Notes from Professor Rabia S. Sa'id

It is not my purpose here to provoke an unnecessary hysteria regarding some imported products we might believe are luxury items simply because they are imported or are, thus, regarded as “big man’s” foods and products. However, I feel persuaded to bring to light certain issues that are negatively affecting our lives in Nigeria and other developing countries. My urge to proffer these suggestions does not only stem from what I have read in published data, but from my personal experience and observation, being a citizen and resident of Nigeria and having travelled widely around the world. I have been shocked as I saw how the “Oyinbos” live and contrasted it with how we, in the developing countries are living, and how our lives are being cut short while life in the West is elongating. Well, we all know that longevity is as a result of the interplay of many factors. Like I mentioned above, the Western countries are progressively experiencing a remarkable increase in their life expec

I was privileged to attend the fourth Raising Girls’ Ambition (RAGA) conference between October 10th and October 12th this year 2018. The RAGA conference is normally an important forum for discussing the difficulties which girls face in a bid to come up with realistic solutions for empowering girls to attain their dreams. This year, it was organized by the Global Youth Leadership and Girl-Child Foundation in partnership with the Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria. The theme of the conference was “Equipping Girls for Involvement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) for Sustainable Development”. Specifically, it addressed many important issues regarding STEM education among girls and the scale that STEM could result in the economic empowerment of the girl-child. Students of some selected secondary schools in Ibadan   The conference's three days encompassed several defining speeches from experienced professors such as Professor Jennifer Weitz of the Par

Born Maria Sklodowska on 7 November 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, she was the youngest of five children of poor school teachers. After her mother died and her father could no longer support her she became a governess, reading and studying in her own time to quench her thirst for knowledge. She never lost this passion. To become a teacher – the only alternative which would allow her to be independent – was never a possibility because a lack of money prevented her from a formal higher education. However, when her sister offered her lodgings in Paris with a view to going to university, she grasped the opportunity and moved to France in 1891. She immediately entered Sorbonne University in Paris where she read physics and mathematics – she had naturally discovered a love of the subjects through her insatiable appetite for learning. It was in Paris, in 1894, that she met Pierre Curie – a scientist working in the city – and who she married a year later. It was also around this time that

Africa lags other regions of the world in almost every sphere of development. In this blog, I write about what I think Africa can learn from the personality and leadership styles of Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović which the world witnessed during the recently-concluded World Cup. Croatia is an East European country of 4.1 million people that emerged as an independent nation on 25 June 1991 from the breakup of the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. The tiny nation surprised the world by beating many strong teams, including Nigeria (2-0), Argentina (3-0), Iceland (2-1), Denmark (3-2), Russia (4-2) and England (2-1), before succumbing to France (4-2) in the Final. The team performed like they were on steroids. Before now, I wasn’t much of a football follower, but I have wondered about what gave the hitherto unknown team the boost to overcome many football Goliaths. A scrutiny of the 2018 World Cup has, doubtless, revealed President Grabar-Kitarović’s leadership qu

UN Commission on the Status of Women Sixty-Second Session Attending the 62nd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, which took place at the UN Headquarters in New York from 12 to 23 March 2018 accorded me lots of information on the strides and challenges the world has made in the journey towards empowering women. Key learning that I took away from my participation in sessions include emerging issues and trends. Emerging issues that I observed include more actions on assertiveness on issues related to girls’ education, domestic violence and a more vigorous drive towards women entrepreneurship. There is a greater focus on women owning their own businesses and enterprise rather than aiming at rising to leadership positions in corporations owned or dominated by men. Empowerment of women and girls is now moving towards being their own bosses and building their own conglomerate, small businesses. As a speaker said “We have to co-elevate, not co-exist” Dr. Letici

It has been a while. A lot has happened. I will share photos of interesting events that happened in the course of the break: Conferences, the Eid celebrations in Kano, Northern Nigeria and many more. However, we will conclude the CSW62 experience, which we started. This time to make it more interesting, photos will be shared with short comments. Thank you for joining me on the journey, experiencing these events. 💕💖✌

THE 62ND SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN (CSW62) The 62nd session of the UN commission on the status of women took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 12-23 March 2018. I was a delegate to this meeting and participated as a representative of the Virginia Guildersleeve International Fund (www.vgif.org). In a few short blogs over a short period, join me as we relive the UN CSW 2018 experience. For a start, lets explore a brief history of CSW:   A Brief History of the CSW The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) first met at Lake Success, New York, in February 1947, soon after the founding of the United Nations. All 15 government representatives were women. From its inception, the Commission was supported by a unit of the United Nations that later became the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) in the UN Secretariat. The CSW forged a close relationship with non-governmental organizations, with those in consultative

In order to understand the role of parents in curbing mathematical anxiety particularly among girls, it is paramount to understand what the term mathematical anxiety refers to.  According to Ashcroft (2002), mathematical anxiety is the feeling of fear, tension and apprehension that affects a student’s performance in mathematics. It is basically the anxiety that one develops regarding their ability to do mathematics. This type of anxiety is significantly considered in evaluating the students’ problems related to mathematics. In most cases, mathematical anxiety manifests in women. It is often believed that younger female scholars are more interested in social relations during their teenage years and hence they develop anxiety towards sciences and mathematics. It is also thought that in comparison to men, women have a higher likelihood of developing mathematical anxiety. This is because of societal pressures and women’s perceptions of mathematics. Mathematics teachers’ behaviors a

A wannan bidio, Nafisa Kareem, mai gabatar da shirin Tauraruwa a tashar telebijin ta Arewa 24, ta yi mun tambayoyi akan rayuwa ta, karatu da gwagwarmaya da na yi fama da su wajen cinma burin da na sa agaba. English Translation: In the video, Nafisa Kareem; anchor of the Tauraruwa program on the TV station Arewa24, explores with me my early childhood, schooling and the challenges I had to overcome to achieve my aim and arrive at the point I am today. You will need to, please, click on the video to play:   Rabia S. Sa'id, PhD Associate Professor of Physics Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria Personal Website:  http://www.rabiasaid.org Email: rabia at rabiasaid.org Please remember to use the correct format of email, with the @ sign and no spaces. It was written this way to prevent those nasty spambots from harvesting the email address. Ford Foundation International Fellow (2002) Fellow of the African Scientific Institute (2013) OWSD/ Elsevier Foundation Awa

Born on February 18, 1909 in rural Evergreen, Alabama, Warren Elliot Henry was an African American physicist and educator who spent almost seven decades working in the fields of magnetism and superconductivity. Henry earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the Tuskegee Institute in 1931, his master’s in organic chemistry from Atlanta University in 1937, and his doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1941. During World War II, he returned to teach at Tuskegee, where his students included the black military pilots who would become famous as the Tuskegee Airmen. In 1943 he was recruited to work at MIT’s Radiation Laboratory to develop video amplifiers for radar. After the war, Henry continued to work in both academia and industry. He served on the faculties of several schools, including Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Howard University, from which he retired as professor emeritus in 1977. From 1948 to 1960, Henry worked at the Naval Researc

It's indeed auspicious that I started my blog in February. In February, 2015, I was in San Jose,  California, USA,  receiving the OWSD/Elsevier Foundation Award for Early Career Women Scientists. Altogether, there were five of us, as follows:   (Left to Right) Rabia Salihu Sa'id, PhD, Deputy Dean of Student Affairs, Bayero University, Kano Mojisola Usikalu, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Physics, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria Nashwa Eassa, PhD, Assistant Professor of Physics, Al Neelain University, Khartoum Mojisola Oluwyemisi Adeniyi, PhD, Head of the Atmospheric Physics/Meteorological Research Group, Department of Physics, University of Ibadan Dang Thi Oanh, PhD, Head of the Division of Science, Thái Nguyên University of Information and Communications Technology I was literally, thrown in to the international limelight. I had invitations for interviews, home and abroad. I was a keynote speaker at the annual event of the Visiola Foundation; a foundation work

Lethargy is determined by periods of tiredness where you can hardly engage in constructive activities. During these periods, it is hard to focus on life objectives and engagements. It is also associated with abnormal drowsiness or a state of sluggishness. Lethargy often occurs without any pathological cause. When you have been physically engaged for some time, you may tend to experience lethargy before going on to do the next task. Lethargy is caused by mental and physical exhaustion. Consider the activities of a student towards the end of a semester. This is a time when the student has to hand in all the assignments given in the course of the semester and at the same time prepare for end of semester examinations. When the semester comes to an end, the student is totally exhausted both physically and mentally. Lethargy is caused by overworking the brain and the body. During such a time, individuals experience increased fatigue and tiredness with no energy to engage in other activi

As we join hands in this journey of empowering less-privileged people and advancing knowledge and opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), I would like to tell you a few things about myself. I am Dr. Rabia Salihu Sa’id, an Associate Professor of Atmospheric Physics at Bayero University in Kano, Nigeria. I was first employed as a Graduate Assistant on 15th September 1999; one of first two females to ever have been employed by the Department of Physics in the history of Bayero University, Kano, twenty years after it became a full-fledged university in 1977. I was the Deputy Dean (female) at the Student Affairs Division of the university from 2012-2016. Employment and Work Experience My work involves lecturing and supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as research in the field of Atmospheric Physics. I also have an interest in Space weather and upper atmosphere physics and have supervised masters’ level students in these