Atiku Abubakar, a well known Nigerian politician was born on 25 November 1946 to an itinerant Fulani trader and farmer Garba Abubakar, and his second wife, Aisha Kande, in Jada village in what is today Adamawa State. The business man and philanthropist is best known as the second elected Vice-President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, under the political party People’s Democratic Party (PDP), with President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Educational Background
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Primary
Jada Primary School
Secondary
prestigious Adamawa Provincial Secondary School in Yola (1960-1965)
Tertiary
School of Hygiene in Kano (1966-1967)
Ahmadu Bello University Institute of Administration – Law Diploma (1967-1969)
After graduating with a diploma in Law, he got employment in Nigeria Customs Service.
Marital Life
1st wife – Titilayo Albert, married in December 1971, in Lagos, children; Fatima, Adamu, Halima and Aminu.
2nd wife – Ladi Yakubu, married in January 1979, children; Abba, Atiku, Zainab, Ummi-Hauwa, Maryam and Rukayatu.
3rd wife: Princess Rukaiyatu, daughter of the late Lamido of Adamawa, married in 1983, children; AIsha, Hadiza, Aliyu (named after her late father), Asmau, Mustafa, Laila and Abdulsalam.
4th wife: Fatima Shettima, married in 1986, children; Amina (Meena), Mohammed and two sets of twins Ahmed and Shehu, Zainab and Aisha then her last daughter Hafsat.
He divorced his second wife Ladi, which gave him the opportunity to marry again as the maximum no. of wives permitted by a Muslim to marry is 4. Atiku married Jennifer Iwenjora and she gave birth to Abdulmalik, Zara and his youngest child, Faisal.
He was very wise in his early years, while working as a custom officer, he went into real estate business and acquired as many lands as he could afford before moving to Agriculture. He retired in April 1989 and took up full-time business and politics. Atiku was elected Governor of Adamawa State in 1998 and contested and lost the presidential election in 2007, taking the third position after Umaru Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari.
