Director General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, NILDS, Professor Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman has commended the Nigeria-born Dr. Adam Hussein Abdullahi for emerging the global winner of the Collaborative Initiative for Paediatric HIV Education and Research, CIPHER grant.

Sulaiman, in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja by his media aide, Mohammad Abdulkadri, stated that the CIPHER award, granted after a highly competitive selection process, is valued at $150,000 over two years and was awarded to only four researchers worldwide in this cycle among which are two Africans, including Abdullahi.

Sulaiman said by winning this highly priced CIPHER grant out of 1,000 applicants, Abdullahi, a native of Lafiagi in Kwara State, has put Nigeria, the state and his local government origin on the global map of recognition as “World beater” in the fields of medical sciences, research and scholarship.

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The NILDS boss, while showering encomiums on the University of Cambridge-based topnotch scientist and researcher who is the son of the National President, Lafiagi Descendants Development Union, LADDU, Dr. Abdullahi Amanah, described the success attained by the recipient as an enviable benchmark that challenges other researchers to raising the bars of research higher than he has done.

Abdullahi, Nigeria’s infection and global health scientist was among the four researchers worldwide awarded the estimated $150,000 CIPHER grant after a competitive process involving at least 1,000 applicants.

He’s also one of the two African recipients of the grant after a former Harvard Takemi Fellow and Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, with his research areas including SARS-CoV-2 vaccine immunogenicity in West Africa and Mpox transmission risks in Nigeria.

Abdullahi’s awarded research will focus on critical gaps in paediatric and adolescent HIV including mapping drug resistance patterns among children and adolescents on dolutegravir (DTG)-based regimens in sub-Saharan Africa – work that has the potential to shape treatment strategies and improve outcomes for young people living with HIV.

His prior research experience including fellowships and research roles at internationally respected institutions further underscores the calibre of this achievement.