NAOWA President Accepts Appointment as Strategic Ambassador for UNESCO REF SIP-ALPHA
UNESCO REF Media Centre | Abuja, Nigeria | 28, July 2026 | Ref: UNESCO REF/MEDIA/2026/NAOWA SIP ALPHA AMB 01
Dr Safiyyah Hassan Shaibu, 25th President of the Nigerian Army Officers’ Wives Association (NAOWA), brings six decades of grassroots presence into the UNESCO REF Strategic Intervention Programmes for Accelerated Learning and Productive Human Asset (SIP-ALPHA), aligned with the 2030 Agenda and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
ABUJA, Nigeria, 17 October 2026. The Read and Earn Federation, for UNESCO (UNESCO REF) announces that Dr Safiyyah Hassan Shaibu, 25th President of the Nigerian Army Officers’ Wives Association (NAOWA) and wife of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu, has formally accepted her nomination as Strategic Ambassador for the UNESCO REF Strategic Intervention Programmes for Accelerated Learning and Productive Human Asset (SIP-ALPHA) in Nigeria.
The acceptance was conveyed by official correspondence dated 28 July 2026, under NAOWA reference NAOWA/NAT/G1/300/63. It is a considered institutional decision, taken, in Dr Shaibu’s own words, after having “carefully considered the objectives, scope and strategic vision of the SIP-ALPHA Initiative.”
The woman behind the mandate
La femme derrière le mandat
At her first Executive Meeting as 25th President of NAOWA, held in Abuja in February 2026, Dr Shaibu set out the principle that has guided her tenure: “When a woman is empowered, a family is strengthened; when families are stable, the military community is stronger.” She reminded members that the association was built on service and sacrifice, and that its decisions would affect thousands of families across formations and commands nationwide.
Her record since then reflects that conviction. Under her leadership, NAOWA has inaugurated new schools in Zaria, Badagry and at Bola Ahmed Tinubu Barracks in Abuja, begun construction of primary and secondary schools at Bola Ahmed Tinubu Barracks, and organised the 2026 NAOWA 21st Century Teacher Transformation Training. Its Youth Empowerment Project has trained 394 young people in ICT and fashion design, and more than 15,000 relief packages have reached members, widows and places of worship.
The institution she leads
L’institution qu’elle dirige
NAOWA began in the 1950s as the Army Wives Association and took its present name in 1963. For more than six decades it has operated community health centres, schools, day-care centres, skills acquisition and vocational centres and the Girl Child Education Programme, across a network that follows the Nigerian Army into garrison towns throughout the Federation.
It reaches communities where institutional presence is often thin, and it does so as a non-governmental organisation that receives no subvention from federal or state government. Scholars of Nigerian civil society have described it as the most powerful women’s organisation in the country.
The home front and the national mandate
Le front intérieur et le mandat national
Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu was appointed Chief of Army Staff by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on 30 October 2025. A field commander whose career spans counter-insurgency operations in the North East, he received the Service and Sacrifice Award at the 2026 Armed Forces Celebration and Remembrance Day ceremony at the State House, Abuja.
Behind every theatre of operations is a home front, and behind every soldier is a family sustained by sacrifice. Dr Shaibu has lived that reality. Her decision to commit NAOWA’s network to a development framework aligned with the United Nations agenda carries the lived experience of military families across the Federation.
A convergence of two institutions
La convergence de deux institutions
The road to the appointment began on 18 May 2026, when the President of UNESCO REF, Prince Abdulsalami Ladigbolu-Oranmiyan, held a high-level consultative engagement with Dr Shaibu at NAOWA headquarters in Abuja. The meeting examined institutional pathways for advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria through the SIP-ALPHA framework.
Two institutions met. One brought seventeen years of multi-sectoral development architecture, through which, according to UNESCO REF, 1.2 million Nigerian youths have been mobilised. The other brought six decades of grassroots presence and community trust earned through consistent service. Each recognised in the other what neither possessed alone. On 28 July 2026, the conversation became a formal institutional covenant.
In her own words
Dans ses propres mots
“Having carefully considered the objectives, scope and strategic vision of the SIP-ALPHA Initiative, particularly its alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union Agenda 2063, I further recognise its strong emphasis on sustainable development, food security, education, youth advancement, health resilience and community empowerment. It is therefore with great pleasure that I formally accept this nomination and appointment as Strategic Ambassador for SIP-ALPHA.
I look forward to collaborating closely with UNESCO REF, development partners and other relevant stakeholders in achieving the objectives of SIP-ALPHA for the benefit of our nation and future generations.”
Dr Safiyyah Hassan Shaibu, 25th President, Nigerian Army Officers’ Wives Association, Abuja, 28 July 2026
The UNESCO REF President responds
La réponse du Président de l’UNESCO REF
“Dr Safiyyah Hassan Shaibu’s formal acceptance of this nomination is one of the most consequential institutional developments in UNESCO REF’s seventeen-year history. NAOWA does not lend its name; it lends its capacity, its networks and its communities. As Strategic Ambassador for SIP-ALPHA, she brings to our framework the institutional discipline of an organisation forged in service, the grassroots reach of a network that no programme map can fully capture, and the moral authority of women’s leadership at its most credible.
Nigeria’s development cannot be delivered from Abuja alone. It must be assembled, community by community, in every barracks, every garrison town and every local government area of this Federation. That assembly now has a new and formidable architect.”
Prince Abdulsalami Ladigbolu-Oranmiyan, President and Secretary General, UNESCO REF
What the appointment means
La portée de la nomination
SIP-ALPHA is UNESCO REF’s most ambitious institutional architecture: a governance innovation that moves development delivery from siloed programmes to an integrated, systems-based approach across education, agriculture, health resilience, youth empowerment and sustainable community development.
As Strategic Ambassador, Dr Shaibu brings NAOWA’s national footprint into SIP-ALPHA’s implementation architecture, with the aim of accelerating delivery across all 774 local government areas of the Federation. Her mandate already extends to two flagship programmes:
- Young Women in Agriculture (YWA). A national mobilisation campaign targeting 12 million young women in agriculture (read more). Food security is a pressing national priority: the Cadre Harmonisé analysis projected that about 34.7 million Nigerians would face food insecurity in the June to August 2026 lean season.
- The VOICE Initiative. UNESCO REF’s professional advancement programme for women with disabilities, launched on 1 October 2026 with the Osun State Government as first pilot state. Dr Shaibu will lead its national upscaling to 120,000 women across the six geopolitical zones and its extension across Africa (read more).
The contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals is direct. The deeper contribution is the trust of a nation’s military families, now extended into the architecture of its development future.
Global alignment
Alignement mondial
| Framework | Provision | How the appointment responds |
|---|---|---|
| SDG 1, No Poverty | Target 1.4: equal rights to economic resources for the poor and vulnerable | Extends SIP-ALPHA into military communities and garrison towns |
| SDG 2, Zero Hunger | Target 2.3: double the productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women | Leads the Young Women in Agriculture campaign for 12 million women |
| SDG 4, Quality Education | Targets 4.1 and 4.4: quality schooling and relevant skills for youth | Builds on NAOWA schools, teacher training and youth skills programmes |
| SDG 5, Gender Equality | Target 5.5: women’s full participation and leadership | Places women’s leadership at the head of national programme delivery |
| SDG 8, Decent Work | Target 8.6: reduce youth not in employment, education or training | Youth advancement and skills acquisition across the Federation |
| SDG 17, Partnerships | Target 17.17: effective public and civil society partnerships | A covenant between UNESCO REF and NAOWA |
| UN Security Council Resolution 1325 | Women, Peace and Security: women’s role in peacebuilding and community resilience | Mobilises the wives and families of the military as agents of development and stability |
| African Union Agenda 2063 | Aspiration 6: development driven by the potential of African women and youth | Cited by Dr Shaibu in her letter of acceptance |
| Maputo Protocol | Article 15: right to food security; Article 13: economic and social welfare rights | Women-led food security and economic empowerment |
| Renewed Hope Agenda, Federal Government of Nigeria | Food security, human capital and inclusive growth | Delivery through all 774 local government areas |
ENDS
Notes to editors
Notes aux rédactions
About SIP-ALPHA. The Strategic Intervention Programmes for Accelerated Learning and Productive Human Asset (SIP-ALPHA) is UNESCO REF’s integrated development framework, delivering education, agriculture, health resilience, youth empowerment and community development programmes in alignment with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
About NAOWA. The Nigerian Army Officers’ Wives Association is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded in the 1950s and constituted under its present name in 1963. It operates schools, community health centres, skills acquisition centres and welfare programmes for military families and host communities across Nigeria.
About UNESCO REF. The Read and Earn Federation, for UNESCO (UNESCO REF) works to strengthen human and institutional capacity across Nigeria and Africa through education, research and professional development.
Media enquiries. UNESCO REF Media Centre, [email protected], +234 (0) 916 4212 902, www.unesco-ref.org
Ref: UNESCO REF/MEDIA/2026/NAOWA SIP ALPHA AMB 01
Sources
Sources
- NAOWA President vows stronger safety net for widows, vulnerable military families, News Agency of Nigeria, February 2026
- NAOWA expands schools, trains teachers, News Agency of Nigeria, 5 August 2026
- Nigerian Army Officers’ Wives Association, Wikipedia
- Waidi Shaibu, Wikipedia
- FG honours CoAS, others at 2026 AFCRD awards ceremony, The Guardian Nigeria, 14 January 2026
- 34.7m Nigerians projected to face food crisis in mid-2026, Daily Trust, 8 November 2025
- The VOICE Initiative, UNESCO REF