BY AISHA YUSUF SABO, SEPTEMBER 08, 2025 | 09:41 PM
My memory of Prof. Fanna Inna Abdulrahman is vague, but significant. I first met her as a 17-year-old fresher at the University of Maiduguri, full of dreams, and just starting out there as a student.
Accompanied by my father, I went to the Faculty of Science (now Faculty of Life Sciences) to collect my admission letter. She was the Dean at the time, and even as a teenager, I was moved by her warm and welcoming spirit.
I later learned that she was a professor in the Department of Chemistry. The recent news of her appointment as Acting Vice-Chancellor of Al-Ansar University, Maiduguri, got me overjoyed. I was reminded once again of what women are capable of.
From her early days as a Graduate Assistant in the late 1980s to becoming a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 2011, Prof. Abdulrahman has published over 150 papers, mentored a number of undergraduates, postgraduates, and seen five of her former doctoral students secure professorships. She has served as Head of Department, Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Maiduguri, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Kashim Ibrahim University, and now steps into the role of Acting Vice-Chancellor at Al-Ansar University, Maiduguri.
As the door swings wide for her, this leadership is not just a career milestone, it’s a door opening for other young women to walk through and reiterate to themselves that their dreams, no matter how big, are not out of reach.