Abubakar Atiku Bagudu Biography | Education, Net Worth, Political Career, Family

Abubakar Atiku Bagudu Biography

Abubakar Atiku Bagudu CON (born December 26, 1961) is a Nigerian politician currently serving as Nigeria’s Minister of Budget and Economic Planning. Between 2015 and 2023, he was the governor of Kebbi State. He also served as the senator for the Kebbi Central senatorial constituency from 2009 until 2015.

Abubakar Atiku Bagudu Wikipedia

Abubakar Atiku Bagudu Early Life and Education

Atiku Bagudu comes from a wealthy family; his father was the director of primary education in Kebbi state. He graduated from Usmanu Danfodiyo University in Sokoto with a BSc in Economics, an MSc in Economics from the University of Jos, and an M.A. in International Affairs. He married Zainab Bagudu.

Abubakar Atiku Bagudu Political career

In 2009, Bagudu won the by-election for the Kebbi Central Senatorial seat after Adamu Aliero was appointed Minister for FCT by President Goodluck Jonathan in December 2008.

In the April 2011 elections, Bagudu won for the PDP with 173,595 votes, while 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 came in third with 137,299 votes.

During the 2015 general elections, Atiku Bagudu switched parties from the ruling PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and ran for governor, winning by a landslide.

In the 9 March 2019 Kebbi State gubernatorial election, Bagudu polled 673,717 votes, while his competitor Sen. Isah Galaudu of PDP polled 106,633.

Bagudu won the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket for the 2023 Kebbi Central Senatorial election but lost to PDP incumbent Adamu Aliero, who had previously left the APC after losing the primaries.

On August 16, 2023, President Bola Tinubu appointed Bagudu as minister of budget and economic planning.

Abubakar Atiku Bagudu Corruption

Bagudu was a known friend of former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha, who was suspected of embezzling more than $2.2 billion in public monies during his five-year term as president in the 1990s.

In 2003, Bagudu was arrested and extradited from Houston, Texas, at the request of Jersey, where he had established a shell business named Doraville Properties to launder cash stolen in Nigeria.

Bagudu eventually struck a deal, agreeing to refund $160 million in stolen funds in exchange for deportation to Nigeria for trial.

Despite substantial evidence from legal authorities in the United States, Jersey, and Switzerland, Bagudu was never questioned upon returning to Nigeria.

In 2014, the US Department of Justice announced the return of $480 million taken by Sani Abacha and his associates.

According to the complaint, Sani Abacha, his son Mohammed Sani Abacha, their associate Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, and others “embezzled, misappropriated, and extorted billions of dollars from the government of Nigeria and others, then laundered their criminal proceeds through U.S. financial institutions and the purchase of bonds backed by the United States.”

In February 2020, the United States signed a trilateral agreement with Nigeria and Jersey to return more than $300 million that Bagudu helped take under the Abacha administration.

The United States announced that it would continue to seek forfeiture of roughly $177 million in additional laundered funds kept in trusts named Bagudu and his relatives as beneficiaries. As governor, Bagudu is free from prosecution.

Bagudu was one of the Nigerians unmasked by the 2021 Pandora Papers for hiding filthy money in offshore shell firms.

Abubakar Atiku Bagudu Awards

In October 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari bestowed upon him the Nigerian national honor of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON).

Abubakar Atiku Bagudu Social Media