Background
Hadiza Bala Usman was born on the 2nd of January 1976 in Zaria into the family of Yusufu Bala Usman, a historian. Hadiza grew up close to the campus of Ahmadu Bello University, where her father worked.
Hadiza Bala Usman was born on the 2nd of January 1976 in Zaria into the family of Yusufu Bala Usman, a historian. Hadiza grew up close to the campus of Ahmadu Bello University, where her father worked.
Hadiza Usman holds a Bachelors Degree (B.Sc.) in Business Administration which she obtained from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. She later proceeded to the University of Leeds, United Kingdom where she obtained a post graduate degree in Development Studies in the year 2009.
Hadiza Bala Usman started her career with a a Non-Governmental Organization known as Centre fotion known as Centre for Democratic Development and Research Training, Zaria, in June 2000 as a Research Assistant. From July 2000 to August 2004. She worked at the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) as an Enterprise Officer. She also served as a Special Assistant to the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Project Implementation and as the Director of Strategy for the Good Governance Group. Later, Hadiza Bala Usman was appointed the Chief of Staff to the governor of Kaduna State.
On July 12, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the appointment of Hadiza Bala Usman as the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), she was appointed alongside three other executive directors.
She is best known for prioritizing the unity of Nigeria over ethnicity and religion.
Upon the kidnap of Nigerian school girls at Chibok by Boko Haram in the year 2014, Hadiza Bala Usman started a protest, leading groups to protest around Nigeria and in the hometown of the kidnapped girls. She started the protest when she noticed that the Nigerian government was not given the issue the priority it deserved. It was Bala Usman who started the campaign, #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG). She equally chose the color red for the campaign because according to her, it is a sign of alarm, danger and warning. She encouraged Nigerian women "to keep the issue in the public eye."
Physical Characteristics: She is tall, slim, and of the Black Race
Quotes from others about the person
Uba Sani : "Let me confess that at the Government House, Kaduna, we all received the news of the appointment of Hadiza Bala-Usman as the new Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), with mixed feelings. It is an appointment roundly deserved. But the Kaduna State Government House without the gallant Hadiza seem unthinkable, at least for now as she is one of our finest. Following her appointment, slightly over a year ago, by Governor Nasir El Rufa’i as his Chief of Staff, Hadiza speedily became the bulwark and the engine room of sorts of the ever-busy Kaduna State Government House."
Uba Sani: "I will not dignify the few critics of the appointment of Hadiza as the Chief Executive Officer of the NPA with a reply. It is not necessary. The Hadiza Bala Usman that I have known and worked closely with for almost two decades has shown serially that she is more than able to defend herself and even other unduly oppressed persons at all times. But I concede that it may well be true that some persons do not actually know Hadiza Bala Usman beyond her role as the co-convener of the Bring-Back-Our-Girls (BBOG) Campaigned that she and few other persons commenced in 2014 after nearly 300 girls were abducted from their secondary school in Chibok, Borno state."
She is married, and has two sons.