Bet, millions of Nigerians don’t know much about the new Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). For starters, she is the first female in the history of Nigeria to head the NPA and she is only 40years old. Hadiza Bala Usman, born on January 2, 1976 is a Nigerian activist and politician. She was the Chief of Staff for the Kaduna State Governor. She is an active member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
She was born in Zaria to the historian, Yusufu Bala Usman. She grew up close to the campus of Ahmadu Bello University, where her father worked. Bala Usman earned her bachelor’s degree in 2000 from Ahmadu Bello University and her master’s degree from the University of Leeds in 2009. She worked for a non-governmental organization, the Centre for Democratic Development and Research Training (CEDDERT) in Zaria as a research assistant for a year starting in 1999. She has also worked for the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and as a Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Project Implementation. In 2011, she worked as Director of Strategy for the Good Governance Group (3G). In 2015, she was appointed Chief of Staff for the Kaduna State Governor.
When Boko Haram kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls in 2014, Bala Usman began to protest, leading groups around Nigeria and in the kidnapped girls’ hometown of Chibok. She noticed that the Nigerian government was not prioritizing the kidnapping of the schoolgirls. Because of this, she started the campaign, #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG). She chose the color red for the campaign because it is a sign of “alarm, danger, a warning.” She has encouraged women “to keep the issue in the public eye. She has also helped coordinate meetings with the parents of the kidnapped girls and members of the Nigerian government. She has continued to protest with the BBOG campaign into 2016. She was also featured in Financial Times, and at CNN for her work with BBOG. She is married to an economic analyst and together they have two boys.