Mai Mala Buni is the Governor of Yobe State, now in his second and final term. A party organiser who was the APC’s first National Secretary, he ran the party nationally as caretaker chairman while also serving as governor, an arrangement that drew legal challenges.1
Career
Buni was born on 19 November 1967 in Buni Yadi, Gujba. He began in politics as a councillor in 1992, worked in the National Assembly, led the Action Congress in Yobe and became adviser to Governor Ibrahim Gaidam. He was the APC’s first elected Yobe chairman and its National Secretary from 2014 to 2019.1
Governor and party chairman
Buni was elected governor in 2019 with 444,013 votes and re-elected in March 2023.12 From June 2020 to March 2022 he chaired the APC’s national caretaker committee after the party dissolved its national executive; its mandate was extended more than once before the convention that elected Abdullahi Adamu.1
Yobe is part of the North-East affected by the Boko Haram insurgency, including the 2018 abduction of schoolgirls from Dapchi; his government has rebuilt schools, health centres and housing for displaced people.1 He cannot run for governor again in 2027.
Ibrahim Gaidam
