Mrs. Nonyem Onyechi
Coordinating Director, Planning and Business Development
Nonyem Onyechi was the Director of Planning and Policy Analysis (PPA) at NASENI Headquarters and occupied this position for seven (7) years. She is a seasoned and astute civil servant with professional experience of thirty-one (31) years having worked at the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST) for two (2) years and subsequently in NASENI for Twenty-Nine (29) years. She is well grounded in the development of science, technology and innovation policies and have demonstrated satisfactory skills and best practices in its formulation and implementation of the mandate of NASENI. Mrs. Onyechi is also of proven integrity, transparency and accountability which earned her the highly coveted NASENI Merit Award as the Best Performing Director in 2018.
Engr. Professor Danshehu Bagudu Gwadangaji
Coordinating Director, Engineering Infrastructure
Prof. Danshehu Bagudu Gwadangaji is a distinguished scholar, Engineer, Professor, Mentor, Role model and ICON of Mechanical Engineering with over 32 years’ experience and has been a professor for over 14 years. He was recently appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as the Coordinating Director, Engineering Infrastructure at the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) Idu Industrial Area Abuja, a parastatal under the Presidency, a position he currently occupies.
Born in 1963 to the family of Bagudu Gwandangaji, He started his educational pursuit at Gwadangaji Town Primary School in 1975 and later proceeded to State College of Arts and Science, Sokoto, where he obtained his General Certificate Examination (GCE) before proceeding to the famous Kaduna Polytechnic in 1983 where he obtained his OND and HND in Mechanical Engineering with an outstanding performance as the best graduating student in Mechanical Engineering. In 1993 and 1996, Prof. B.G. Danshehu was respectively awarded Bachelor of Engineering (B. Eng.) and Masters of Engineering (M. Eng.) in Mechanical Engineering and Energy Studies by Bayero University Kano. He was also recognized as an outstanding student in Levels III, IV and V respectively and later crowned as the Bayero University Best Graduating Student (B.Eng) for the 1992/93 session. He bagged PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi in 1999.
Prof. B.G. Danshehu started his working career at the Sokoto Energy Research Centre (SERC) as a Technologist, and later as a Researcher. Due to his steadfastness and commitment to duty, he rose through the ladder to become the Director/CEO of the Centre in 2009. As director of the centre, he worked extensively on renewable energy and energy systems, and was able to attract over 30 funding, linkages and collaborations both locally and internationally. Under his leadership the centre attracted research grant of USD4.2M in 2010 from World bank/step-B Project to upgrade the Sokoto Energy Research to Centre of excellence and participated to won Euro4,4m for Umaru Musa Yaradua University Centre of Energy on efficient stoves and economic trees. In addition to conducting researches on Renewable Energy and Energy Systems at the centre in Sokoto, Prof. B.G. Danshehu was also a teaching staff in the mainstream University (Usman Dan University Sokoto) where he undertook courses and supervised undergraduate and postgraduate students. He became the pioneer head of department of Mechanical Engineering of UDUS.
He also served as head of Mechanical Engineering Department, Kebbi State University of Science and Technology Aliero, pioneer Dean, Faculty of engineering of the same University and Head, Department of Solar Thermal and Energy Conservation Unit, Umaru Musa Yar’adua University Katsina. Highly experienced in Mechanical Engineering, Prof B.G. Danshehu has contributed immensely to the growth of engineering, technology and innovations within and outside the country which has earned him several honours and accolades from reputable organizations and individuals. He is a recipient of over 15 local and international awards. As a researcher, he has attended over 60 numerous courses, conferences and workshops, and has also headed various technical committees and led several NUC Accreditation panel. He has over 65 peer reviewed journal and conference papers,6 technical report, and delivered several public lectures. He visited over 30 countries and was one time Editor-in-Chief, Nigerian Journal of Renewable Energy. Prof. Danshehu is a national consultant on efficient stoves and Biomass briquetting, a member of board of trustees of Gwandu Emirate Development association (GEDA) and Kebbi Elders consultative FORUM. He was President Sokoto Student Union, President Association of Muslim scientist, Engineering and medicine and President solar energy society of Nigeria. A Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (FNSE), Fellow and life member of Solar Energy Society of Nigeria. Fellow Renewable and alternative energy society of Nigeria, Fellow in renewable Development & COREN Registered Engineer. He has also led several Associations, Societies, Committees and boards. He is happily married with kids. Prof. Danshehu was described by his teachers and referees as erudite scholar and academician per excellence with enviable record of first-class materials right from his formative years. He has a pleasant personality that enable him to relate very well with subordinate, colloquies and superiors. He provides centre with the best leadership and attracted external funding and linkages of more than twenty (20) local and international institutions are all in testimony of his excellent research and administrative skills. (Prof. A.S. Sambo, Former VC,ATBU,KASU& DG/CEO,ECN.). Prof. Danshehu is certainly hardworking, very honest, diligent, reliable and excellent team operator and motivator. (Prof. E.J. Bala, DG/CEO, ECN). Prof. Danshehu is very hardworking and committed researcher and teacher. He is well respected by his students and colleaques. He is also physically and emotionally stable with a very high sense of integrity and moral responsibility. He is humble, disciplined, trustworthy and highly dependable under any circumstances. (Prof. R.A. Shehu, Former VC, UDUS.). Prof. Danshehu is emotionally stable and morally upright, to the best of my knowledge nothing adverse was ever reported against him in his entire working life in the University. He is the most friendly and respected staff in the University. (Prof. A. Bagudo. Former DVC, UDUS.) Prof. Danshehu is very trustworthy, reliable and dependable. His performance as the Director/CEO of SERC, Dean FOE and HOD, Mechanical is one of the most legendry. (Prof. A.T. Suleiman. Former VC FUT, Yola and UNIAbuja.)
Professor Umar Ibrahim Gaya
Coordinating Director, Science Infrastructure
The Coordinating Director, Science Infrastructure of NASENI, Professor Umar Ibrahim Gaya is a member of the family of his Royal Highness, the Late Emir of Gaya, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdulkadir. He was appointed the Chiroman Gaya and member of the Gaya Emirate Council of Kano State, a position left by his elder brother the new Emir of Gaya, Alh Dr Aliyu Ibrahim Gaya. He attended Kofar Naisa Primary School (1977-1983), Government Secondary School Sabuwar Kofa (1983-1986), and completed his secondary school education at Rumfa College, Kano (1989). In 1992, he attended IJMB programme at the College of Arts and Science, Kano. He was among the four best graduating B.Sc. (Hons) Chemistry students of University of Maiduguri (1996). In 1997 to 1998, he had his national service at the Petrochemical Laboratory of Kaduna Refinery and Petroleum Company (KRPC), Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC). He was the Quality Controller of Camom Engineering and Services Company (CAMESCO) which successfully rehabilitated the KRPC Lubes Plant (1998-1999) where he supervised engineering-based quality control works such as the retubing of heat exchangers and air fin coolers, casting of furnaces, corrosion control, and repair of safety valves, manometers, pumps, column baffles and dewaxers.
In 2000, Umar was appointed as Graduate Assistant by Bayero University, Kano. Later in 2002-2004, he was deployed as Technical Aid Corps in The Gambia, by the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Government of Nigeria. He then became a certified ICT proficient. In 2004, he received M.Sc. Analytical Chemistry from Bayero University, Kano. Before his graduation with PhD Catalysis from Universiti Putra Malaysia in 2009, he earned a Graduate Research Fellow position, taught undergraduates and left a hitherto unbeaten publication record. His graduation week was met with an invitation to breakfast with the Malaysian Minister for Higher Education. During his postdoctoral research fellowship in the Department of Chemistry, Universiti Putra Malaysia (2011), he fabricated laboratory reactors. Later on, he joined the Department of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University again as postdoctoral fellow (2011-2012). He was a recipient of the prestigious Mc Arthur Top up Allowance and the Kano State Scholarship Board international award. He had physically attended in Singapore, a short course on “C-C coupling…” by the 2010 Chemistry Nobel laureate, keynote lectures of many other Nobel laureates, and webinars. He has completed courses of the West African Bioethics Program/Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) on financial and institutional conflict of interest, institutional and investigators’ responsibilities. He was trained on management by the Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered), and also on peace education by the Universal Peace Federation.
Professor Umar has an indelible record of exemplary moral, academic, and social life. He was elected severally into various committees and boards. He was the Secretary of the Interim Executive Committee, Kano-Jigawa (KANJIGA) Association, University of Maiduguri (1993-1994). He received award and a certificate for being the Nigeria Representative, Treasurer, and Financial Secretary of the Universiti Putra Malaysia International Students Association (UPMISA) (2007-2009), and the International Students’ Representative in Chemistry Club of the University, respectively. He was the Vice President, Corpers’ Forum at the KRPC/NNPC (1997-1998). He was the PRO of Rumfa Old Boys Association (RUMFOBA) Class ’89. In January, 2010, the association awarded him “Academic Dr with enormous academic and humanitarian contribution to the society”. In November, 2010, he was among the 3 Nigerians given awards by the Nigerian Students’ Community in Malaysia (NISCOM), at the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of Nigeria, IIUM, Gombak, Malaysia. He was a member of Nigerians in Diaspora Malaysia (NIDOMY). In 2002 he was Pioneer/Secretary of the “City Educational Trust”, a community-based organisation, for the Project “Rehabilitation of secondary school drop-outs” which won Mc Arthur’s Best in Financial Record. He was Local Government Collation Officer severally in different national elections.
Professor Umar (ORCID: 0000-0002-2396-3761) has led several developments in nanoscience including the development of novel methods for the synthesis of low-dimensional (1D, 2D) mesoporous nanostructured materials of various technological interests. He has published many articles in top tier high impact journals of Science and Technology, and had written his name in the Top 25 Sciencedirect league table. He has been the most cited author from Bayero University as evidenced by Scopus and Journal Citation Report (JCR) (Scopus ID: 24171183100 WoS Researcher’s ID: N-9660-2015), Researchgate, and Google Scholar. He has published a book rated in 2015 among the top 50 % most downloaded from the relevant eBook collections of the world’s most famous publisher, the Springer Nature, with 750,000 page views per month based on the Bookmetrix report in 2015 Springer Book Performance.
Professor Umar has presented many papers locally, and at prestigious conferences in the UK, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong. He was among the selected presenters of the 2017 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemists (IUPAC) World Congress, at the Golden Hall of the World Trade Centre, Sao Paulo, where Nobel Laureates in Chemistry presented their works. He was among the Nigeria Representatives and a facilitator at the Youth Forum of the 17th Commonwealth Conference of Education Ministers (17CCEM) at Kuala Lumpur, which 50 Ministers and 3 Prime Ministers attended, where he presented a talk on “Respect and Understanding” and had one meeting with the Ministers of Education of Namibia and Trinidad and Tobago. He has co-organised trainings, conferences and seminars with the Centre of Excellence for Dryland Agriculture, College of Natural and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Directorate of Research Innovation and Partnership. He was part of workers under the Malaysia Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Malaysia University Grant Scheme, and The Sultan Qaboos University Research Council (TRC) grant. He has presented invited papers at seminars organised by different universities, and has attended > 50 international scientific hands-on workshops, webinars and seminars. In 2017, he was invited as one of the 2 national, out of 6 Speakers of the joint 3rd Biennial Conference of the Transplant Association of Nigeria & 1st International Conference of the College of Health Sciences Bayero University, Kano. In November 4, 2021 morning, Professor Umar Gaya’s Professorial Inaugural Lecture (the 50th in the Bayero University series) titled “In Search of Catalysts…” was tagged as “Golden” by Vice Chancellor, publicly reading many reasons. It was attended by all principal officers of the University, many traditional rulers, an Emir, high profile academics from other universities locally, and internationally via zoom. The impact and rigour of this lecture will perhaps never cease to generate record public commendations from people of different caliber! He is the Guest Speaker of the Annual 2022 International Science Conference organised by Bayero University, themed “Trends in Basic and Applied Sciences”.
Professor Umar has a particular interest in innovatively addressing the outstanding societal challenges, and deepening the understanding of emerging technologies such as photocatalysis, crude oil upgrading, biodiesel synthesis and adsorption-based corrosion inhibition. He has watched the presentation of photoelectrochemical fuel cell by Professor Akira Fujishima, the father of semiconductor photocatalysis himself, and had had with eminent scientists across the world on scientific matters such as Professor Michael Grätzel, the father of the famous Grätzel solar cell. His review paper emphasising on enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in August, 2021 in a nearly 80-yr old high impact journal, the Periodica Polytechnica Chemical Engineering, coincided with national interest, encouraged in the same month by the inauguration of awards in the same area through the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). He has the experience of teaching a very high number of courses at pre-degree, diploma, B.Sc., PGD, M.Sc. and PhD level in Bayero University, and other tertiary institutions. He has supervised the projects of many students at undergraduate, diploma, postgraduate diploma, M. Sc. and PhD, and has internally and externally examined undergraduate, M.Sc. and PhD degrees at different universities. He has fostered the mindset and motivation of students towards the best scientific judgements, and his research group has produced many university lecturers.
Professor Umar is a member of Chemical Society of Nigeria (CSN), CSN stakeholders’ forum, the American Chemical Society-Catalysis Division (ACS-CATL.), and the Asia-Pacific Chemical, Biological & Environmental Engineering Society (APCBEES). He is associate editor of ChemSearch, a member of African Journals Online (AJOL), and a reviewer of many Scopus-indexed journals of Science and Chemical Engineering published by Elsevier and its equivalents. In February 2014, he was mentioned at the floor 313th Senate of the Bayero University for reputable publications. In 2015 and 2016, he appeared among the top 7 scientists in Bayero University in the Webometric ranking of scientists sponsored by ACUMEN, European Commission and Spanish Research Council for which he received a commendation letter of Bayero University. He was the Chairman of Bayero University Standing Committee for Research whose membership included a Provost, Deans and Directors, which vetted hundreds of degree (M.Sc. and PhD) and non-degree oriented research proposals (such as Tetfund Institution-Based Research). He had led the screening of 52 Tetfund National Research Fund (NRF) and participated in the screening of > 60 proposals from the World Bank acclaimed Centre for Dryland Agriculture of Bayero University. He was selected to be a member of principal officers’ “Advisory Committee on Sponsorship and Utilisation of TETFUND and other Grants” of Bayero University. In 2017, he led the University delegation for audience with National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), which resulted in the training on patenting, industry linkage, transfer technology, IP training, commercialization and development of results and the commissioning of multimillion Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Office (IPTTO) office in July 2019. He was the resource person for the Petroleum Technology Development Fund/National Educational Research and Development Council (PTDF/NERDC) STEM Teacher Training Programme, 2017 Finlab Laboratory Equipment Training, 2006 NTI Millennium Development Goal Project, and 2018 BUK Centre for Dryland Agriculture Retreat.
As the Chairman of University Journals Coordinating Committee, a committee of Deans, Directors, Editors-in-Chief/Chairmen, he provided guidance for 22 active journals of different endeavours and drafted the first Bayero University Journal Publishing Policy. He was a member of more than 60 departmental, community, faculty or university committees/boards including many strategic committees/boards of Bayero University such as the Senate, Appointment and Promotion, Sponsorship, convocation, inaugural lecture committee, School of Postgraduate Studies (SPS), Bayero University Press and a member of the Board of Trustees of the ASUU-BUK Cooperative. While he was the Deputy Director I/Acting Director at the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Partnership (DRIP) (2016-2018), he was a key worker in the fledging of the new Directorate, inter alia development of research structure, intellectual property policy, research policy, methods of assessment of disclosure of inventions/innovation/software and research proposals. He was the Departmental Postgraduate Coordinator, Head of Physical Chemistry unit, Faculty Examination Officer and SIWES Coordinator. He is the coordinator of the Federal Government Special Works (FG SPW) of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment which employed 1000 peon at Gaya LGA. He has memorised Quran and can communicate well in English, French, Arabic, Hausa, Malay, and fairly well in Fulfulde.
Mr. Ibrahim Baba Dauda
Coordinating Director, Finance and Accounts
Mr. Ibrahim Baba Dauda, a Chartered Accountant was born in 1962 at Lokoja, Kogi State. He had his Primary school education at Kabawa LEA Primary School, Lokoja after which he proceeded to Ansarul Islam Secondary School, Ilorin where he obtained his WASCE. Thereafter, he studied Accountancy at Kwara State Polytechnic Ilorin and obtained his Higher National Diploma in 1988. He also holds an MBA from Bayero University Kano and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA), Associate membership of Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) and Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy of England and Wales (CIPFA).
Mr. Dauda has wide working experience in various sectors of the Nigerian economy ranging from Oil and Gas, Professional Audit Practice, Manufacturing, and Public Service. He did the mandatory NYSC with Shell Petroleum, Senior Audit Manager at Pannell Ker Forster Chartered Accountants, Chief Accountant at Nortex Textile and group of Companies Kaduna, Managing Partner Ibrahim Dauda & Co, Director of Audit & Compliance of Fiscal Responsibility Commission.
He has served in various Presidential and inter-ministerial committees on Revenue Monitoring and Implementation of Public Sector Financial Reforms as a member of PRM&RC IPSAS and Operating Surplus Revenue Implementation Committees among several others. He is a goal-oriented person with efficient performance, a football enthusiast, and married with children.
Dr. (Mrs) Olayinka Adunni Komolafe
Secretary to the Agency
Dr. (Mrs) Olayinka Adunni Komolafe was the Director of Administration and Human Resources (AHR) at Engineering Materials Development Institute (EMDI) Akure, one of the NASENI institutes, and also oversaw the NASENI Governing Board (NGB) as Head of Secretariat. She holds a doctorate degree (Ph.D.) in Public Management and Leadership and two (2) Masters degrees in public administration and International Relations. She has twenty-three (23) years experience in administration of which five years has been at the Directorate cadre. Dr. Komolafe as an administrator has over the years provided innovative solutions to the corporate growth and development of EMDI that successfully repositioned the institute to positively contribute to acquisition, domestication, and proliferation of technologies in Nigeria. She has contributed to the development of key policy documents of NASENI and its implementation. She has exhibited professionalism, sound judgment, and leadership skills in the execution of her schedules.