Kabiru Tanimu Turaki

Kabiru was born at the Nasarawa area of Kebbi to the family of Alhaji Tanimu. Like other children of his age, Tanimu was sent to the Qur'anic school. In order to acquire Western education, he was further enrolled into Nasarawa Primary School, Birnin Kebbi, where he was appointed as the deputy head boy and timekeeper of the school.[2]

Turaki attended Barewa College, Zaria, and was the deputy house captain at Suleiman Barau House and president of the Young Farmers Club.

To further his education, Kabiru went to the College of Arts and Science, Sokoto for his I.J.M.B., and then earned admission into the University of Jos, to read law. He graduated with honour and proceeded to the Nigerian Law School, Lagos where he was called to the Nigerian bar in 1986.[3]

Turaki is married and has children. He is a Muslim, Hausa Fulani from Kebbi state. He is the first lawyer from Kebbi state and the entire former northwestern states to become a senior advocate.

He was appointed the Dan Masanin Gwandu by the Emir of Gwandu in February, 2002, in celebration of his achievements, and support for the development of his community. He was also conferred with the traditional title of Zarumman Kabi by Argungu Emirate in 2012.[4]

Turaki has been a member of the National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association, Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Committee on the Judiciary, and a member of the Governing Board of the Nigerian Judicial Institute. He was also appointed as the Chairman of the Nigerian Copyright Commission by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012, a position he held until 2013 when he became a minister in the government of Nigeria with the responsibility of piloting the newly recreated Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs and as the Honourable Supervising Minister of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity in 2014 and 2015. He was also made the Chairman of the White Paper Committee on the Report of the Presidential Committee of Experts on Interprofessional Relationships in the Public Health Sector. President Jonathan also appointed Turaki as Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North.

On graduation from the Nigerian Law School, Turaki opted to be a private legal practitioner. Instead of remaining in his hometown, he went to Kano where he became a senior consul with Alhaji Tijjani Abdullahi and Company (Solicitors and Advocates) in 1987. After two years, he formed to K. T. Turaki and Co.

As a lawyer, Turaki has practiced in virtually every court and tribunal in the country, including Magistrate Court, High Court, the Court of Appeal, Armed Robbery Tribunal, Miscellaneous Offences Tribunal, Election Petition Tribunals and even the Apex Court, the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He has been a retained external solicitor and legal adviser to many organizations throughout Nigeria.

Turaki was appointed a member of the Kano State Law Reporting Committee in 1999 and a member of the Committee for the review of legislation in Kano State. The following year, he served in the committee that reviewed the Northern States Penal Code Law in 1992.

When the Nigeria Bar Association was going through one of its trying moments, Turaki was one of those called upon to resolve its crisis in 1993.

Turaki was a member of the National Political Reform Conference in 2004, as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Team Nigerian Trust Fund, a body that was set up to galvanize private sector participation in the sports development and financing in Nigeria.

When the defunct Bank of the North was in murky waters, Turaki was on the intervention board that was set up by the regulatory agencies to restore the bank that was on the verge of collapse to profitability.

He was at various times a member of the Council of Legal Education, as well as member for the review of investment laws in Nigeria. He was also a member of the Ministerial Committee for the Implementation of Reforms in the Nigeria Police Force as well as the committees set up by the Body of Benchers to review the laws regulating legal practice in Nigeria. His contributions led to his appointment as a notary public by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, and his elevation of the prestigious rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2002.

Turaki is a member of many professional bodies, including:[5]

• Nigeria Bar Association
• African Bar Association
• Commonwealth Lawyers Association
• International Bar Association
• Lawyers in Defence of Human Rights
• Chartered Institute of Arbitrators

Turaki's political career began during his school years, when he was chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the Students’ Union of SCAS, Sokoto. At the University of Jos, he was a member of the Senate of the National Association of Nigerian Students and a member of the Students’ Representative Assembly of the University and President of the Federated Organisation of Sokoto State Students and President of Birnin Kebbi Youth Association.[6]

After graduating, Turaki continued participating in politics. He was secretary of the Youth Wing of the National Party of Nigeria in 1981. He joined United Nigeria Congress Party in 1996 where he stood as Kebbi State Gubernatorial aspirant for the party. In 1998, Turaki joined All Peoples’ Party where he was member of its National Executive Committee and in 2000 he was elevated to its Board of Trustees.

However, as the political arena in the country shifted, Turaki decamped to United Nigerian Peoples’ Party and contested for the seat of Kebbi State Governor in 2003. After the 2003 elections, he decamped to People's Democratic Party the same year and was the Party's Kebbi State gubernatorial aspirant in 2007. Following series of betrayals and numerous controversies, Turaki decided to join ACN in 2011. This, however, did not last as he later returned to People's Democratic Party the same year. In 2014/15, Turaki was appointed deputy director general (North) of the People's Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organization.[7]

In August 2013, the Nigerian government rejected gay marriage at the Federal Executive Council despite pressure from the international community to legalize it. Being the minister who gave an insight into how the federal government took the decision, a forum of individuals and organizations who support gay marriage channelled their grievance directly to Turaki. In a statement directly made by Turaki, he said:

“When we were at the Federal Executive Council and we were discussing the issue of gay marriage, we all said that it is very unnatural. How can we explain this to Nigerians? That a man will go and marry a man and a woman will go and marry a fellow woman. Then we also discussed the aspect of the psychological and mental trauma that the children of such union, whether adopted or not, will have to go through. For example when they go to school and they are asked; who are your parents? And they have to answer that their mummy and daddy are both men or are both female. This does not fit into a highly religious society like ours. There is nowhere in the world where God is worshipped like in Nigeria. Even traditional worshippers also take their religion very seriously, we pray a lot and that is why God has not forsaken Nigeria. We have been through situations that saw many counties went into pieces but whatever happens in Nigeria, like an elephant, Nigeria will only shake its body and move on”.[17]

These words did not go well with those individuals and groups who supported gay marriage. They attributed his words as being too religious denial of human rights.