Sani Magaji Tambawal: The journey to top job at NASS

By Haruna Salami

Sani Magaji Tambawal, the new Clerk to the National Assembly (CAN) began his journey to the topmost job at Nigeria’s National Assembly when he transferred his service to National Assembly as a Budget Officer II from the Sokoto State House of Assembly in 1992.

He rose through the ranks to attain the position of Director Budget in 2017. Based on his track records, he was elevated to the position of Secretary (Permanent Secretary) Finance and Accounts in 2020.

Tambawal attended several local and international training programmes, seminars, workshops and conferences on administration, legislative strategic planning and management, leadership, budget and financial management.

Some of the institutions he attended included the Prestigious Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA (2006, 2009 and 2011), International Law Institute, Washington DC, USA (2012), INSEAD The Business School for the World, Fontainebleau, France (2014), Crown Agents, Sutton, London, UK (2016), RIPA International London, UK (2014), Public Administration International, London, UK (2022) and the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, Nigeria (2005) and Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), Lagos.

Tambawal is an astute administrator, meticulous budget and financial controller. He has served in various committees that have succeeded in improving National Assembly financial management and resolved challenges which hitherto bedeviled the National Assembly. He is a Fellow Certified National Accountant (FCNA), ANAN, Member, Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) and Fellow, Institute of Chartered Economists of Nigeria.

Some of his Research and Publications included: Budget Preparation and Implementation: An Assessment of the Problems Associated with Budgeting in National Assembly (PGD, Management), Research Project (1995) and Budgeting and the Legislature: A Case Study of Nigerian National Assembly, Masters in Business Administration (MBA, Dissertation 2001).

Sani Magaji Tambawal was born on the 2nd February, 1965. He had his early education at Tambawal in 1978 before moving to Birnin-Kebbi in 1983 and promptly got admission into the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto where he obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics, (1989), Postgraduate Diploma in Management (1996) and a Masters Degree in Business Administration (2001) from the same Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.
He began his career in Sokoto State Civil Service in 1990 as Statistician 1 in the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Economic Department and later Sokoto State House of Assembly as a Planning Officer I in 1992 before moving to the National Assembly.

His Hobbies are Reading and Table Tennis. He is happily married with children.