Hadiza Bala USMAN

education. In 1996, she enrolled at the university and received a bachelor's degree in business administration in 2000. She later received a masters degree in development studies from the University of Leeds in 2009.She then worked at the Bureau of Public Enterprises from July 2000 to August 2004 as an enterprise officer. From October 2004 to January 2008, she was then hired by the UNDP for the Federal Capital Territory Administration as a special assistant to the Minister on project implementation. In 2011, Hadiza campaigned and lost for the federal constituency of Musawa/Matazu as a candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change.[8] She then joined the Good Governance Group in Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation, as the country director of strategy from 2011 to July 2015. In 2014, following the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping by Boko Haram,[9] Hadiza Bala Usman noticed that the Jonathan administration was not prioritizing the kidnapping, she then co-founded the Bring Back Our Girls campaign group to advocate the rescue of the abducted schoolgirls.[10] She chose the colour red for the campaign because it is a sign of "alarm, danger, a warning."[11] Hadiza Bala Usman has also helped coordinate meetings with the parents of the kidnapped girls and members of the Nigerian government.[12] She has continued to protest with the group into 2016.[13] In 2015, following his election Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai appointed her as Chief of Staff to the Governor of Kaduna State.[14] She was appointed as the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in July 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari. Hadiza Bala Usman was married to an economic analyst Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi who served under the former (Late) President Umaru Musa Yar'adua as economic adviser and together they have two boys