MACEN AREWA: Jamila Abubakar Sadiq Malafa (born 1965)

MACEN AREWA: Jamila Abubakar Sadiq Malafa (born 1965) is an international maritime lawyer and the first female Commodore in the history of the Nigerian Navy. She joined the Nigerian Navy in 1988 and was commissioned as a midshipman in 1990. In December 2017 she became the first Northern woman in the history of Nigerian Navy to reach the rank of Commodore.

Malafa was born in Whona village in Gombi local government area of Adamawa State, north-east Nigeria. She attended St. Theresa School, Luggere, in Adamawa, for her primary education, going on to Government Secondary School Hong, for her secondary education. She then went to the School of Nursing in Yola, where she obtained a national certificate in nursing and midwifery. She applied to further her studies at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital; while awaiting admission there a friend brought to her notice the Nigerian Navy recruitment exercise, for which she applied and was recruited, becoming the only woman recruit from the northern part of Nigeria.

After joining the Navy, she went to the School of Nursing, where she earned her midwifery certificate. In 1995, she applied for a law degree at the University of Lagos but was turned down because she had no JAMB examination qualification. So she enrolled herself in a school, sat for JAMB, achieved the required result and was given admission to read law. She obtained her master’s degree in constitution and criminal law from the same university in 2004. In 2009, she obtained her second master’s degree, in international maritime law, from the Institute University in Malta 2009. As of 2017, she was working toward a Ph.D. degree.