Background
Yakubu Dogara was born on 26th December 1967 in Bauchi State, Nigeria into the family of Yakubu Ganawuri and Saratu Yakubu.
Yakubu Dogara was born on 26th December 1967 in Bauchi State, Nigeria into the family of Yakubu Ganawuri and Saratu Yakubu.
Yakubu started his primary education in 1976 at Gwarangah Primary School in the then Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State. Thereafter, in 1982, he went to the Bauchi Teachers’ College for his secondary education, and obtained a Grade II Teachers’ Certificate in 1987. In 1988, he proceeded to the University of Jos, Plateau State, from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Law (LLB Hons.) degree in 1992.
From 1992 to 1993, he was at the Lagos campus of the Nigerian Law School and was called to the bar in 1993. He later obtained a Masters (LLM) in International Commercial Law at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland.
Dogara also attended a course on Managing and Leading Strategic Change in 2006, the Oxford University Course on Negotiation in 2013, and a course on Leadership in Crisis at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2014.
Yakubu Dogara started his career as a teacher in April 1988, when he was employed at the ATBU Staff School in Bauchi. After his National Youth Service Program which he did at, Akwa Ibom state in 1994, he embarked on a private legal practice.
Yakubu was eventually appointed Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Transport, a position he occupied until 2006, when he joined politics fully and contested election into the Federal House of Representative, to represent Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa-Balewa Federal Constituency, a contest he eventually won.
Dogara has been a member of the Federal House of Representatives since 2007, until 9th of June, 2015, when he was elected the Speaker of the Federal House Of Representative, a position that was highly contested.
Yakubu Dogara is a devout Northern Christian who attends Living Faith Church. He held a Thanksgiving service at the Living Faith Church Goshen City, Karu Nasarawa State. During the service, this was what Yakubu said: “I have been a member of this church since 1988 even before I went to the University. The teachings I receive here have defined my life".
“If it were not for the teachings we receive on this altar, maybe this victory may not have come.
“We had Goliaths in the run up to the election; there were Tobias and Sambalats. We had Balams who were asked to curse us but God is with us,” he said.
Dogara’s sojourn in the House has been strongly pro-people; his legislative interests include regulating monopolies, company law, intellectual property and tenancy. He aims to “enact strong tenancy laws and see to the repeal of obsolete laws”. Staying true to his legislative aims, he sponsored the Corporate Manslaughter Bill in 2010 to check negligence in corporate organisations which inadvertently leads to loss of lives. Also, in 2013, Dogara sought to have ambiguities regarding the impeachment process removed (through an amendment to section 143), and this earned him sponsored attempts to have him recalled. Dogara has headed the House Services Committee since 2010, and not one scandal has occurred during his watch. He also headed the House Committee on Customs and Excise, and was said to have turned down a bribe of five million dollars offered by some special interest seeking to conceal the truth. He has also been on the House Committees on Judiciary, Capital Markets, Foreign Affairs, Rural Development and Power, among others. Dogara has also sponsored motions against the indiscriminate and illegal granting of waivers by the Federal Government.
Quotations:
"I can’t come and see my President? Do I need any reason to come and see my President. It’s a private visit."
"I don’t know, educate me. I am lawyer and the speaker and I have never heard of the word “padding”. What does padding mean?"
"We have rules and regulations. This is not a mock institution. We operate by rules and we will follow the rules."
"What is padding? You haven’t told me. Ask Jibrin what is padding? For me, I studied law and I have been in the legislature and all this period I have never heard of the word “padding” being an offence under any law. If I don’t know, you are the media, research the law and let me know."
"I am not the chairman of Ethics committee of the House, so I wouldn’t know and I don’t know what padding means."
“We plead for your prayers because we must confront these challenges. As leaders we are responsible for what we allow. We need your prayers.”
Dogara is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, the International Bar Association, the Nigerian Institute of Management, the Chartered Institute of Mediators and Conciliators, the Cyber Bar Association and the Social Policy Association. He is also an associate member of the Institute of Environment Management and Assessment, and the World Jurist Association.
Quotes from others about the person
Bishop David Abioye: “House members have been sharing testimonies of your good works and we pray that God will sustain you and keep you strong."
He is married, and has children