Things to know about Sa’idu Alkali, three-term Senator nominated as minister 

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday sent the the second ministerial list to the Senate for screening.

One of the names on the list is Sa’idu Ahmed Alkali, a three-term Senator representing Gombe North Senatorial District.

Alkali was born on February 12, 1969 in Dukku District of the defunct Northeast State to the late Khadi Ahmed Sa’idu.

He obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics from the University of Maiduguri, and worked with the Dukku Local Government Council, and later joined the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

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After former Governor Muhammad Danjuma Goje won the 2003 gubernatorial election, Alkali was appointed the Executive Secretary of the Gombe State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board.

In 2007, Senator Alkali was appointed Commissioner of Information during Goje’s second tenure. He was elected as Senator for the Gombe North senatorial district in August 2010 by-elections, after the death of the incumbent, Senator Kawu Peto Dukku.

He emerged as the consensus candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), primarily because he was an indigene of Dukku Local Government Area, late Kawu Peto’s LGA. He was re-elected in the 2011 general elections.

He didn’t contest in the 2015 general elections and later defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2017, where he contested and defeated the then incumbent Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo in the 2019 general elections.

He served in the 6th, 7th and 9th Assembly, chairing various senate standing committees.

However, Senator Alkali lost the Gombe North Senatorial seat to former Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo in the 2023 general elections, in a poll that was described as a re-match of the 2019 polls.

He holds the honorary title of Sarkin Gabas Dukku and he is close associate of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya and intimate friend of Vice President Kashim Shettima.