Nguher Comfort Lorkyase

Nguher Comfort Lorkyase is a Nigerian lawyer and public policy practitioner pursuing a Master of Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, as a Mastercard Foundation Scholar.

Nguher was raised in a low-income rural community outside Jos, Nigeria, and witnessed the ramifications of violence on people and communities. She learned early the cost of insecurity and the resilience it takes to keep building despite it. She channelled that resolve into her studies, graduating top of a class of 183 with First-Class Honours and a 4.70 CGPA, the second-highest in her faculty in over four decades.

Before Oxford, Nguher worked as an Associate in the Policymaking Unit of Olaniwun Ajayi LP, where she co-drafted landmark legislation, including Nigeria’s Digital Economy Bill, and advised institutions such as the World Bank and the Central Bank of Nigeria on regulatory reform. This, alongside a European Union-funded legislative internship at Nigeria’s National Assembly, exposed her to how policy ambitions are translated into law and cemented her desire for public service.

Beyond legal practice, Nguher leads with purpose. As her faculty’s first female Advocate-General, she built platforms for young lawyers to test their voices in debate and moot court, and has since mentored dozens of students into internships once out of reach. She recently started an initiative to fund a child’s education annually at an orphanage, inspired by a day spent in an orphanage in 2020. An accomplished orator who has used dance and poetry to promote peace, she brings that same creativity to problem-solving.

At Oxford, Nguher hopes to build the tools for a career at the intersection of law, policy, and security, reforming Nigeria’s security architecture and restoring hope to communities disturbed by conflict.