Former Minister of Finance and ex-High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji, is dead.
Aged 87, he passed away on Thursday morning, July 30, 2026, at a hospital in Abuja where he had been receiving medical treatment.
Popularly called “Triple A,” Alhaji was born on November 22, 1938 into the Sokoto royal family.
He attended Katsina Government College before earning a degree in political economy from the University of Reading. He also completed specialized courses at the Hague Institute of Social Services and the IMF Institute in Washington.
He entered the Nigerian civil service in 1964 and became a long-serving Permanent Secretary under multiple administrations. During his tenure at the Finance Ministry, he played an instrumental role in managing Nigeria’s external debt and spearheaded negotiations for the Lome II agreement.
He served as the Minister of State for Budget and Planning in 1988 before being appointed the Minister of Finance between 1990 and 1991 under General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime.
In the mid-1990s, he was appointed Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
In 1990, he was turbaned as the Sardauna of Sokoto, filling the highly revered traditional title that had remained vacant since the assassination of Sir Ahmadu Bello in 1966.
