A former military administrator of Plateau state, and later Senator representing Adamawa North, Colonel Muhammad Mana [retd] is dead.
He was aged 74.
He reportedly died on Friday evening in Abuja, two days after his discharge from an Abuja hospital.
A report by Daily Trust newspaper quoted a family member of the deceased, and Sarkin Fulani of Mubi, Abdurrahman B Kwaccham, to have confirmed the development on Friday night.
Mana hailed from Maiha LGA in Adamawa State.
He was the military administrator of Plateau State between December 1993 and August 1996, during the late head of state Gen Sani Abacha regime.
He later became commander of the presidential guard brigade during the administration of former head of state Abdussalami Abubakar, before joining partisan politics and getting elected as Senator of Adamawa North in 2007.
Kwaccham stated that his late brother left behind children and wives.
Mana’s funeral prayer held at 2pm on Saturday, at the Abuja National Mosque.
■ Profile
Mohammed Mana (born 7 October 1950 and died on Friday, 22nd August 2025) was military Administrator of Plateau State between December 1993 and August 1996 during the military regime of General Sani Abacha.
He was elected Senator for Adamawa North in 2007 on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) platform.[2]
Background
He attended the Government College, Keffi. He obtained a diploma in Petroleum Technology from the US Army Quartermaster School in 1976. In 1987, he obtained a diploma in Public Administration from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
● Military career
As Governor of Plateau State, in 1994, Lt. Col. Mohammed Mana set up a commission to look into the inter-ethnic conflict in Jos.
The problems were due to friction between the Berom, Anaguta, and Afizere tribes on the one hand, and the Hausa-Fulani tribes on the other hand.
Riots had been triggered by Mana’s appointment of a Hausa man as “caretaker Committee chairman” of Jos.
Mana retired from the military in June 1999 when President Olusegun Obasanjo decreed that all former military administrators must retire.
● Civilian career
After becoming Senator in May 2007, Mana was appointed to committees on Selection, Power, Integration, and Cooperation.
He was also appointed deputy chief whip of the Senate. He sponsored an Amendment Bill on Border Areas Development Commission, 2009 and a Bill for an Act on Tobacco Control, 2009.[
Talking in March 2009 on the Electoral Reform report of the committee headed by Justice Mohammed Uwais, he recommended that the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission be appointed by the executive, but subject to judicial review.
After the February 2010 coup in Niger, the senate President David Mark asked Mohammed Mana and Senator John Shagaya of Plateau State to use their close ties with the new military leaders of Niger to urge them to embrace democracy.
In March 2010, Mana was appointed to a 20-man committee to find ways to permanently solve the Jos crisis, where there had been endemic violence between Muslims and Christians.
In the run-up to the 9 April 2011 national elections, Mana was a contender in the PDP primaries to again be Senatorial candidate for Adamawa North. However, he lost the nomination.
Mana filed an appeal against the selection of Umar Bindo Jibrilla as the candidate for Adamawa North. On 29 March 2011 a Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed the appeal as lacking in merit. Mana appealed this ruling.
] An early report of the Adamawa North Senatorial election results said that Bindo Jibrilla (PDP) defeated former governor Boni Haruna of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), polling 75,112 votes to Haruna’s 70,890 votes.
The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) candidate, Abba Mohammed, scored 22,866.
This result was also reported by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as of 16 April.
However, by 23 April, the Nigeria Elections Coalition was reporting that Mana was the winning PDP candidate.
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