Shettima to chair governance colloquium in honour of Hadiza Bala Usman at 50

 

Vice-President Kashim Shettima will on Tuesday chair the maiden Hadiza Bala Usman Governance Colloquium in Abuja, organised to mark the 50th birthday of the Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination.

The event, scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, is expected to draw top government officials, policy experts and private sector leaders.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the organisers said the colloquium would feature a keynote address by public policy expert, Mr. Joe Abah. He is expected to speak on the theme, “Leadership, Delivery and the Courage to Serve.”

According to the organisers, the keynote address will set the tone for a high-level panel discussion focusing on discipline, accountability and performance in public sector governance.

Panelists include Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele; Deputy Governor (Economic Policy) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Muhammad Sani Abdullahi; and founder of Agora Policy and former Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Mr. Waziri Adio.

Others are Director-General of the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre, Ms. Rinsola Abiola, and a retired Permanent Secretary and former Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Mrs. Habiba Lawal.

The organisers said the colloquium would serve as a platform for robust engagement on results-based governance, institutional reforms and the leadership courage required to drive meaningful transformation in Nigeria’s public service.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed Bala Usman as Special Adviser on Policy and Coordination in June 2023. As head of the Central Results Delivery Coordination Unit (CRDCU), she oversees policy alignment and delivery across ministries, departments and agencies.

Bala Usman previously served as Chief of Staff to former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, in 2015. She later made history as the first female Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), a position she held from July 2016 to February 2022.

She is also a co-founder of the #BringBackOurGirls movement, which brought global attention to the abduction of Chibok schoolgirls in 2014.