Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has settled for Hadiza Bala Usman as his Chief of Staff. The appointment was announced today via a statement by Samuel Aruwan, Special Assistant to El-Rufai on Media and Publicity.

A well-known figure in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Hadiza was born in Zaria, where her father, the famous radical historian Yusufu Bala Usman (now late), was lecturing at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU). 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 to 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 Borno State, North-East Nigeria.

A frontline politician in her own right, Hadiza has served in a number of committees and capacities in APC. Key among them are: Administrative Secretary of the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organization, Member Secretary APC Elections Planning Committee, Member APC Strategy Committee. She was also Director of Finance in the Nasir El-Rufai Campaign Organization, and later the Kaduna State APC Campaign Council.

Hadiza has been internationally recognised 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 UN DPI conference as a guest speaker.

Two other appointments by El-Rufai announced by Aruwan are those of Bashir Dabo as Special Assistant, New Media, and Mrs. Saude Amina Mohammed as Personal Secretary to the Governor.

Mohammed is an ABU graduate of Economics. 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 for 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. 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 Bedforshire, United Kingdom and a Master’s 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.

•Photo shows Hadiza Bala Usman.

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