The National Executive Committee NEC of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC has confirmed the appointment of the immediate-past Governor of Kano state, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje as National Chairman of the party.
NEC took the decision at its 12th meeting held Thursday in Abuja.
It also appointed Senator Basiru Ajibola as National Secretary.
Earlier, it was gathered that APC’s National Legal Adviser, Ahmed El-Marzuk, resigned from the party’s National Working Committee, NWC.
El-Marzuk resigned his appointment on Wednesday, following insistence by some of his colleagues that he could not longer be in office due to some allegations against him.
Here are seven things to know about the new APC chairman.
1. Ganduje was born in 1949 to a Fulani family in the village of Ganduje, Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State.
2. He attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Science Education in 1975.
In 1979 he obtained a Master’s degree in Applied Educational Psychology from Bayero University Kano. Ganduje returned to Ahmadu Bello University from 1984 to 1985 for a Master of Public Administration degree and later received his doctorate in Public Administration from the University of Ibadan in 1993.
3. Ganduje joined the National Party of Nigeria during the Second Republic and served as Kano State Assistant Secretary from 1979 to 1980
4. He became the Kano State Commissioner of Ministry of Works, Housing, and Transport in 1994.
5. In 1998, he joined the Peoples Democratic Party and aspired to be the party’s governorship candidate but lost to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. He later joined the All Progressives Congress in 2014 alongside Kwakwanso.
6. He served as deputy when Kwakwanso who was once his political godfather was as governor between 1999-2003 and 2011 – 2015.
7. He replaced Kwakwanso as the governor of Kano State in May 2015 and later won reelection in 2019 for a second term in office.