Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje

Ganduje was born in Ganduje village of Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State in 1949.

He is the Governor of Kano State, having been elected on 13 April 2015, and sworn in on 29 May 2015. He is also a former two-term Deputy Governor of Kano State, serving from 1999 to 2003 and 2011 to 2015 under the administration of Rabiu Kwankwaso. He started his early education in Qur'anic and Islamiyya school at his village Ganduje where he became trained in Islamic knowledge. He later moved to headquarters of his local government where he attended Dawakin Tofa Primary School from 1956 to 1963. Ganduje attended the Government Secondary School Birnin Kudu from 1964 to 1968.

He obtained a Nigerian Certificate of Education (NCE) from Advance Teachers' College Kano between 1969 and 1972. He then attended Ahmadu Bello University, located in Zaria, Kaduna State, for a Bachelor of Science Education degree from 1972 to 1975.

He obtained his first master's degree in applied educational psychology from Bayero University Kano, located in Kano, Kano State, in 1979 and later returned to Ahmadu Bello University from 1984 to 1985 for a Master of Public Administration degree. Not satisfied, Ganduje went to the University of Ibadan, located in Ibadan, Oyo State, for a Doctor of Public Administration degree between 1989 and 1993.

He was selected as the consensus candidate to succeed Kwankwaso as Governor of Kano State on 28 November 2014. He went on to defeat the opposition candidate, Malam Salihu Takai, with 1,546,434 votes against Takai's 509,726 votes in the 11 April 2015 gubernatorial elections.[4] He was sworn in to office on 29 May 2015.