Meet Nigeria’s first female neurosurgeon appointed at US children’s hospital
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Dr Salamat Ahuoiza Aliu-Ibrahim, widely recognised as West Africa’s first female certified neurosurgeon and Nigeria’s first female neurosurgeon trained in the country, has been appointed Medical Director of Freeman Children’s Clinic in Joplin, Missouri, United States.
Aliu-Ibrahim was appointed to the position on July 21, 2026, marking another milestone in the career of a Nigerian doctor whose achievements have broken barriers in a medical speciality historically dominated by men.
Early life and education
Born in Ilorin, Kwara State, in 1980, Aliu-Ibrahim is a native of Okene in Kogi State.
She studied medicine at the University of Ilorin, where she obtained her first degree in medicine. She later specialised in neurosurgery, receiving training in Nigeria and becoming a pioneer in the field.
Her medical education and specialist training have since expanded internationally.
Her training includes medical school at the College of Health Sciences, University of Ilorin; paediatric residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch; neurosurgery residency at the National Hospital, Abuja; and a paediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School.
She is also recognised as the first female neurosurgeon in West Africa and the first indigenous-trained female neurosurgeon in Nigeria.
A trailblazer in neurosurgery
Before relocating to the United States, Aliu-Ibrahim served as a Senior Consultant Neurosurgeon at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH).
During her time at UITH, she performed complex cranial and spinal procedures and established herself as a prominent figure in Nigerian neurosurgery.
Her emergence as a female specialist in the field represented a major achievement at a time when neurosurgery remained heavily male-dominated.
Her career subsequently took an international turn when she moved to the United States, where she pursued another area of medicine.
New role in Missouri
Aliu-Ibrahim’s appointment as Medical Director of Freeman Children’s Clinic represents another chapter in a career that began with her medical training in Nigeria and has since taken her into the American healthcare system.
Her journey from Ilorin to becoming a pioneering neurosurgeon in Nigeria and later a medical leader in the United States highlights the international trajectory of a doctor who has spent decades breaking new ground.
Her appointment also places a Nigerian-trained medical pioneer in a leadership position focused on children’s healthcare in the United States.
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