A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba has reportedly died in the early hours of Wednesday in Abuja.
Family sources said the former lawmaker died in an Abuja hospital following a brief illness, and his burial rites will be announced in due course.
Mr Na’Abba was born into the family of Umar Na’Abba, a businessman in Tudun Wada, Kano City, on 27 September 1958.
He obtained a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1979.
His early education was at Jakara Primary School, Kano where he obtained his First School Leaving Certificate in 1969.
He later attended Rumfa College, Kano for his West African School Certificate and was also at School of Preliminary Studies, Kano, between 1974 and 1976, before gaining admission into Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in October, 1976.
He completed a postgraduate programme on Leadership and Good Governance at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in the United States in 2004.
In training, practice, and expertise, the late Ghali Na’Abba was a political scientist and a policy architect.
He joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1998, during its formative period.
He emerged as the party’s candidate in the April 1999 National Assembly election in the Kano Municipal Federal Constituency of Kano State and won the election to represent the federal constituency in the House of Representatives.
With the victory and support of other House members-elect from Kano and the North West geopolitical zones, he pursued the role of Speaker of the House.
Although he amassed substantial support from his colleagues and party leaders, he bowed to counsel and conceded to Ibrahim Salisu Buhari, who later emerged as the first Speaker of the Fourth Republic House of Representatives.
He was thus appointed the House Committee Chairman on Appropriations.