Abdullahi Sarki Mukhtar

Abdullahi Sarki Mukhtar
National Security Adviser
In office
1 June 2006 – 8 March 2010
President Olusegun Obasanjo
Umaru Musa Yar'adua
Preceded by Aliyu Mohammed Gusau
Succeeded by Aliyu Mohammed Gusau
Governor of Kaduna State
In office
July 1988 – August 1990
President Ibrahim Babangida
Preceded by Abubakar Dangiwa Umar
Succeeded by Tanko Ayuba
Governor of Katsina State
In office
September 1987 – July 1988
President Ibrahim Babangida
Succeeded by Lawrence Onoja
Personal details
Born 5 July 1949
Kano State, Colonial Nigeria
Military service
Allegiance Nigeria
Branch/service Nigerian Army
Rank Major general

Abdullahi Sarki Mukhtar (born 5 July 1949, in Kano State, Nigeria) was formerly the National security adviser to the president of Nigeria. Rtd Major General Mukhtar was also a former military governor of Kaduna state and Katsina State, in the case of the latter he was the first administrator or governor.

Life and career

He had a fairly prominent army career culminating with his appointment as the general officer commanding the first division, Nigerian army in Kaduna state, before that, he was the Chief of Staff of a peace keeping force in Liberia. The retired general was one of the few serving high-ranking officers in the middle of the 1990s who voiced concerns over the detention and trial of the former President Obasanjo and his former deputy Shehu Musa Yar'Adua. He is known as a principled and charismatic officer who earned the respect of President Obasanjo when he refused to budge to the demands of Sani Abacha, on the treatment of coups suspects in 1995. From January 23, 2002, to May 30, 2003, he administrated the Embassy of Nigeria in Moscow and was also accredited to Minsk.