gospel songs as well as making everybody who comes in contact with him laugh and smile.