It’s another beautiful Wednesday and is time to crush on an amazing lady. Toazli #WCW for the week is Hajiya Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu first lady of Kebbi state.
Zainab is a mother, wife, pediatrics’s consultant, Child’s right advocate and ardent anti cancer activist.
Hajiya Zainab was born to Umaru and Rakiya Shinkafi and attended her primary and secondary education in Lagos. Her father, a seasoned police officer and the Marafa Sokoto, rose to become the Director General of the Nigerian Security Organization (NSO) now better known as SSS.
Zainab’s father played a vital role in formulating the security policy of Nigeria in the 80s. Her mother was an active lawyer called to bar 40years ago before her retirement.
After graduating from Queens College Lagos in 1984, Dr Zainab Bagudu obtained an MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine) from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. She then proceeded to the United Kingdom for specialist training in Pediatrics’s and Neonatology for 9years.
She also obtained a Masters in Pediatrics’s and Child health and upon the completion of her training she returned to Nigeria in 2002 to set up and head the Pediatrics’s Unit of Garki Hospital under the new PPP scheme with the FCT and in 2009, she set up a trail blazing diagnostic centre, Medicaid.
Dr Bagudu has become a loud voice in the fight against all forms of cancers in Nigeria particularly breast and cervical cancer. She is a role model for women particularly in the North. She is Medical Director of Medicaid Cancer Foundation and is currently serving on the ministerial committee to build a world class diagnostic centre in Nigeria.
She is a mentor on the Cherie Blair Foundation and the Youwin project. She has mentored many young adults under this project and shows a keen interest in early year’s education and health.
Dr. Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu describes herself as politically aware and recently became a fund raiser for the treatment of cancer patients and internally displaced persons in the North East of Nigeria.
BY MAIMUNA BAGUDU
