PATRICK IBRAHIM YAKOWA - GOVERNOR OF KADUNA STATE

PATRICK IBRAHIM YAKOWA - GOVERNOR OF KADUNA STATE Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa was born on 1 December 1948 in Fadan Kagoma, Jema'a Local Government, Kaduna State. He attended St. Mary’s Secondary School, Fadan Kaje and St. John's College, Kaduna, and then was admitted to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He graduated with a B. Sc (Social Sciences) in June 1972.
After graduation, he joined the Civil Service of the then North Central State and served in various capacities such as: Administrative Officer, Division Officer (DO), Secretary in the Military Governor’s Office, and Local Government Sole Administrator. He rose to Permanent Secretary in the Kaduna State civil service, heading the Ministries of Health, Works and Transport. In 1990, Yakowa transferred to the Federal Civil Service until he was appointed to serve as a commissioner in Kaduna State from 1994 to 1997. Returning to the Federal Civil Service after this posting, he was Director Joint Services at the Ministry of Defence from February 1997 to August 1998, and then a Director at the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development until 14 June 1999, when he was appointed Permanent Secretary and retired.
It is worth noting that at the Political arena, His Excellency was the State Sole Administrator of National Republican Convention (NRC) that saw to the Second Republic Democratic experiment of 1990- 1993.
He was Vice Chairman, Finance Committee, Makarfi Campaign Organization in 2003, served at the National Party Level of PDP as Rivers State Screening Committee Chairman in 2003. He was appointed Secretary to the Government of Kaduna State in September, 2003 and Deputy Governor in July 2005, replacing Stephen Shekari, who had died on July 10. In December 2006, he was a contender to be PDP candidate for governor of Kaduna State, but lost out to Namadi Sambo.

In December 2009 Yakowa denied claims that the state administration was marginalizing Southern Kaduna. He said statements to that effect were "bizarre and mischievous" and said the government was making special efforts to provide social amenities in the area. A southerner himself, he called on the people of the region to stop agitating for a southern governor candidate in the 2011 elections, but to help Governor Namadi Sambo gain a second term, and wait for 2015 to get a southern governor.
In May 2010 there were rumours that President Goodluck Jonathan would nominate Kaduna State Governor Namadi Sambo as his Vice President, which would cause Yakowa to become governor. If so, he would be the first person from Southern Kaduna and first Christian to become governor in the state, an arrangement to which some Northern leaders objected. The rumours proved true and on 20 May 2010, the day after Sambo had become vice-president, Yakowa was sworn in and inaugurated as the 20th governor of Kaduna State.
To reassure people in the ethnically and religiously mixed state, he said: "I am governor for all, irrespective of religious or tribal affiliation''. In his inaugural speech at General Hassan Usman Katsina House, shortly after he was sworn-in by the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Rahila Cudjo, the Governor stressed that the state government would pursue the sustenance of peace, equity and justice, while ensuring that no citizen of the state was subjected to any form of threat, intimidation and discrimination, irrespective of his religious belief.