The 16-member board of the National Agency For the Control of AIDS, NACA, has as its Chairman an erudite scholar, Prof. Umaru Shehu. The Director-General is Prof. John Idoko.

Professor Emeritus Umaru Shehu CFR, FAS, DFMC is a foremost Professor of Medicine and currently chairs the Governing Boards of both the National Agency for the Control of AIDS and STOPAIDS Organisation. He has served in many distinguished positions in the academia and public institutions in the course of his exceptional career. Among his litany of accomplishments are Vice-Chancellorship of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Provost, College of Medical Sciences and Sole Administrator, University of Maiduguri. He has been Pro-Chancellor and Chairman Governing Council to University of Lagos and Bayero University, Kano.

In recognition of his superlative contribution to society at both national and international levels, he has been honoured with the National Award of the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) and Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON). He is a Foundation Fellow to multiple professional health bodies and mentioned in WHO is WHO in the World. |  See full CV here   |

Professor Emeritus Umaru Shehu CFR, FAS, DFMC

Board Chairman

Other members of the board are :

  Professor John Idoko Director General 

Ayo Atsenuwa is an Associate Professor at the Department of Public Law in the University of Lagos. She holds two Masters of Law degrees - LL.M Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of London, and LL.M Law in Development from the University of Warwick. She has over fifteen years of experience in the area of human rights advocacy and community developmen. She is the Executive Director of Legal Research and Resource Development Centre (LRRDC) a human rights non-governmental organization in Nigeria. She has authored numerous publications on gender, human rights, law and development. She is currently a member of the National Ethical Policy Board which is charged with the task of regulating the implementation of operational guidelines and principles for research in HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Joseph Nnorom MD, MPH, is the head of Chembio Diagnostics Nigeria Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Chembio International. He has over twenty years experience in public health as a medical epidemiologist. His experience encompasses implementation, monitoring and evaluation of HIV/AIDS/ STI and reproductive health programs. His program management expertise includes Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT), Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT), anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and treatment monitoring of AIDS cases.

Until 2005 when he retired from the Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Nnorom was the Medical Epidemiologist of the CDC's Global AIDS Program in Nigeria. Dr. Nnorom's long and illustrious career in public health combined with his leadership roles with the CDC, UNICEF, USAID and the Federal Ministry of Health will provide an impetus to the battle against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.

Ray Ekpu is the Chief Executive Officer of Newswatch Communications Limited (Lagos), which produces one of Nigeria's leading weekly news magazines, Newswatch. He received his B.A. in Mass Communications from the University of Lagos (1973) and completed graduate work at Indiana University, Bloomington (1977). Ray Ekpu has been President of the Commonwealth Journalists Association (1990-1997) and Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (1976-1977). He serves as executive member for several advocacy groups, including the Nigerian-UNICEF Alliance for Child Survival, and the African Board of Advisors on Human Rights. He also serves presently as the President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN).

Ray Ekpu was cited by Jaycees International of Sydney, Australia as One of the Outstanding Young Persons of the World (1988) and awarded International Editor of the Year (1987) by the World Press Review, New York. He is Member of the Commonwealth Eminent Observer Mission to the Parliamentary Elections in Zimbabwe (June, 2000). He has published extensively in Nigerian Magazines and Newspapers as well as in American Newspapers and Journals.

Dr. Alashle Abimiku graduated with honours in Microbiology from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1978 before proceeding to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for an M.S. in Medicine. She thereafter obtained a Ph.D in Microbiology from the same institution in 1988. Dr. Abimiku is trained in Medical Microbiology with specialization in Virology and Immunology during her 4 years postdoctoral training at the Laboratory of Tumor Biology then headed by Dr. Gallo at the National Institutes of Health.

In the last 12 years, Dr. Abimiku has implemented HIV surveillance, research and prevention activities in Nigeria originally via the ICSC-WL AIDS Research Center in Jos, co founded by Dr. Gallo and herself. Dr. Abimiku's ultimate research goal is to epidemiologically characterize selected target study populations in Nigeria for HIV preventive programs

Dr. John Jinung
Dr. Jinung qualified as a Management Specialist in 1983 and has been involved in social and economic development work since 1989. A Theologian, Resource Mobilization Expert and Skills/Enterprise Development Trainer, he holds a B.A in Theology, an MBA and a PhD in Resources Mobilization and Management. Dr. Jinung was the Executive Director of HELP International and Chair of the Civil Society Consultative Group on HIV/AIDS (CiSCGHAN) in Plateau state, before being appointed as the Chairman of the Plateau State AIDS Control Agency (PLACA), until his recent election as Chairman of the Civil Society for HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (CISHAN).

John Ibekwe
John Ibekwe is the Deputy National Coordinator of the Network of People Living With HIV and AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN). He was a Program officer with the Humane Health Organization, which is a partner in the Family Health International (FHI) Implementing AIDS Prevention and Care (IMPACT) program in Nigeria before establishing Save the World Organization, a support group for people living with HIV and AIDS based in Onitsha, Anambra State. Mr. Ibekwe is the founding Director of the organization which also carries out other HIV/AIDS focused advocacy activities targeted both at prevention/awareness as well as care and support with particular focus on Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC)

John Ibekwe is in the forefront of the campaign against denial and stigma, being one of the first set of people recorded to be openly living with the HIV virus. In August 2000, before an audience that included President Obasanjo and President Clinton and about 1,200 health workers and community members, Ibekwe told of the discrimination he faces as a person living with HIV. He urged both presidents to serve as powerful advocates against the pervasive stigma and denial associated with the virus. Almost two weeks later, at a reception for African leaders assembled in New York City for the United Nations Millennium Summit, President Clinton spoke with emotion about Ibekwe's presentation, calling it "one of the most moving experiences I have had as a President".

Dr. Tanko Yakasai
Dr Yakasai is a Public Health practitioner who currently works with the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital in Kano. In addition to an MBBS from the University of Maiduguri, he has a Masters Degree in Public Health (MPH) from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Though a Medical Doctor Dr. Yakasai's involvement with HIV/AIDS has been in the area of civil society activism where he readily had a platform having served the National Association of Nigerian Students variously as Financial Secretary, Senate President and President.

Dr. Yakasai is deeply interested in issues about youth development. He is the Secretary General of the National Youth Council of Nigeria. He also currently serves as the National Coordinator of the National Youth Network on HIV/AIDS (NYNETHA) in addition to his membership of the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM)

 
Mrs. Funmilayo Doherty
Mrs. Doherty is the President of the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa, Nigeria (SWAAN). She started out as a social worker having obtained a B.Sc in Sociology from the Lagos State University. This in addition to a Masters Degree in Public Administration and another Masters in Social Work has placed her in a good stead for a career which has spanned the entire gamut of HIV/AIDS advocacy ranging from awareness creation, prevention and control, counseling and testing, community home based care, sexuality education, project management and monitoring and evaluation among others.

In addition to her very engaging position as the President of SWAAN, she currently serves in several capacities as a member of the National Task Team on HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing, Steering Committee member of the Nigeria HIV Vaccine and Microbicides Advocacy Group (NHVMAG), Secretary, Lagos State HIV/AIDS Control Agency (LSACA) Implementation Committee and Project Manager of the Community Home based care project for People Living with HIV/AIDS funded by FHI

Alhaji Kassim Njidda
Alhaji Kassim Njidda is a Chartered Certified Accountant whose working career included service in the Bursary Department of the University of Maiduguri before joining the services of the defunct Bank of the North (BON) where he rose to the high ranking position of Executive Director. He was later appointed the Managing Director of Afribank Nigeria Plc which was at that time one of the four biggest banking institutions in Nigeria. He served in this capacity meritoriously from the year 2001 before retiring in 2006

Mrs. Rebecca Apedzan
Mrs. Apedzan is the Benue State Honourable Commissioner for Special Duties and HIV/AIDS while concurrently acting as the Chairperson of the State Action Committee on AIDS. An experienced Registered Nurse whose tour of duty took her to all the major health institutions in the state, Mrs. Apedzan rose to become the State President of the National Association of Nurses and Midwives before venturing into politics on account of which she got elected and served as member of the Federal House of Representatives in 1993. she has been a State Commissioner in the state since 1999 till date in addition to her role as the President of the state chapter of the National Council of Women Societies. Her interest is focused mainly on Women and Youth.