Many do not know that there are 3 governors from the North, that Pres. Muhammadu Buhari has a soft spot. We can tell you about them. They are all APC Governors from the North. They are the ones who run APC right now and the ruling party has been under their firm grip for some time now.
They are Gov. Mai Mala Buni of Yobe (who is the Chairman, Caretaker Committee of the party. The 2nd is Gov. Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) who is the Chairman of the Progressive Governor’s Forum and the 3rd is Gov. Mohammed Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa State.
Mai Mala Buni was born 19 November, 1967. He is a leading politician. He was born in Buni Yadi, Gujba local government area of Yobe State, North-East Nigeria. He is the current governor of Yobe State, Nigeria and the caretaker chairman of the All Progressives Congress. He was elected governor during the 2019 Nigeria general elections under the All Progressives Congress (APC) Party. Before being elected governor, he was the national secretary of the All Progressives Congress.
As it is with the tradition in Northern Nigeria, Buni started learning memorization of the Quran at an early age under the tutelage of his parents and other clerics before his enrolment into Buni Gari central primary school where he obtained the First School Leaving Certificate in 1979.
After completing his primary education, Buni gained admission into Government Secondary School Goniri in 1979 and obtained the West African Examination Council Certificate in 1985.
While in active Politics, Buni enrolled as a part-time student at the Espan Formation University, Benin Republic where he obtained a B.Sc. Degree in International Relations in 2014. He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from Leeds Becket University, United Kingdom.
With a background in the family business of trade and transport, Buni also ventured into business at a very young age after completion of his secondary education. The quest to establish a factory to start a private company in furniture took Mai Mala Buni to the College of Vocational Science and Technology where he obtained a Diploma certificate in 2012.
Mala started his political journey in 1992 when he contested and won a councillor sit under the platform of the National Republican Convention (NRC) party, to represent Buni ward in the Gujba Local government council. He was subsequently elected as the speaker of the council.
He became a Senior legislative assistant at the National assembly in 2000, and in 2004, he was appointed a Member of, the University of Uyo governing council.
In 2006, he was unanimously elected Chairman of the Advanced Congress of Democrats in Yobe state and when in 2007, members of the Action Congress party in the state entered into an alliance with the Advanced Congress of Democrats to form a formidable force on the platform of the Action Congress, the alliance unilaterally pencilled him down unopposed for the Chairman of the Action Congress party and was subsequently elected where he served as chairman from 2007 to 2010.
In 2011, Buni joined the then ruling All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in Yobe state and was appointed Special Adviser on Political Affairs and Legislative Matters to Yobe State Governor Ibrahim Gaidam. In 2013 after the merger of the mega political parties to form the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mai Mala Buni became the protem state secretary of the party in Yobe State and was subsequently elected the pioneer state Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Yobe State.
In 2014, Mai Mala Buni became the first elected National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress. It was that same regime of the party that ushered in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. His commitment to serving the party, automatically earned him a second term as the national secretary in 2018.
While serving as APC National Secretary and Board Chairman of the Nigeria Shippers Council, he was nominated, endorsed and elected as the flag bearer of APC for the 2019 Yobe State gubernatorial election.
During the 2019 general elections, Hon. Mai Mala was elected as the fourth Executive Governor of Yobe state when he scored the highest votes of 444,013 to beat his opponent Alhaji Bello Iliya of the People Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 95, 703 only.
In June 2020, the national working committee of All Progressive Congress (APC) party was dissolved and in its place, a new interim committee was inaugurated and is chaired by Hon. Mai Mala Buni will also serve as chairman of the party’s extraordinary convention committee.
The committee is saddled with the responsibility of steering the activities of the party for an initial period of six months and also preparing and conducting the party’s extraordinary national convention.
During a national executive council meeting held at the statehouse Abuja on 8 December 2020, the tenure of the interim committee/extraordinary convention committee was extended for another 6 months.
Abubakar Atiku Bagudu was born on 26 December 1961. He is a leading politician and the current governor of Kebbi State, Nigeria. Previously, he served as the Senator for the Kebbi Central constituency of Kebbi State. He is a named accomplice in multiple investigations involving corruption that occurred during the regime of former Nigeria’s military ruler Sani Abacha.
Although Bagudu came from a wealthy family, his father was the director of Primary Education in Kebbi. He obtained a BSc (Economics), Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, MSc (Economics) University of Jos and M.A. (International Affairs). He is married to Zainab Bagudu, the First Lady of Kebbi State.
Bagudu succeeded Adamu Aliero when he won the by-election for the Kebbi Central Senatorial seat following Aliero’s appointment to become the Minister for FCT. In the 6 April 2011 elections, Bagudu won for the PDP with 173,595 votes. His predecessor Adamu Aliero, who had moved to the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), came second with 137,299 votes and Aliyu Bello Mohammed of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) trailed with 11,953 votes. During the 2015 General Elections, Atiku Bagudu then moved from the ruling PDP to the All Progressive Congress (APC) and contested for the Governorship, winning a landslide victory in the polls. In the 9 March, 2019 Kebbi State gubernatorial election Bagudu polled 673,717 votes, while his rival Sen. Isah Galaudu of PDP polled 106,633 votes.
Bagudu was a known associate of former dictator Sani Abacha.
How about Mohammed Badaru Abubakar (MON)? He was born in Babura on 29 September 1962. He is the 4th democratically elected Governor of Jigawa State. He is the Chairman, Presidential Committee on Fertilizer and also the Chairman, Presidential Committee on Non-oil Revenue.
Abubakar is a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he obtained a B.Sc Accounting degree. While studying at the university, he became involved in community activism, sport and business. Badaru is also an alumnus of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru.
After his graduation, he established his business, the Talamiz Group, a conglomerate with diverse interests in automobiles, manufacturing, agriculture and animal husbandry, as well as commodity distribution.
Abubakar was Vice President II of the Federation of the West Africa Chamber of Commerce and a Fellow of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria. Prior to that, he was a member of the National Council on Privatisation.
Badaru is currently the National President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture. He also was a gubernatorial candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria but lost to Sule Lamido. Abubakar also contested for governorship under the platform of the All Progressives Congress in 2015 along with PDP contender Mal. Aminu Ibrahim Ringim. The Independent National Electoral Commission on 13 April 2015, declared him the winner of that election.
On 9 March 2019 Jigawa State gubernatorial election Badaru was re-elected as governor having polled a total of 810,933 votes, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Aminu Ibrahim Ringim scored 288,356 while the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Bashir Adamu Jumbo scored 32,894 votes, thereby making him the winner of the election.
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