Farouk Lawan

Farouk Lawan Biography / Profile

Farouk Muhammad Lawan was born on July 6th, 1962 in his hometown of Shanono in Kano State, Nigeria, He is a Nigerian businessman and politician popularly known for his time at the Federal House of Representatives from 1999 to 2015 and the 2012 subsidy scandal.

Farouk Lawan Age

Farouk Lawan is 61 years old.

Farouk Lawan Early Life

Farouk grew up in Kano where he attended primary, secondary and tertiary schools. He obatined a bachelor's degree from the Bayero University Kano.

Farouk Lawan Career

Lawan was a registrar of the Kano State Polytechnic before joining politics. He first came into the political scene in 1999 when he contested for a seat in the House to represent Bagwai/Shanono Federal Constituency of Kano State under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He served in the House for 16 years from 1999 to 2015 when suffered his first electoral defeat in the hands of Sule Aliyu Romo.

Lawan was made the chairman of the House Committee on Finance by the then speaker and now Katsina State governor, Aminu Bello Masari. He steered the affairs of the finance committee of the House diligently that he concluded his tenure then without controversy in 2007. In late 2007, when a financial scandal broke around Etteh, Lawan had already fallen apart with the former speaker, in a clear showcase of the political maxim: there’s no permanent friend in politics but permanent interest. He then led the Integrity Group, which was hellbent on ensuring that the first and only female speaker of the House was removed. She was compelled to resign in the end.

In 2012, Farouk was appointed chairman of the ad-hoc panel to probe the fuel subsidy payments to some oil marketers. Lawan’s panel’s report was made public in April, 2012, revealing a huge scam where Nigerian oil moguls were said to be receiving billions of naira for fuel subsidy even where they never supplied the commodity. It later emerged that Lawan allegedly collected about $500,000 from one of Nigeria’s oil magnets, Femi Otedola, the owner of Zenon Oil, which Lawan allegedly sought for ‘bribe’ to exonerate from any wrongdoing in the subsidy scam.

A summary of the committees he chaired while in the house include;

Party Care- Taker Chairman, SDP Shanono Local Govt. 1992 -1993
Chairman, Ethics and Privileges Committee, 1999 -2000
Chairman, Inter-Parliamentary Relations Committee, 2000 - 2002
Chairman, Information Committee, 2002 - 2003
Chairman Appropriations Committee, 2005-2007
Chairman, Finance Committee, 2003 - 2005
Chairman Education Committee, 2007- 2015
Chairman, Committee on Cooperation, Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security

He aslo served in the ECOWAS Parliament from 2003 to 2011. Following his departure from the House, Honourable Lawan is hardly seen in the public and not many Nigerians hear about him, except for the court case he attends intermittently. Although he appears to have gone underground since he left the House in 2015, Lawan is said to be trying seriously to bounce back and contest for the same seat come 2019.