Iyorwuese Harry Hagher, OON (born 25 June 1949) is a Nigerian professor of theatre for development, playwright, poet, politician administrator and activist for social justice.

[5] He is known to have engaged cultural diplomacy as a tool for foreign relations while serving as Nigeria's Ambassador to Mexico,[6][7] and later High Commissioner to Canada.

His early life was in the village of Tse-Gbagir in Torov, present-day Ukum local government area of Benue State.

Growing up, he lived the village life: fishing, hunting, mingling, and eating anything in neighbouring homes, orchards, farms, and fields.

As his father questioned police authority to carry out the arrests, he was brutalized with truncheons and while bleeding on his head, he was dragged out of the class.

He became a public intellectual and opened up his inquisitive mind to be educated in different disciplines like peace and gender studies, conflict and mediation, and medicine and nutrition.

As head of the council, he worked with Tiv peasants in Central Nigeria using Kwagh-hir puppetry theatre as a social change agent.

In 1997, he was transferred to the Federal Ministry of Health as the Minister of State – a position he held until the end of the administration in 1998, when Abacha passed on.

Iyorwuese Hagher was appointed by President Olusegun Obasanjo as Nigeria's Ambassador to Mexico with concurrent accreditation to Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala (2003-2008).

[9] He is renowned for his cultural and citizenship diplomacy and won a commendation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his non-fiction book, Nigeria: After the Nightmare.

This enabled him to resuscitate the top ranks of the defunct United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) into the movement led by Joseph Tarka, his political mentor.

In 1983, he ran for election and won a landslide victory as a federal senator representing the Benue North-East constituency at the age of 34.

During his campaigns, Hagher urged the EFCC to prosecute presidents with fraudulent manifestoes, citing for example that the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari, had promised to provide at least 20% of annual budgets for education.

He also cited Buhari's campaign promise of setting up special courts, accelerating trials, and jailing terrorists, kidnappers, and other criminals.

He is at present Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Pro-Chancellors of Private Universities of Nigeria and President, of the African Leadership Institute, USA.