A country is only as strong as the people who train its next generation. I believe Nigeria’s future lawyers will only be as good as the people who teach them, and that is why Prof. Hadiza Hamma stands out to me.
When I look at her journey, I see a woman who earned every step. She began as a Legal Officer at the Federal Ministry of Justice, drafting real legal documents for the country. She then joined the University of Abuja as an Assistant Lecturer and kept climbing until she became a Professor. Today she is the youngest professor in Yobe State, the first Harvard graduate in Development Practice, and Dean of the Faculty of Law at Prime University Abuja.
Behind those titles are more than 16 years of teaching, research and leadership. Behind them, too, is a young person who dreamed big and worked for it. Girls and boys in Yobe and across Nigeria can look at her and say, “If she did it, I can too.”
What I admire most is that she knows law from every side. She has drafted it, practised it, used it to support communities and taught it to others. So when she says law students need practical knowledge and not just theory, it carries weight, because she speaks from experience.
The students in our law schools today will face the big questions of our time, from the environment to security to human rights. They deserve teachers who have already worked on these problems and who care about getting them ready.
Prof. Hamma is that teacher. Nigeria is lucky to have her, and we need many more like her.
Muhammad Kukuri is a writer from Yobe State, with keen interest in Nigerian politics and journalism. He can be reached at 07062733187
