The CGS was established in 2015 as a center of excellence for research, trainings and programs on gender and related issues. Gender being a crosscutting issue, the center adopts a multidisciplinary approach, through collaboration and partnership with various units, departments, directorates and Centers of the University, as well as with various partners and stakeholders outside the University.
Its approach to gender issues is reflected in its vision for ‘inclusive development’, that leaves no one behind, hence the Center works extensively around the Sustainable Development Goals as it reflects gender inclusion, under the various themes including poverty alleviation (SDG 1); food security and zero hunger (SDG 2); Health and wellbeing (SDG 3 and 6); Quality Education (SDG 4); inclusivity in industry and innovation, decent work and growth (SDGs 8 and 9); climate action (SDGs 7, 13, 14 and 15); and at the centrality of it all is SDG 5 and 10 working towards enhancing gender equity and reducing inequalities in the various spheres. BUK has remained fully committed towards actualizing its vision for inclusive university policies and action through the CGS.
Present Director: Amb Safiya Ahmad Nuhu, PhD
Amb Safiya Ahmad Nuhu (PhD), is the fourth Director of the Center for Gender Studies, (CGS), Bayero University Kano. She is an academic with over seventeen years’ experience, and has worked in the both private and public sectors. She has background in international law with a particular focus on the protection and assistance of vulnerable groups such as women, children, displaced persons and people with special needs. She was the immediate past Ambassador of Nigeria to Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia (2021-2023). She also served as Deputy Director (Training) at the CGS from January 2020 until June 2021. She is one of the pioneer fellows of the Young African Leaders program of President Obama (now the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders). She has worked as intern at the Brookings Institution, specifically on the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement, which supported the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of IDPs (June-August 2014). She was also Associate Editor (Africa), for the Journal of Internal Displacement, and Research Coordinator, Kano Civil Society Forum (KCSF). She is a sustainability advocate, and passionately promotes integration of sustainability into university curricula, and building bridges through youth education and engagement. She is a member of the Global Advisory Council of the Presidential Precinct.
Past Directors
- Dr Suwaiba Said Ahmad: Served as Director from 2021-2024. Dr Ahmad is a gender expert with decades of experience working and researching on girl child education, education policies, gender-based violence, etc. She is recently appointed as the first female Provost of the College of Education and Legal Studies, Ringim.
- Prof Hassana Sani Darma: Served as Director from 2020 -2021 and then proceeded to serve as the first Vice Chancellor of Khadija University Majia, Jigawa. She is an avid educator with specialization in special education. She has years of experience working on girl-child education, sexual and gender-based violence, and is also an expert in nutrition therapy.
- Prof Aisha Abdu-Ismail: Served as the pioneer Director of the Center from 2016-2020. Prof Abdu-Ismail is a women’s rights champion, and has worked for over three decades on a wide scope of issues around gender. She is an expert in policy formulation and implementation, and promotes multidisciplinary approach to gender issues. She is from the Department of political science.