Professor
Faruk Sarkinfada

Faruk Sarkinfada was born in Chedi, Kano City, in July 1968. He trained as a microbiologist at Ahmadu Bello University and qualified as a Medical Laboratory Scientist before winning a Ford Foundation International Fellowship for his doctorate at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

Over thirty years he rose to Professor of Medical Microbiology & Parasitology at Bayero University Kano, advised state and federal ministries of health on laboratory strengthening and quality assurance, and carried Nigeria’s diagnostic expertise to Eritrea, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. He has served as national consultant to Global Fund TB and malaria programmes and directed the Fleming Fund grant on antimicrobial-resistance surveillance in Nigeria.

Though a scientist, he has been tutored by eminent Islamic scholars in Kano and has spent a lifetime dissolving the wall between the laboratory and the library — publishing fiction, poetry, biography and philosophy in both Hausa and English, and founding the Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology in Hausa.

“Language barriers pose a great challenge to the understanding of science and technology education, particularly among Hausa-speaking communities in Northern Nigeria.” — Faruk Sarkinfada