About Me
I hold a Doctoral Degree (PhD) in Political Science from Bayero University Kano, Nigeria. I have earlier obtained a Master (Msc) in Political Economy and Development Studies and a Bachelor Degree (Bsc) also in political Science. I am a member of African Association of Political Science and Nigeria Association of Political Science; a Fellow of Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation (young Scholars Award) New York, United States of America, a fellow of Centre for Federal and Ethnic Studies, Institute for African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria and Laureate of Centre for Research and Documentation, Kano, Nigeria.
I am an academics and development activist. I currently serve as the Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria. Before my current appointment, I served as Africa Regional Governance Coordinator of ActionAid International, where I coordinate, manage and build governance programming and policy advocacy in 23 African countries. I also served the Head of Governance Team of ActionAid Nigeria. Earlier, at different times, I have served as the Regional Programme Manager (Northern Nigeria) of USAID/IFES Conflict Mitigation Project. I taught Political Science in Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) for almost ten years, before then, was a Programme Officer with Community Action for Popular Participation (CAPP) in Jos, Nigeria.
I am a member of many civil society organisations and social movements in Nigeria. Among them are; Nigeria Students’ Movement, Campaign for Democracy, Democratic Alternative, Women in Nigeria, Nigeria Social Forum, GCAP Nigeria and a host of others. I have served in the leadership of some them: I was a Coordinator of some influential networks of civil society groups in Nigeria; Citizens’ Forum for Constitutional Reform (CFCR) and Electoral Reform Network (ERN), and Transition Monitoring Group (TMG). I have also at various times served in the Executive of Civil Liberties Organisation, Women in Nigeria (WIN) (Kaduna and Jos) chapters and was a member of Alliance for Environmental Awareness (AEA).
I have studied, researched published and engaged extensively with issues of International political economy, democratization, civil society, gender and women’s rights, pro-poor development, governance and poverty, ethno-religious conflict, water and sanitation. I will be sharing some on my research reports and publication on this website. While you can directly access some, you may need to make formal request for others.
I have in the last 10 years consulted for governments, private sector and a broad range of international and local development organisations. I am a trained and internationally experienced researcher and facilitator, with training and work experience in many countries of Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. I have published widely in books and academic journals.
I am a Nigerian, born on the 29th October 1968 to Abdullahi Musa Maikano and Fatimah Manu Abdullahi.
Note: Although my policy precludes my responding to certain kinds of questions, messages and e-mails, i am able to provide a substantial amount of response via e-mail. i have temporarily disabled the auto-acknowledgement feature. Please know that your e-mail is very important to me and i will make every effort to respond to your request expeditiously.