Professor Desiree Ameze Guobadia had her secondary and Higher Secondary School education at Queens College, Lagos. She holds the Bachelor of Laws Degree(LL.B) of the University of Lagos and the Masters of Law Degree(LL.M) of the University of London. She began her career as an academic at the University of Benin in 1981 as a Lecturer 11 and rose to the position of Associate Professor.
She was appointed a full Professor by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in 1997 and was as the Institute’s Director of Studies from 1997 to 2003. She served as Director-General of the Institute from 2003 to 2009 after which she has remained a research Professor in the Institute.
She was a member of the National Universities Commission’s Accreditation Team to the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1991. She has been an external Examiner to the Edo State University, Ekpoma; the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria as well as the University of Abuja. She has also been an external Assessor, Research Projects and Oral Defence for Course Participants at the National War College, Abuja.
Professor Guobadia has been a consultant to both the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In March 2012, she was a member of the African Union’s Peer Review Panel to the Republic of Tanzania. Between 2005 and 2011, she was the chair of the ECOWAS group of Experts on the harmonisation of the Business Laws of the region. From 2009 to 2011, she was a Council member of the Commonwealth Lawyers’ Association. In March 2011, she was appointed Chair of the Presidential Visitation Panel to the University of Abuja.
From 2014 to date, she has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Stellenbosch Hand books on African Constitutional Law, an initiative of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, South Africa. In 2015, she was a member of a study group of experts from the Commonwealth on a research Project on ‘’Methods of Judicial Appointment in the Commonwealth’’ organised by the University of CapeTownand the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law in London.
Professor Guobadia has published widely within and outside Nigeria. She is a member of several learned societies including the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law; the International Association of Constitutional Law and the African Network on Constitutional Law. From 2007 to 2012, she was a member of the International Board of Directors of the International Society for the reform of Criminal Law with headquarters in Vancouver, Canada and was honoured with the Society’s Medal in 2008.She has attended several International Conferences and has been a commissioned speaker at many of these.
In the build up to the 2015 general elections in Nigeria, Professor Guobadia was a member of the National Peace Committee of eminent Nigerians set up to douse the tension in the land and mediate.
From 2013 to December, 2017, she was a member of the Governing Council of Veritas University, Abuja (the Catholic University of Nigeria). She was the Chair, Editorial Board of the Nigerian Bar Association and Editor-in Chief of the Nigerian Bar Journal (a peer-review journal) from 2009 to 2012. Since February 2018, she has been a member of the Governing Council of the Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA).