Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and Mrs Maryam Uwais (NLI Fellows) are some of the appointed members of the newly reconstituted Editorial Board of THISDAY Newspapers and were inaugurated on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 in Abuja.
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai was the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and member of the Federal Executive Council, the highest decision making body in Nigeria from 2003 – 2007. He attended various academic and professional programmes at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, University of London, Harvard Business School, Arthur D. Little School of Management in Massachusetts, Georgetown University School of Foreign Services in Washington, D.C. and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He established and ran what became a successful consulting practice, el-Rufai & Partners, between 1982 and 1998. He also held management positions with two international telecommunications companies, AT&T Network Systems International BV and Motorola, Inc. In October 2001, he was conferred a national honour, OFR (Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) by the Federal Government of Nigeria while serving as the director general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the secretary of the National Council of Privatisation where he spearheaded the privatisation of many government owned companies. In 2005, he was conferred D.Sc (honoris causa) by the University of Abuja, Nigeria.
Mrs Maryam Uwais obtained an LLB (Hons) has been practicing law from the private Firm of Wali‐Uwais & Co from the capital city of Abuja, Nigeria since 1998, after retiring from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Before working at the CBN, she worked as a prosecutor at the Kano State Ministry of Justice and the Nigerian Law Reform Commission.She has been a member and has served on the Boards of several organisations and civil society groups, including the National Human Rights Commission (also serving as Special Rapporteur on Child Rights, thereat); Leapafrica, Youth Business Initiative, Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR), the National Consultative Committee on Justice Sector Reform;the Working Group on Fiscal Responsibility Law; the Justice Research Institute; Coalition Against Tobacco; the Nigerian Investment Climate Advisory Council (an initiative of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, World Bank & DFID); Technical Committees of both the Constitutional Reform Dialogue Mechanism and the Gender and Affirmative Action Coalition, (both Committee’s being funded by the DFID, through Coalition for Change); The African Union Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and is also a founding member of the Nigerian Chapter of Musawah, a Global Movement for Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family. Additionally, she has worked as a Consultant for Open Society Initiative for West Africa, UNICEF, the World Bank and DFID, in projects relating to children & women’s rights, entrepreneurship,education and justice sector reform. Maryam has written several papers; articles relating to economic, social and cultural rights, child justice administration, children and women’s rights (especially on the misapplication of Shari’a law in Northern Nigeria), interfaith dialogue and alsoprepared the Working Paper on Justice Sector Reform. She was also part of a collective of networkers in the formulation of a handbook titled ‘Knowing Our Rights; Women, Family, Laws & Customs in the Muslim World.’
