Ahmad Lawan Biography (Career, Politics, Age)
Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan is a Nigerian politician and professor. He has been a member of the Nigerian since 1999, occasionally serving in the Senate and other times in the House of Representatives. He assumed leadership of the Nigerian Senate in 2022. He serves as the senator for Yobe North Senatorial District and is a member of the All Progressive Party (APC).
Early Life & Education
On January 12, 1959, Ahmad Lawan was born. He is a Yobe State native. He completed his primary education at Sabon Gari Primary School in Gashua, where he earned his First School Leaving Certificate in 1974. At the University of Maiduguri, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in geography in 1984. He graduated with a Master’s in Remote Sensing from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria in 1990. He continued on to earn a doctorate in remote sensing and geographic information systems from Cranfield University in the UK in 1996.
Career
Lawan lectured at his alma mater, the University of Maiduguri, from 1987 to 1997 after serving as an education officer in the Yobe State Civil Service’s Ministry of Education in 1985 and 1986.
Politics
They initially chose Ahmad Lawan to serve the Bade/Jakusko Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives in 1999 as a representative of the All Nigeria Peoples Party. After being elected to the House of Representatives, Lawan held several leadership positions in the House Committees on Education and Agriculture.
He was re-elected in 2003, and in 2007 he ran for and was elected to the Senate from Yobe North. He was a representative on the Joint Committee on Constitution Review of the National Assembly in 2008. Lawan initiated and sponsored the Desertification Control Commission Bill in 2009, when he served as the head of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts. Additionally, he opposed the Kafin Zaki Dam proposal in August 2009.
He claimed that the Yobe River’s main source of water was now the Jama’are River because the Tiga Dam and Challawa Gorge Dam had already severely decreased water flow. He said that the dams caused tremendous poverty, the spread of the desert, migration, and conflicts between herders and farmers of arable land.
After they inaugurated the 9th Nigerian National Assembly in 2019, Lawan, a member of the All Progressive Congress, the party that replaced the ANPP, was elected Senate President with 79 votes cast, defeating Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume with 28 votes. He ran for Senate President a second time, although he was unsuccessful the first time.
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Senate Presidency
2015
After the APC gave the seat to the northeastern Nigerian region in accordance with the party’s then-current power-sharing arrangement, Lawan ran for Senate President in 2015. Only senators from the six northeastern states who were elected on the APC platform were qualified to contest for Senate President due to the zoning. After talks with significant political players and senators-elect from the northeast, Lawan received support and was presented to the party’s national leadership, who then selected him as the party’s candidate for Senate President. The APC’s zoning system prevents other senators elected from other zones from vying for the position.
While disagreeing with the party’s choice, Senator Bukola Saraki of Kwara State in north-central Nigeria said that they should permit all qualified candidates to exercise their constitutional right to contest for Senate leadership seats. Saraki declared his candidacy against the party’s zoning guidelines.
51 APC senators reportedly gathered at the International Conference Centre on June 9, 2015, the morning of the day of the Senate president election, with the explicit purpose of persuading senator Saraki to give up his ambition and support Lawan. At the time, the election was being conducted by 57 senators, most of whom were from the opposition PDP and a small number of APC senators.
With 57 of the senators present at the election voting unanimously, Saraki was elected. Senator Lawal was present at the International Conference Center when voting took place and a winner was declared. His attempt to become the 8th Senate’s president was unsuccessful due to the event.
2019
Sen. Danjuma Goje resigned from the race for the Senate presidency on June 6, 2019, following a meeting with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. On June 11, 2019, Senator Ali Ndume of the APC lost to Senator Ahmed Lawan of the APC, who was elected and sworn in as the Senate President of Nigeria’s 9th Assembly. Sen. Ahmed Lawan defeated his rival by a vote count of 79 to 28.
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Controversies
Corruption allegations
Lawan and other Cabinet members were charged with receiving bribes after the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) was enacted in August 2021, despite strong public resistance to some of the bill’s provisions. Not because Gbajabiamila and Lawan allegedly accepted bribes, but rather because other lawmakers claimed to have received $5,000 for reps and $20,000 for senators, led to outcry from a number of parliamentarians.
Gbajabiamila and Lawan at first declined to respond to the report. A few days later, Lawan refuted the report, calling it “unwarranted, unproven, and false.” He also urged Nigerians to “always think positively about their leaders and their governments” and to “let them speak the truth” while also being ready to offer corrections we believe will help us get better.”
Personal Life
Ahmad Lawan marries a new bride on Friday, June 25, at the mosque of Sheikh Sharif Ibrahim Saleh in Maiduguri. The new wife’s name is reportedly Zainab Algoni Abdulwahid.
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