Who is Bamanga Tukur?

Bamanga Tukur, a businessman and a politician was a Minister of Industries under the administration of the late military dictator, General Sani Abacha. Born in 1935, he hails from Jada, Adamawa State. The flamboyant politician was once the governor of old Gongola State.

He was also a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party. He came to national attention in the mid-1970s, as the general manager of the Nigerian Ports Authority, at the twilight of Yakubu Gowon’s administration.

During his tenure, the government built a few more seaports to ease the transaction cost associated with shipping and to ensure adequate facilities for Nigeria’s import and export needs.

In 1982, he left his position as general manager and soon contested the Gongola gubernatorial race, which he won. Tukur served as governor for three months before the democratic administration was curtailed by a military coup.

After leaving the Gongola State House, he entered full scale entrepreneurship, and was the founder and chairman of BHI holdings (DADDO group of companies). In 1992, he was an unsuccessful presidential candidate for the National Republican Convention during which he and a few rivals of Adamu Ciroma lobbied for the cancellation of the first primary due to allegations of favouritism levelled against the leadership of the party.

In December 2003, he was conferred with the national honour of the Commander of the Order of the Niger by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

He is currently the president of the African Business Roundtable.

Meanwhile, in his acceptance speech after his emergence as the PDP chairman, Tukur said the PDP as the party in power since restoration of democracy in 1999 faced enormous responsibilities.

He said, “We cannot continue to decry decay in our larger society if we as a party are not ready to lead by example.”