Professor Nuhu Omeiza Yaqub is a founding Member, Board of Trustees and President of the Executive Board of SIRA from 2010 to 2020. Born in Okene, Kogi State, on March 3rd, 1951, he graduated with a First-Class Honours degree in political science from the Bayero University (1977-80) and obtained his Master’s degree in Comparative Politics of the Third World at the University of Toronto from 1982 to 1983 with a fellowship granted by the Usman Dafodiyo University. He was subsequently granted another scholarship as well as a fellowship by the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Usman Danfodiyo University, respectively, to do his doctorate degree at the Institute of Development Studies, the University of Sussex, Brighton, from 1984 to 1989. He taught for several years rising to the rank of Professor in October 1998, at the Usman Danfodiyo University. Professor Nuhu Yaqub had the opportunity to serve as a Scholar-in-Residence for one year (during the 2010-2011 academic session), in the Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America under the Full-Bright Fellowship Scheme.

He held several key appointments in and outside the university system which include: Head of Department of Political Science; the Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and the Coordinator of four faculties combined in a collegiate system at the Usman Danfodiyo University. Professor Yaqub was appointed the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, June 2004 to May 2009, also the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the Sokoto State University 2012 to 2017, and Dean of the School of Postgraduate Studies at the Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja, (from 2017 to 2019). He was an external examiner to several universities throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria; examined candidates for higher degrees in universities in Malaysia and South Africa; presented conference/seminar papers; produced technical reports for use by government; other non-governmental organizations and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Professor Nuhu Yaqub has published in a variety of academic journals on a variety of subject areas – such as Political Science; Labour Relations; and Education; both internally and internationally. He nurtured, birthed and steered the activities of SIRA commendably as president, from inception in September 2010 to 2020 when he handed over to a newly elected Executive Board of the Society.