By Mohammad Ibrahim
Kaduna (Nigeria) – Governor of Kaduna State in Northern Nigeria, Nasir El-Rufai has appointed Hadiza Bala Usman as his Chief of Staff.
She is a well-known figure in the APC where she served in a number of committees, prominent among them, Administrative Secretary of the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation.
She served in the APC Elections Planning Committee; APC Strategy Committee. She was also Director of Finance in the Nasir El-Rufai Campaign Organization, and later the Kaduna State APC Campaign Council.
A statement by the Governor’s Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan says Hadiza Usman was born in Zaria where her father, the famous radical historian Yusufu Bala Usman, was lecturing at the university.
She started her primary education at ABU Staff School, attended ABU Demonstration Secondary School and earned a B.Sc. in Business Administration from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 2000.
She later obtained an MA in Development Studies from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, in 2009.
Hadiza worked at the Bureau Of Public Enterprises (BPE) from 2000 until 2004 when she was hired by the UNDP for the Federal Capital Territory Administration [FCTA] from October 2004 – January 2008 as a Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Project Implementation. Since 2011. She has been Director of Strategy for the Good Governance Group (3G).
In April 2014, she co-founded the global movement #BringBackOurGirls which has been demanding for the rescue of the 219 young girls abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok Secondary School in North East Nigeria.
Hadiza has been internationally recognized for her contributions. Financial Times [FT] named her amongst the most influential women of 2014, while CNN chose her as the most inspiring woman of 2014.
Ebony Magazine also named her amongst the 100 most influential black women in the world in 2014. In August 2014 she gave touching speech on Chibok Girls at the United Nations Headquarters in New York during UNDPI conference as a guest speaker.
Similarly, the government has announced the appointments of Bashir Dabo as Special Assistant, New Media, and Mrs. Saude Amina Mohammed as Personal Secretary to the Governor.
Mohammed is a graduate of Economics from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Advertising and Marketing from Coventry University, UK.
As a researcher with the Good Governance Group, she provided support to the work of Malam Nasir El-Rufai on the critically acclaimed budget series published in his weekly newspaper column.
She also featured as a guest writer during the young voices series published in Thisday and Peoples Daily Newspapers. Most recently, she has served as Secretary to the finance sub-committee of the Kaduna State APC Transition Committee.
Saude is the grand-daughter of the Reverend Canon H.O Mohammed of Wusasa, Zaria, who was the former Chief Commissioner of the Public Complaints Commission and Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau.
Bashir Dabo holds an M.Sc. in International Business Management from the University of Bedfordshire, United Kingdom and a Masters in International Affairs and Diplomacy from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
He was assistant coordinator of the Kaduna State APC Situation Room for the 2015 elections.
