Professor Uthman Ahmed Ismail

Professor Osman Sayyid Ahmed Ismail is a former Minister of Education and Guidance, and President of the National Council for Higher Education in the Sudan, between 1982 and 1985. He was also a Professor of Islamic and Middle East History at both Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria and the University of Qatar. He is currently the General Supervisor and Director, Centre for Muslim Contribution to Civilisation, Doha, Qatar.

Professor Osman is an accomplished writer and his recent books include Some Aspects of Islam in Africa published by Garnet Publishers and The Bequest (AlWasiyyah) also published by Garnet Publishers. His paper titled The Sokoto Literature and its Relevance to Present Day Muslims in Nigeria and Abroad will be avaialable soon insha'Allah.

Dr Hadiza Isa Wada

Dr Hadiza Isa Wada was an Editor at the Hausa Services of the Voice of America (VOA). She started work at the VOA after completing her PhD in Journalism at University of Kansas. Her writings as well as her strong belief in truth in Media and many other high values won her several awards including the Ambassador for Peace award by the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace in 2006.

Dr Hadiza is currently a Communications Consultant and a University Lecturer. She is also an accomplished writer that published several books among which is The 21st Century Muslim: Get to Know Them published in 2007 by A. S. Noordeen, Malaysia and lunched in the United States of America in April 2008. Her paper titled Defining some of the most Urgent Socio-Economic Problems of Nigeria can be download here.

Dr Bala Muhammad

Dr Bala Muhammad is a journalist, broadcaster, teacher and a Communication Consultant. He was Deputy Chief Press Secretary to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in 2000, and later a World Bank Communication Advisor based at the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) Abuja. Before the Villa job, he had worked at the BBC World Service in London, in both the Hausa Service and English to Africa. Apart from the BBC, Bala had been a correspondent for the Hausa Service of Radio Deutschewelle (Voice of Germany) first in Cairo, Egypt, then in Kano, Nigeria, and later in Durban, South Africa. But essentially he has been Lecturer at the Department of Mass Communications of Bayero University, Kano, from where he had graduated with a BA in the 1980s.

He had his postgraduate studies first at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, on a competitive African Graduate Fellowship, and later at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. His other qualifications include a Post-Graduate Certificate in Telecommunications Reform from the University of Westminster, London, as well as an Advanced Public Relations Management Certificate of the London Corporate Training Institute.

Dr Bala is currently a Special Adviser to the Governor/Director General Kano State Societal Reorientation Programme called A Daidaita Sahu. He is also a columnist (Saturday Column) on the Weekly Trust. He had also written for the now-defunct Lagos-based Diet newspaper, where he penned a weekly column, Vintage Musings in the mid-1990s. He was also a regular contributor on the Guardian of Lagos, the Kaduna-based New Nigerian, and the Kano-based Triumph. Internationally, he had written for Cairo’s Al-Ahram Weekly and the London-based Impact newsmagazine, among many others. He has also published several academic articles for reputable journals.

His paper titled Diaspora Returnees and the Challenges of Development in Nigeria: Reconstructing the Attitudinal Infrastructure can be download here. A compressed PDF version is available here.

Dr Bala has also used the results of a research conducted by his Directorate on the Symptoms of the Collapse of the Attitudinal Infrastructure during his presentation. This can be download here.

Dr Qamaruddeen Abidogun

Dr. Abidogun holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) in Mechanical Engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where he accumulated teaching and research experience in the area of Thermofluids. He is currently a senior rotating equipment Engineer with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), Jubail, Saudi Arabia. His area of specialization and interest include rotating stall and surge in compressors, cavitation, machinery vibration diagnostics, software development for machinery performance online monitoring, comparative religion, and general discourse on Islam.

Dr Abidogun is the current Amir of Nigerian Muslims' Network (NMN), an Internet-based discussion forum of Nigerian Muslims living in different parts of the world. His paper titled Nigerian Muslims in Diaspora: A Blueprint for Meaningful Contribution Towards Nigerian Economic Development can be downloaded here.