HE Senator (Dr) Abdullahi Adamu CON

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees and founder of Phoenix University, Senator (Dr.) Abdullahi Adamu, CON, (Turakin Keffi), was born on July 23, 1946 at Keffi.  He started his early education at the Abdu Zanga Primary School, Keffi and completed at the Laminga Senior Primary School, Nasarawa in 1959. His Post-Primary education was at the Government Secondary School, Makurdi and Government Technical College Bukuru between 1960 and 1965. He later proceeded to the Kaduna Polytechnic where he read and obtained a National Diploma in Building and Civil Engineering and graduated in 1968. 

He had a short employment after the diploma course with the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (1967/70) as a maintenance supervisor. He later took up another appointment with the Northern Nigeria Development Corporation (NNDC) Kaduna, 1972.  Thereafter, he moved to the private sector where in 1973 he became a Consultant Area Manager with AEK, a firm of consultants in the Henry Fajimirokum group of Companies.

In 1975, he was appointed the Executive Secretary of BEPCO (Benue/Plateau Construction Company) by the Benue/Plateau State Government.  While in BEPCO, he was also appointed a member of the Board of Directors of the NTA Zone D in 1976 and served up to 1978. Between 1980-83 he served as the Chairman of Benue Cement Company, Gboko.

Senator (Dr.) Abdullahi Adamu has spent a large part of his life in politics. In 1977 he was elected into the Constituent Assembly, a body that drafted the country’s Second Republic Constitution of 1979.  Thereafter, he became a pioneer member of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and served as the Secretary and Chairman of the Party.

 By 1992, he obtained an LLB (Hons) degree from the University of Jos.  He enrolled into Nigeria Law School, Lagos, where he obtained his BL and was called to the Nigerian bar in December 1993 as a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

In March 1995, he was appointed a Minister of State in the Ministry of Works and Housing of the Federal Republic of Nigeria where he served up to November 17, 1997.

At the onset of the current political dispensation in 1999, he contested for and won election as the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State.  On April 19, 2003 Alhaji (Dr.) Abdullahi Adamu was elected for a second term of four years as the Chief Steward and Executive Governor of Nasarawa State.

As Governor of Nasarawa State, Adamu was committed to a total reform of the educational development of Nasarawa State. He committed not less than 28% of the state fiscal appropriation to education. In 2001, he signed a bill establishing the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, one of the first state universities in northern Nigeria.

In April 2011 he won election as the Senator representing Nasarawa West Senatorial district in the red chamber. He held the seat through various re-elections until he voluntarily relinquished the position in 2022.

In February 2022, he formally declared interest in the office of National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). At the National Convention of the Party held at the Eagle Square in Abuja on 26 March 2022, Senator Adamu was unanimously elected as the National Chairman of the APC.  He led the Party to win the March 2023 presidential election in which the candidate of the Party, H. E. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu won.

In demonstration of his belief to quit the scene when the ovation is loudest, Senator (Dr.) Abdullahi Adamu voluntarily resigned his position as the National Chairman of the APC on 16^th July, 2023 to return to his private life in Keffi, Nasarawa State.

Senator (Dr.) Abdullahi Adamu holds the traditional title of TURAKIN KEFFI.

He is a lover of sports, especially Football, Lawn Tennis, Squash, Cricket, Hockey and Athletics.

A well-rounded man, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, Lawyer, Engineer, Technocrat, Farmer and consummate politician is married and has six children.