Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi was named acting vice chancellor of the University of Abuja (UniAbuja) on Wednesday during a Senate meeting held on campus.
The 41-year-old professor, Maikudi, was previously the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academics. Her appointment is provisional and subject to Governing Council approval. It was made public by departing Vice-Chancellor Prof. Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah.
During her acceptance speech, Maikudi conveyed her appreciation to the Senate for their backing and for having faith in her.
Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi started working at UniAbuja as a Lecturer II in 2018, and in 2022, she received a promotion to Professor. In 2018, she became the first female deputy dean of the Faculty of Law, and in 2019, she emerged as the first director of the UniAbuja International Center.
Throughout her academic career, she has participated in conferences all over the world, including those in the US, UK, South Africa, Germany, Italy, and Egypt, and she has conducted a great deal of research on UN law. She belongs to a number of professional associations, such as the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and the Nigerian Law Teachers Association (NLTA).
Professor Maikudi, who was born on January 31, 1983, in Zaria, Kaduna State, is the youngest female law professor at UniAbuja and in Northwestern Nigeria. She attended Queen’s College in Lagos for her secondary education. She then went on to the University of Reading for her postsecondary education, where she graduated with an LLB in 2004 and an LLM from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2005. In 2015, she graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in International Law from UniAbuja.
Once given Governing Council approval, she joins Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, the first female and 13th substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, in making history at the University of Abuja.
Ogunsola was the provost of the University of Lagos’ College of Medicine and was reportedly the first woman to hold the role. She served as the institution’s Deputy VC (Development Services) from 2017 to 2021 under the then-outgoing VC, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe. Ogunsola, a professor of medical microbiology, was born in 1958 and is the first daughter of prominent geographer Prof. Akin Mabogunje, who passed away on August 4, 2022. On November 12, 2022, she was appointed as the VC, a position she would hold for five years.
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