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Senator Abdulaziz Yari is a prominent politician and administrator who has navigated both the executive and legislative arms of government in Nigeria.
His early life was shaped by traditional community values that encouraged him to develop interest in public administration and grassroots leadership. His academic journey, which began at Talata Mafara Township Primary School, and Government Teachers College in Bakura before he proceeded to Sokoto State Polytechnic and Kebbi State Polytechnic, where he deepened his understanding of institutional governance, laid a solid foundation in administration, governance, and eventually, corporate finance.
Recognising the demands of modern executive leadership, Senator Yari expanded his credentials globally by completing a Leadership and Change Certificate at the London School of Economics and followed up with a Master of Science in Finance and Investment Management from the University of Salford in Manchester, United Kingdom.
His entry into politics dates back to the dawn of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic in 1999 when he served as the Secretary of the then All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) between 1999 and 2003. He was thereafter, elected Chairman of ANPP Zamfara State in 2003 and later rose to the position of ANPP National Financial Secretary till 2007 when he was elected as member representing Anka/Talata Mafara Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011.
Subsequently, Senator Yari was elected governor of Zamfara State in 2011 and served for two consecutive terms till 2019. As governor, he invested heavily in agricultural support, education infrastructure development, and building of rural connectivity. Confronted by low literacy rates and sparse school infrastructure across Zamfara State, he launched a sweeping structural overhaul to deliver good governance to the people.
His administration constructed over 7,000 primary school classrooms across the state to provide low income and rural children with proper learning spaces. Furthermore, he launched a massive campaign to improve girl child education, resulting in the state’s highest ever female enrolment rates during his first two years in office.
He also constructed a fully equipped, 7,000-capacity Information and Communications Technology Teachers Training Centre in Gusau, the state capital, to modernise pedagogical instruction. To address the isolation of agrarian communities, he prioritised inter-local government road networks.
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Major projects executed by his administration included the construction of the Nasarawa-Bukyium Road and key transit bridges like the Bardoki Bridge in Gumi Local Government Area. These infrastructure developments made it easier to move agricultural produce from rural farms to urban markets.
In a state where the vast majority of the population rely on farming, his administration significantly boosted local agriculture by continuously procuring and heavily subsidising chemical fertiliser and agricultural inputs, exponentially boosting seasonal yields and protecting regional food security.
In 2019, he contested the senatorial election to represent Zamfara West and won by a very wide margin on the platform of the APC. However, his election and that of other APC candidates in the 2019 general election in Zamfara State were nullified by the Supreme Court on the grounds that the candidates were not validly nominated through party primaries. The court ordered INEC to declare candidates who were runners-up in the elections as winners.
Again, in 2023, he contested for the same Senate seat to represent Zamfara West and won. Although a first time senator, he bid for the position of Senate President, made tremendous impact and narrowly lost with 46 votes to the winner’s 63. That feat proved you to be political savvy.
As the senator representing Zamfara West Senatorial District in the 10th National Assembly, he has successfully delivered high level legislative work, quality representation, and humanitarian interventions to his constituents; and as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Water Resources, he has influenced national policy on water infrastructure, irrigation, and resource management across the country.
In June 2024, he launched a flagship educational endowment designed to eliminate the financial burden of higher education for underprivileged youth, providing fully funded scholarships to over 1,700 students from Zamfara State. He showed concern for the health of the people by introducing a free medical outreach programme through which more than 1,000 rural residents suffering from cataracts and other visual impairments received free medical consultations and surgeries. He also organised massive food distribution, deploying 145 trailer loads of maize for distribution to vulnerable families to cushion the effects of food scarcity and economic hardship.
As a federal lawmaker, in addition to other legislative functions, he has contributed in deepening democracy by sponsoring bills that have direct impact on the lives of the people. Among the bills are the National Agency for Regulation of Purchase and Distribution of Agricultural Inputs (Establishment) Bill 2025, which seeks to regulate and streamline how agricultural inputs are purchased and distributed to farmers.
Senator Yari also sponsored the National Assets and Infrastructure Agency (Establishment) Bill 2025, which seeks the creation of an agency that focuses on national infrastructure and asset management.
In recognition of his political clout, ability to mobilise people and his grassroots appeal, the All Progressives Party (APC) appointed him as the Director General of the President Bola Tinubu Campaign Council. His mandate is to coordinate the reelection campaign of President Tinubu, ensuring that voters are mobilised and galvanised to support him in the 2027 presidential election.
