From exclusion to empowerment: How one Chevening alumnus is rewriting the narrative for people with disabilities

Mahmud Abdullahi was born and raised in Azare, a developing town in Northern Nigeria.

At the age of two, he contracted poliomyelitis and lost the use of his legs. But even though ‘disability often meant exclusion from education, employment, and public life’, Mahmud refused to let it stop him.

‘At age seven, I overheard my father planning to enrol my younger brother in school. He was afraid to enrol me, not out of neglect, but out of fear that I would be bullied or broken by a system unprepared for a child with a disability and no mobility aid,’ he explains.

‘But I insisted. I cried, pleaded, and refused to be left behind.’

‘That was how my schooling began, crawling to and from school every day, often arriving home bruised, dusty, and exhausted. Yet, I never gave up. I studied harder, stayed focused, and eventually became the best pupil in my class.’

Fast forward to today and Mahmud is now a proud member of the Chevening alumni community. What’s more, he’s using what he learnt during his time in the UK to rewrite the narrative for people with disabilities.

In 2022, with the support of a Chevening Scholarship, Mahmud pursued a master’s in public health and health promotion at Brunel University of London.

Throughout his studies, Mahmud explored how social and environmental factors shape mental health outcomes for people with disabilities in low-resource settings. This not only broadened his academic horizon; it gave him the strategic insight and global perspective to address systemic inequities in Nigeria’s health and policy systems.

Upon returning to Nigeria, Mahmud was quick to put what he had learnt into practice.

While continuing his work with the HEAL Disability Initiative, Mahmud founded the Coalition for Disability Rights and Inclusion in Bauchi (CDRI-Bauchi), a group that has become ‘a catalyst for inclusive health governance in Northern Nigeria’.

As part of the coalition’s work, Mahmud led an advocacy campaign that prompted the Bauchi State Government to begin the process of transforming its agency for persons with disabilities into a fully functional commission.

‘The proposed bill I presented to the Bauchi State House of Assembly has now passed its first and second readings at the hallowed chamber of the Bauchi State House of Assembly,’ he shares. ‘I am [also] in close contact with Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health regarding policy dialogues with the ministry to integrate disability perspectives into healthcare planning and implementation.’

But Mahmud’s work doesn’t stop there.

He currently serves as a human rights activist at the Commonwealth Disabled People’s Forum (CDPF), contributing to cross-Commonwealth advocacy on inclusive development. And most recently, he was accepted into the Disabled Leaders Network (DLN) Advanced Leaders branch, a UK-based network that brings together global leaders driving disability inclusion across sectors.

‘All these achievements are grounded in the leadership training, critical thinking, and collaborative mindset that Chevening instilled in me.’

In addition to his advocacy work, Mahmud is inspiring future generations as a lecturer at the Federal University of Health Sciences, Azare (FUHSA).

‘In this capacity, I integrate disability perspectives into teaching and research, mentoring future public health professionals to view inclusion as a core element of sustainable health systems.’

Going forward, Mahmud hopes to influence the design of disability-inclusive health systems across Africa. He also plans to establish a ‘Mental Health and Disability Research Hub’ that will ‘advance research, policy innovation, and leadership training for inclusive governance’.

But ultimately, his goal is simple: ‘to build a world where inclusion is not an act of charity but a standard of justice and progress’.