Category: Blog

Legacy Girls College, co-founded by ALIWA fellow Essie Anno Sackey, has produced the Overall Best and Overall Second Best candidates in Africa at the 2025 WASSCE.

Suleman Huda Suglo claimed the top prize, with Paula Adzo Elinam Sowu close behind in second; both recognised at WAEC’s 74th Annual Council Meeting in Accra, Ghana, in March 2026, from a pool of over 2.6 million candidates across five West African nations.

The achievement is a milestone moment for the school Essie helped build on the belief that young African women deserve an education that develops character and leadership alongside academic excellence; a vision that now has continental validation.

Read the full story here.

With Brent Crude surging to over $112 per barrel in the wake of the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, Nigeria finds itself at a familiar crossroads: the prospect of an oil windfall and the question of whether this time will be different.

ALIWA Class V Fellow (Karfi Kuo), Waziri Adio, argues that it can be, but only with deliberate leadership. Tracing Nigeria’s long history of squandering oil booms, from the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo to the Russia-Ukraine price spike of 2022, he makes a clear-eyed case for what responsible stewardship looks like now.

Read the full piece here.

From lawyer to management consultant to investment executive, ALIWA Class III Fellow (Sankofa), Uwa Osa-Oboh has built a career defined by reinvention and purpose.

In a recent interview, Uware reflects on the forces that shape and limit women’s professional journeys in Nigeria.

Her perspective is clear – great leadership requires an abundance mindset, one that actively cultivates others rather than hoarding opportunity. On the barriers facing women, she is equally direct, pointing to culture, structure, and access to finance as the three constraints that must be dismantled together.

Read the full interview here.

Across Lagos, many women continue to rely on familiar, trusted care pathways during pregnancy and childbirth, yet the data reminds us that trust alone is not always enough to ensure safe outcomes.

In this piece, ALIWA Class IV Fellow (Muje Ghangeria) draws on the Project Aisha intervention to explore the complex interplay among culture, access, and quality of care, and why strengthening, not sidelining, existing systems may be the key to progress.

In Lagos State, findings from the 2018 Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR) report show that 63% of maternal deaths occur during labour or in the immediate post-partum period. Many of these cases involved women who had not received skilled antenatal care and were referred late by traditional birth attendants or other unqualified providers—highlighting critical gaps in oversight and adherence to safety standards.

In response, Project Aisha, funded by MSD for Mothers, launched a three-year intervention across Lagos and Kaduna States, with a clear objective: to reduce maternal mortality and obstetric complications by 20% between 2022 and 2025.

Read the full article here.

There’s a quiet contradiction playing out in Nigeria today; we increasingly believe women can lead, yet our systems still don’t fully reflect that belief. Drawing from the 2025–2026 Reykjavik Index for Leadership, Niyi Yusuf, ALIWA Class V Fellow (Karfi Kuo), in this piece, opines that from boardrooms to the legal profession, the gap between potential and opportunity remains wider than it should be, and it’s costing us more than we think.

He invites us to reflect on the role we each play in shaping that reality. What does it look like to move beyond agreement to action? Where are the subtle structural barriers within our own spheres of influence, and how might we begin to shift them?

It’s a thoughtful look at leadership as shared responsibility, and a reminder that creating space for others ultimately strengthens the institutions and outcomes we all care about.

Read the full article here.

Prof. Fabian Ajogwu, OFR, SAN, and ALIWA Class III Fellow (Sankofa) provides an insightful review of the Contemporary Law of Tort in Nigeria, a new work by fellow silk Uche Val Obi, SAN. Fabian described the book as a masterful blend of doctrine and practicality, observing that it extends beyond conventional tort principles to address novel and emerging issues, adding, “This is the kind of work that strengthens jurisprudence. It speaks to the future of litigation in Nigeria.”

He also situated the book within global developments, referencing the ancient Hammurabi Code to illustrate the deep historical roots of tort responsibility.

Read the full review here.

We are proud to celebrate ALIWA Class I Fellow (Inaugural), Frank Adu, on his appointment as Board Chairman of ZEN Petroleum Limited, which took effect in January 2026.

Frank brings an extraordinary depth of experience to the role, spanning two decades of leadership at CAL Bank PLC and board service across finance, education, and civic institutions in Ghana.

Frank also serves as the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Roman Ridge School, and was recently appointed the first Chancellor of the African University of Communications and Business.

Read the full story here.

We celebrate ALIWA Class VI Fellow, Abubakar Suleiman on his appointment to the Presidential Petroleum Reform & Value Optimisation Taskforce.

The task force will operate as a technical reform body rather than a representative committee, engaging industry operators, regulators, investors, and civil society as consultees while focusing on actionable policy design and implementation strategies.

We wish him the very best as he takes on this role alongside other accomplished Nigerian leaders.

Read more about the Presidential Petroleum Reform & Value Optimisation Taskforce here.