Aisha
Yesufu
Aisha Yesufu is a Nigerian activist, businesswoman and politician who co-convened the #BringBackOurGirls campaign in 2014. This Aisha Yesufu biography covers her childhood in Kano, her Edo roots, her husband Aliu, the raised-fist photo that became a symbol of the 2020 #EndSARS protests, and her move from street advocacy into party politics. She was named in the BBC 100 Women list in 2020, and in May 2026 she stepped forward for the FCT Senate seat on the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) platform.
| Date of Birth | December 12, 1973 |
|---|---|
| Age | 52 years |
| Nationality | Nigerian |
| Zodiac Sign | Sagittarius |
| Occupation | Activist, Entrepreneur, Politician |
| Place of Birth | Kano, Kano State, Nigeria |
| State of Origin | Edo State (Agbede) |
| Husband | Aliu Osigwe Yesufu (m. 1998) |
| Children | 2 (Amir and Aliyyah) |
| Education | Bayero University Kano; Ahmadu Bello University |
| Known For | Co-convener of #BringBackOurGirls |
| Political Party | Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) |
Chinedu Ikedieze
Julian HortonBiography
Aisha Yesufu was born on December 12, 1973, in Kano, northern Nigeria. Her parents are Alhaji Ahmad Tijjani Muhammad and Hajiya Zainab Muhammad (née Amiebenomo), and she is their first child, according to her official website. Although she was born and raised in Kano, her family is from Agbede in Edo State.
She has been clear about where she comes from. “I am from Agbede in Edo State. I am an Edo woman and married to an Auchi man,” she told ThisDay in October 2020. On X, she has also written that she was “born and brought up in Kano.”
Her childhood was hard. She grew up in a poor Kano neighbourhood after her father lost everything, and she sometimes went to school without breakfast, she told the Guardian Nigeria in August 2019. By the age of 11, she had no female friends left, because they had all been “married off or dead.”
That early struggle still drives her work. “Whatever I am doing today, I am fighting for that little girl that I was that yearned for help, that begged to be helped with a textbook so that I can read and pass my exams,” she said in the same Guardian interview.
Education
Aisha wanted to join the military. She applied to the Nigerian Defence Academy in 1991, but she was turned down because she was a woman, the Guardian reported. She then gained admission to Usmanu Danfodiyo University in 1992, but the school closed and she moved on.
Her next stop was Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, where she studied medicine. In 1994 the school shut down after a professor was killed, and she left. She finally finished at Bayero University Kano with a BSc in Microbiology (Second Class Upper) in 1999, and she later earned a Master’s in Pharmaceutical Microbiology at ABU, according to her website.
She did her National Youth Service in 2000 in Rimi Local Government Area, Katsina State. The Guardian tells how she fought to return an extra stipend that was paid into her account by mistake.
Career
Aisha has run her own businesses since her NYSC year in 2000. She has tied her business years directly to her activism. “The first 40 years of my life I devoted to myself to be able to be financially independent and help others… The next 40 years God willing I am going to devote to Nigeria,” she wrote on her website, after turning 40 in December 2013.
She is also the founder of Citizens Hub, a non-profit that teaches financial literacy and civic duty. She convenes #NigeriansMarchAgainstCorruption too, according to Premium Times.
Bring Back Our Girls
Her national profile began with the Chibok abduction. On April 14, 2014, 276 schoolgirls were abducted from their school in Chibok, Borno State. On April 30, 2014, Aisha and Oby Ezekwesili marched on the National Assembly in Abuja, and the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) movement was born.
She co-convened BBOG with Ezekwesili. She served first as the group’s Sit-Out Coordinator and later as Chair of its Strategic Team, according to her website and Within Nigeria.
#EndSARS
Aisha was one of the best-known faces of the #EndSARS protests against police brutality in October 2020. On October 10, 2020, photographer Victor Odiba captured her in a hijab with her fist raised outside the Police Headquarters in Abuja. That photo became an icon of the movement, according to ICIR and ThisDay.
She was a leading protester, not a leader in a formal sense, because the movement had no official leaders. The protests ended in late October 2020. Asked about the risks, she told the Guardian a year earlier: “The worst thing anyone can do to me is to kill me. I’m going to die anyway…”
The 2023 election and the Obi campaign
On June 10, 2022, Aisha declared her support for Peter Obi of the Labour Party, Pulse reported. She chaired the Obi-Datti campaign’s fundraising team, which she said raised N596 million. That role later put her at the centre of a public row with the party’s leadership (see Controversies below).
Joining party politics
Until late 2025, she had never joined a political party. On December 31, 2025, she announced she would join the African Democratic Congress (ADC). “I have never been a card-carrying member of any political party, but I will be a card-carrying member of the ADC,” she said, according to Nigerian Bulletin.
Her stay in the ADC was short. On May 6, 2026, she left for the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and declared for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senate seat, Premium Times reported. “When I give my word, I keep it,” she wrote on X at the time.
Days later, on May 11, 2026, she went on Channels TV’s Morning Brief and listed seven bills she planned to sponsor for the FCT. “I’m not leaving advocacy, I’m taking advocacy into politics,” she said, according to Leadership.
For the 2027 elections, she has said her job is building polling-unit structures and protecting results, not touring with Obi, who is now the NDC presidential candidate, Legit reported in August 2026.
Controversies and Disputes
Aisha’s habit of naming names has made her plenty of enemies. In 2019, the Guardian described her as “often maligned” by pro-government voices. These are her biggest public disputes, in date order.
The “Hushpuppi in Hijab” row (July 2023)
In July 2023, she said President Bola Tinubu’s “forgery and rigging are too dire for Nigeria to simply move on,” Sahara Reporters reported. Analyst Kelvin Odanz hit back over the Obi campaign’s donations. “You spent the entire campaign period begging for donations but forgot to beg God for sense and shame,” he wrote, and the phrase “Hushpuppi in Hijab” trended. She replied that her critics were used to campaign funds taken “from already looted public funds.” The row stayed on social media.
The national anthem (June 2024)
On June 1, 2024, Aisha refused to stand for the reinstated anthem “Nigeria, We Hail Thee” and posted #NotMyNationalAnthem. “I’m going to sit down if the ‘Nigeria, we hail thee’ anthem is played at any event,” she said, according to Legit.ng. APC chieftain Joe Igbokwe called the move “nonsensical” on Facebook. She replied on X: “Joe Igbokwe thinks my family is like his family that depends on crumbs from government to survive.” Oby Ezekwesili backed her, and opinion stayed split.
Labour Party campaign funds (September 2024)
In September 2024, Labour Party chairman Julius Abure alleged that Aisha and Pastor Itua Ighodalo were the signatories to the Obi campaign’s accounts. His National Working Committee asked the National Security Adviser and the EFCC to probe them, TheCable reported. ThisDay put the sum Abure’s camp raised questions about at over N12 billion and $15 million.
She denied it in a YouTube video. “That statement Abure made was a big, fat lie. There were times when the fundraising team was frustrated with me because of my insistence on due process,” she said, according to TheCable. She added that the accounts had “three signatories, not two.” Obidient coordinator Yunusa Tanko said she had already handed over audited accounts. No probe finding has been made public.
The fake national honour list (June 2025)
In June 2025, a viral list credited to Leadership newspaper named her for a national honour. Presidential aide Temitope Ajayi said the list was fake, TheCable and Pulse reported. Her own reaction was short: “It can never be this Aisha Yesufu.”
Peter Obi as a running mate (January 2026)
On January 6, 2026, she said she would work against any 2027 ticket that made Obi a vice-presidential candidate. “Why are we always asking the best to be second?” she asked, according to Leadership. Obi went on to become the NDC’s presidential candidate.
The NDC FCT Senate ticket (May 2026)
The NDC’s FCT Senate ticket went to Amanda Pam in late May 2026, and two different accounts of how it happened were published. Blueprint reported on May 29, 2026, that the party did not hold a primary for the seat. It quoted Aisha: “Our party has decided not to conduct primaries for the senatorial seat in FCT Abuja.” The same report said she withdrew from the race.
Premium Times reported on May 30, 2026, that a primary did take place and that Amanda Pam won it. In that report, Aisha alleged the vote was manipulated and said, “Guidelines of the party were not followed.”
Her own response was firm. “What was billed as a primary was, in truth, a predetermined outcome dressed in procedural formalities,” she said, according to Premium Times. She told Legit she had not quit the race but had chosen “to accept a flawed outcome.” She said she would not go to court, would stay in the NDC, and named 2031 as her next chance. “This is not the end,” she said.
Rebuke of Seriake Dickson (June 2026)
On June 11, 2026, she publicly criticised NDC leader Senator Henry Seriake Dickson after his interview on Arise TV. “You made it about yourself,” she wrote, adding: “The registration of NDC should be a means to an end and not an end in itself,” Sahara Reporters reported.
Awards and Recognition
Aisha was named in the BBC 100 Women list in November 2020. The same year, New African magazine put her on its list of the 100 Most Influential Africans, and the Guardian named her its Guardian Woman for October 2020.
The Guardian had already given her its Voice of Humanity award in August 2019. In February 2021, she received a Martin Luther King award, and at the 2020 CAHR Awards she won the Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti Human Rights Award (Individual), according to her website. On January 1, 2023, she was one of 14 Nigerians on Reputation Poll International’s list of the 100 Most Reputable Africans, Punch reported.
Personal Life
Husband
Aisha Yesufu’s husband is Aliu Osigwe Yesufu, a chartered accountant from Auchi in Edo State. She first saw him on December 13, 1996, and fell for him at once. “I first laid eyes on my husband on the 13th of December 1996 and I fell over heels in love with him and went after him,” she told the Guardian in 2019.
She made the first move. “I was the one who asked him out. I arranged it so he can see me as a wife since he wasn’t seeing me as a wife,” she told BBC Pidgin in 2021, as TheCable Lifestyle reported. They married on April 17, 1998, when she was 24.
On their 20th anniversary in April 2018, she wrote on X: “The man whom I fell in love with from the moment he stood up and I laid my eyes on him as he towered over everyone in the room has been my husband for 20 years.” She has called him her “number one fan,” and she credits him with teaching her to be financially independent.
Children
The couple have two children, a son named Amir and a daughter named Aliyyah. In August 2019, her youngest child was about to start university, the Guardian reported. BBC Pidgin said in 2021 that her children had joined her at protests.
Timeline
1. December 12, 1973: Born in Kano to a family from Agbede, Edo State
2. 1991: Turned down by the Nigerian Defence Academy because she was a woman
3. 1992: Admitted to Usmanu Danfodiyo University
4. 1994: Leaves Ahmadu Bello University after the school shuts over a professor’s killing
5. December 13, 1996: First sees Aliu Yesufu
6. April 17, 1998: Marries Aliu at age 24
7. 1999: Earns a BSc in Microbiology at Bayero University Kano
8. 2000: Serves with the NYSC in Rimi, Katsina State, then starts in business
9. December 2013: Turns 40 and vows to give “the next 40 years” to Nigeria
10. April 30, 2014: Marches on the National Assembly after the Chibok abduction; #BringBackOurGirls begins
11. August 2019: Receives the Guardian’s Voice of Humanity award
12. October 10, 2020: Photographed with her fist raised at the #EndSARS protest in Abuja
13. October 2020: Named among New African’s 100 Most Influential Africans
14. November 2020: Named in the BBC 100 Women list
15. February 2021: Receives a Martin Luther King award
16. June 10, 2022: Declares support for Peter Obi
17. January 1, 2023: Named among Reputation Poll International’s 100 Most Reputable Africans
18. July 8, 2023: The “Hushpuppi in Hijab” row on X
19. June 1, 2024: Refuses to stand for the reinstated national anthem
20. September 2024: Denies Julius Abure’s claims over Obi campaign funds
21. June 2025: The Presidency calls a national honour list naming her fake
22. September 2025: Teargassed at the National Assembly while welcoming Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan back from suspension
23. December 1, 2025: Asks the National Assembly to summon President Tinubu over insecurity
24. December 31, 2025: Says she will join the ADC, her first party
25. January 6, 2026: Vows to oppose any ticket with Obi as running mate
26. May 6, 2026: Joins the NDC and declares for the FCT Senate seat
27. May 11, 2026: Lists seven planned FCT bills on Channels TV
28. May 29 to 31, 2026: The NDC FCT Senate ticket goes to Amanda Pam; she calls the process flawed and stays in the party
29. June 11, 2026: Rebukes NDC leader Seriake Dickson
30. August 2026: Says her 2027 role is polling-unit structure and result protection
Net Worth
Aisha Yesufu’s money comes from business. She has run her own businesses since her NYSC year in 2000, and she spent what she calls the first 40 years of her life becoming “financially independent.” She also credits her husband, a chartered accountant, with teaching her to manage money.
Her public work sits alongside that income rather than replacing it. Citizens Hub, the group she founded, is a non-profit. She also has a large online audience, with about 2.1 million followers on X, 265,000 on Instagram and 155,000 subscribers on YouTube. Her companies and their earnings are private, so ThrillNG does not put a figure on her net worth.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Aisha Yesufu?
Aisha Yesufu is 52 years old. She was born on December 12, 1973, and she turns 53 in December 2026.
Where was Aisha Yesufu born?
She was born in Kano, northern Nigeria, and she grew up there.
What is Aisha Yesufu’s state of origin?
She is from Edo State. Her hometown is Agbede, and her husband is from Auchi, also in Edo State.
Who is Aisha Yesufu’s husband?
Her husband is Aliu Osigwe Yesufu, a chartered accountant. They married on April 17, 1998, and they have two children, Amir and Aliyyah.
Which party does Aisha Yesufu belong to?
She has been a member of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) since May 2026. Before that, she briefly joined the ADC after announcing it on December 31, 2025.
Did Aisha Yesufu lead the #EndSARS protests?
No. She was one of the most visible protesters, and her raised-fist photo became a symbol of the movement, but #EndSARS had no formal leaders. She co-convened #BringBackOurGirls.
