10/09/2026
MEET DAME VIRGINIA NGOZI ETIABA, NIGERIA’S FIRST FEMALE GOVERNOR
On 11 November 1942, a girl named Virginia Ngozi Etiaba was born in Nnewi, in what is today Anambra State.
Decades later, that same girl would make Nigerian history.
But before she entered Government House, before politics knew her name, Virginia Etiaba spent most of her life in something very different from politics:
Education.
She was a native of Nnewi, from the Ezekwuabor area of Otolo Nnewi, according to biographical records. Her early life, however, was not one we can reconstruct in every detail today. The reliable records available to us do not clearly document the names of her biological parents, so we will not invent them.
What we do know is that she was raised by her paternal uncle, Chief Pius Ejimbe, and that part of her schooling took place in Kano.
And education became the foundation of her life.
From 1951 to 1956, she attended Ibo Union School, Kano, where she obtained her First School Leaving Certificate.
She then went to S.I.M. Katungo in Gombe State, where she obtained a Grade III Teachers' Certificate between 1957 and 1959.
Her education continued.
Between 1961 and 1962, she attended the S.I.M. Women's Teacher Training College, Omu-Aran, Kwara State, obtaining a Grade II Teachers' Certificate.
She could have stopped there.
She did not.
Years later, she returned to higher education at Abraka College of Education, where she obtained an NCE between 1974 and 1978.
Then came the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Between 1984 and 1988, she studied for a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.).
And in 1988, she also obtained a Certificate in Information Technology from Goldsmiths College, University of London.
This is one part of her story that is sometimes lost when people simply introduce her as “Nigeria's first female governor.”
Long before Government House, Virginia Etiaba was an educationist who kept learning.
She began teaching in 1961 at S.I.M. Primary School, Kwoi, in Kafanchan.
She later taught at St. Michael's Boys School in Aba and Municipal Council School in Port Harcourt.
She eventually returned to Nnewi, where she worked in several schools, including St. Michael's Anglican School, Okongwu Memorial Grammar School, Maria Regina Comprehensive High School, Girls' Secondary School, Nnewi, and Girls' Secondary School, Ozubulu.
For about 35 years, education remained at the centre of her professional life. She did not only teach; she also headed schools and took on administrative responsibilities.
In 1991, she retired from the Anambra State Government service.
But retirement did not mean the end of her work in education.
That same year, she founded the Bennet Etiaba Memorial Schools in Nnewi, named after her husband, Bennet Etiaba of Umudim, Nnewi.
She became the proprietress of the school.
She also remained involved in educational and community activities, including scholarship support for students from primary school through university level.
She even published a book titled Education: The Way Forward to Development.
Her private life was also deeply connected to family.
She married Bennet Etiaba in 1962. They had six children, four boys and two girls. They remained married for about 24 years before his death.
For years, Virginia Etiaba's world was therefore classrooms, school administration, community service, family and education.
Then politics opened another door.
In 2006, she became the running mate of Mr. Peter Obi in Anambra State politics.
On 17 March 2006, she was sworn in as Deputy Governor of Anambra State.
She was already 63 years old.
Then came one of the most extraordinary political turns in modern Nigerian history.
On 2 November 2006, Peter Obi was removed from office following his impeachment by the Anambra State House of Assembly.
Virginia Etiaba, as deputy governor, assumed the office of Governor.
And in that moment, a woman who had spent decades educating children became something no Nigerian woman had been before:
The first woman to serve as governor of a Nigerian state.
She became Governor of Anambra State.
Not Lagos.
Not the Federal Capital Territory.
Not a ceremonial position.
A sitting state governor.
Her tenure, however, was brief.
She remained in office from 2 November 2006 until 9 February 2007.
The Court of Appeal later nullified Peter Obi's impeachment, and Obi returned to office.
Virginia Etiaba handed the office back.
Her time as governor lasted roughly three months, but its place in Nigerian history did not disappear with the office.
Because sometimes history is not measured by how long somebody sits in a position.
Sometimes it is measured by whether anyone had occupied that position before.
Virginia Ngozi Etiaba was the first Nigerian woman to serve as a state governor.
And before that historic moment came decades of work that had nothing to do with political power:
A classroom.
A teacher's certificate.
More education.
More classrooms.
School administration.
A family.
A school she founded.
Scholarships.
Community service.
And a lifetime spent building people.
Her story is therefore bigger than the three months she spent in Government House.
It is the story of an educator from Nnewi who continued learning, continued serving, and eventually found her name written into the history of Nigerian governance.
Dame Virginia Ngozi Etiaba.
From the classroom to Government House.
From education to history.
Nigeria's first female governor.
DAILY LIGHT
