CityMirrorNews Today In History Envisages Prof Iya Abubakar As The First Northerner To Bag A PhD At 28

Professor Iya Abubakar was Born on 14th December,1934,to the northern part of Nigeria precisely Adamawa State.

Professor Iya Abubakar became the first northerner to bag a PhD and he was the only Nigerian appointed as a full professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU),Zaria, at the age of 28 in 1963.

Before he was made a professor at ABU, he was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan in the US. And while he was a vice chancellor he was a visiting professor at City University of New York.

A first-class graduate of Mathematics at the University of Ibadan, (then University College, Ibadan), the Adamawa-born egghead was also the first Northerner to bag a PhD in any field when he earned it at the University of Cambridge,United Kingdom.

Professor Iya Abubakar became the Head of Department, Mathematics and Computer Science,ABU, Zaria,at age 32(a record in the Nigerian University system), the second indigenous Vice Chancellor of ABU, Zaria,at age 40 and retired from academics at age 44 in 1978.

Professor Abubakar had served in different capacities, First as a director of the CBN, Minister of Defence, Minister of Internal Affairs and Nigerian Second Republic Senator. What an outstanding profile!