Mary Ejuojo Akiode, née Mary Ifah, emerged from Ibaji at a time when opportunities for Nigerian women in technical education were still limited. She progressed from secondary education at Government Girls High School, Gindiri, to Electrical Engineering at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, before building a long career within the National Electric Power Authority, NEPA.
Her professional journey eventually took her into senior electricity distribution management and leadership within the Nigerian Society of Engineers. By 1999, she had risen to become chairman of the Society’s Lagos Branch, one of the country’s important centres of professional engineering activity.
Akiode’s story belongs to a wider period of Nigerian history in which increasing numbers of women began entering universities and professions that had previously been dominated overwhelmingly by men. Her accomplishments were significant not merely because she studied engineering, but because she remained in the profession, advanced into management and assumed responsibility within its professional institutions.
Mary Ejuojo Akiode and the Educational Pioneers of Ibaji
Mary Ifah came from Unale in present-day Ibaji Local Government Area of Kogi State. She belonged to a pioneering generation of educated men and women from the area whose achievements encouraged younger people to pursue secondary and university education.
She obtained her West African School Certificate at Government Girls High School, Gindiri, in 1968.
Her educational progress was particularly notable because opportunities for advanced education remained limited in many rural Nigerian communities during this period. For young people from areas where secondary education was still developing, reaching university represented a major social and educational achievement.
Mary proceeded to Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, one of Nigeria’s leading institutions for science, technology and professional education. She graduated in Electrical Engineering in 1973.
This placed her among the small population of Nigerian women entering engineering during the early post-independence era.
Nigerian Society of Engineers membership figures illustrate how heavily male the profession remained. In 1980, women accounted for approximately five per cent of the Society’s membership, with 104 women among 2,001 members.
Akiode’s emergence as an electrical engineer therefore formed part of an important transition in Nigerian professional life, as women gradually established careers in technical fields that had historically been dominated by men.
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National Service in the Early Years of the NYSC
Akiode completed university at almost exactly the moment Nigeria introduced the National Youth Service Corps.
The Federal Military Government established the NYSC in May 1973 under General Yakubu Gowon. It formed part of the national effort to promote unity, integration and reconstruction after the Nigerian Civil War, which had ended in January 1970.
Graduate mobilisation began during the 1973 to 1974 service year, initially involving about 2,700 graduates.
Mary Akiode undertook National Youth Service in 1974. She was among the earliest university graduates from Ibaji to participate in the scheme, alongside Dr Danjo Eguche and James Omachona.
Her participation came during the formative years of an institution that would become a permanent feature of Nigerian graduate life.
After completing national service, Akiode entered the electricity industry, beginning the professional career for which she became best known.
Building a Career in NEPA
Akiode joined the National Electric Power Authority, widely known as NEPA.
NEPA had been established in 1972 following the merger of the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria and the Niger Dams Authority. The organisation operated Nigeria’s electricity system through a vertically integrated structure covering generation, transmission and distribution.
For an electrical engineer graduating in the early 1970s, NEPA was one of the country’s most important technical institutions.
Akiode spent the central part of her professional career within the organisation and progressed through its management structure.
She became General Manager, Distribution, Benin Zone, and later served in Ikeja. Her professional designation, FNSE, identified her as a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.
Her position in electricity distribution placed her within one of the most important operational areas of the national power system.
Electricity distribution concerns the final stage of delivering electrical power to consumers after generation and transmission. NEPA’s distribution operations covered the networks through which homes, businesses, industries and public institutions received electricity.
Senior management in this area therefore involved responsibility for large technical networks, personnel and regional electricity operations.
Akiode’s progression from Benin to Ikeja demonstrated that her professional responsibilities extended beyond a single district or locality. By the time she reached general-management level, she had become one of the Nigerian women occupying senior positions within the engineering profession.
From Ibaji and Kwara to Present-Day Kogi State
The political geography surrounding Akiode’s birthplace changed considerably during her lifetime.
When Nigeria created twelve states in 1967, territories of the former Northern Region were reorganised, and the area that included Ibaji became part of Kwara State.
This meant that during Akiode’s university years and at the time she graduated from Ahmadu Bello University in 1973, her home area was administratively within Kwara State.
Another state reorganisation followed in 1976. The Igala area, including Ibaji, was transferred to the newly created Benue State.
The geography changed again on 27 August 1991, when the Federal Government created Kogi State. Territories that had previously belonged to Kwara and Benue were brought together within the new state.
Ibaji consequently became one of the local government areas of Kogi State.
Akiode’s life therefore crossed several administrative eras. Her homeland passed through Kwara State and Benue State before becoming part of Kogi State, while her association with Ibaji remained constant.
Mary Ejuojo Akiode and the NSE Lagos Branch
One of the major landmarks in Akiode’s professional career came at the end of the twentieth century.
Engr. (Mrs.) M. E. Akiode, FNSE became the fifteenth chairman of the Nigerian Society of Engineers Lagos Branch, serving from 1999 to 2000.
She succeeded Engr. E. Ezeh, FNSE, who had served from 1997 to 1998, and was followed by Professor M. A. Salau, FNSE, whose tenure began in 2001.
Akiode’s designation as FNSE signified Fellowship of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, an important professional distinction.
Her Lagos chairmanship marked another stage in a career that had moved from university training to public electricity management and then into leadership within the organised engineering profession.
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The Lagos Branch occupied an important position because Lagos was, and remains, one of Nigeria’s largest centres of industry, infrastructure development, engineering consultancy and professional activity.
The branch began developing separately from the central organisation in the early 1970s and became an important platform for engineers working across government institutions, universities, utilities, manufacturing and private industry.
For Akiode to lead the branch demonstrated professional recognition extending beyond her responsibilities within NEPA.
Women and the Changing Nigerian Engineering Profession
Akiode’s rise reflected wider changes taking place among Nigerian women in engineering.
Women represented only about five per cent of Nigerian Society of Engineers membership in 1980. Female membership increased in subsequent decades, and by 2003 women accounted for approximately 18 per cent of membership.
Progress into the highest professional ranks remained much slower. Between 1958 and 2005, only 17 of 1,170 Fellows listed in NSE membership records were women.
Akiode’s Fellowship and senior management responsibilities therefore placed her within a relatively small group of women who advanced to higher levels of professional recognition during this period.
Her importance lies in the combination of education, technical employment, management and professional leadership.
She was not simply a woman who obtained an engineering degree. She became an engineer who built a sustained career inside one of Nigeria’s largest technical organisations and later assumed leadership responsibilities in the professional body representing Nigerian engineers.
Her journey illustrated the growing presence of women in professions that had long been associated principally with men.
The Transformation of Nigeria’s Electricity Industry
Much of Akiode’s electricity career belonged to the NEPA era.
For more than three decades, NEPA occupied the central position in Nigeria’s electricity system, combining power generation, transmission and distribution within a single federal organisation.
By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the electricity sector was facing major pressures, including insufficient generation, ageing infrastructure, transmission constraints, distribution losses and difficulties collecting revenue.
The Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005 created the framework for restructuring the industry. NEPA’s assets and responsibilities were transferred to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria during the transition towards separate generation, transmission and distribution companies.
The subsequent electricity industry therefore differed considerably from the institutional structure within which Akiode built her professional career.
Her work belonged to a generation of Nigerian engineers who managed the national electricity system when most of its technical and administrative responsibilities were concentrated within one federal utility.
Conclusion: A Career That Opened Professional Possibilities
Mary Ejuojo Akiode’s journey from Unale in Ibaji to senior engineering management represents an important chapter in Nigeria’s professional history.
She completed secondary education at Government Girls High School, Gindiri, obtained an Electrical Engineering degree from Ahmadu Bello University in 1973, participated in the NYSC in 1974 and subsequently began a career with NEPA.
She rose through the electricity distribution structure to become General Manager, Distribution, in the Benin Zone and later served in Ikeja. Her professional recognition extended beyond the electricity authority when she became chairman of the Nigerian Society of Engineers Lagos Branch from 1999 to 2000.
These milestones place Akiode among the notable women who helped broaden participation in Nigerian engineering during the decades after independence.
Her career demonstrates how educational opportunity could develop into technical responsibility, senior management and institutional leadership.
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Author’s Note
Mary Ejuojo Akiode’s story illustrates a profound transformation in Nigerian professional life. Beginning from Ibaji at a time when few women entered engineering, she moved through university education, national service, electricity distribution management and professional leadership. Her career reminds us that pioneering progress is measured not simply by entering spaces where women were once uncommon, but by building lasting careers, accepting responsibility and expanding the possibilities available to generations that followed.
References
Apeh, Jacob. Ibaji: The Land and the People. Lokoja: Onaivi Printing and Publishing Company Limited, 2014.
Abdulqadir, Lawal Babatunde and Shuaib-Babata, Yusuf Lanre. “Excellent Performance of Nigerian Female Engineers in a Masculine Dominated Profession”, 2008.
Nigerian Society of Engineers, Lagos Branch. Brief History of the Nigerian Society of Engineers Lagos Branch and Past Chairmen.
National Youth Service Corps. Historical records on the establishment and early mobilisation of the National Youth Service Corps.
Kogi State Government. Kogi State Development Plan 2024–2056.
Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission. Historical records on the development of Nigeria’s electricity industry and the establishment of the National Electric Power Authority.
Federal Republic of Nigeria. Electric Power Sector Reform Act, 2005.
