Baze Varsity Appoints Jamila Shu’ara As First Female Vice Chancellor

Abuja-based Baze University has appointed veteran educationalist, administrator, and scholar, Professor Jamila Shu’ara, as the new Vice-Chancellor for a five-year tenure.

The private University also announced Professor Abiodun Adeniyi as the new Registrar, while Dr. Dogo Mohammed Waziri was reappointed as the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Baze University Hospital.

It said the new set of leaders are to drive the university’s next innovation stage in an increasingly sophisticated world of knowledge production, impartation and sharing.

Chancellor and founder of the University, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, made the announcements at a media briefing after the 37th University Board of Trustees (BoT) meeting in Abuja.

Until her appointment, Professor Jamila Shu’ara was the university Registrar after her experiences as University Director of Strategy and Director of Academic Planning. A distinguished academic, administrator, and public servant with extensive experience in education and governance, she holds degrees in Consumer Sciences from Howard University, USA, and Bayero University, Kano.

She earned multiple academic distinctions at Howard, including a tuition-free scholarship and placement on the Dean’s List. She is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management and the Home Economics Professionals Association of Nigeria (HEPAN).

She has several books, journal articles, and technical reports to her credit. She commenced public service as a lecturer and rose through academic ranks to the terminal post of chief lecturer in the Nigerian Colleges of Education system, and held administrative positions of head of department, dean, deputy provost, and provost of a Federal College of Education.

She contributed to academic quality assurance as a resource person for the NCCE. She later played key roles in national education policies, led the Teachers Registration Council, and managed the FME/World Bank/UBEP II project. She led reforms in education, aviation, and petroleum ministries as Federal Permanent Secretary from 2012 to 2017.

For his part, Professor Abiodun Adeniyi is a distinguished academic, journalist, and communications expert with extensive experience in media, consultancy, and educational management. He earned his first degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and won the British Chevening Scholarship in 2003 to study International Communications at the University of Leeds, UK. His doctoral research, a pioneering study on Internet and Diasporic Communication, was among the first African-centred dissertations published by the University of Leeds under the joint Etheses Project.

After earning his PhD in 2008, he served as a Communications Consultant for the World Bank at Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Procurement. He later founded Witswords Consults before transitioning to academia at Baze University. From 2016 to 2023, he headed the Mass Communication Department, becoming associate professor in 2018 and full professor in 2021. He was until this appointment, the Dean of the School of Postgraduate Studies.