Abdullahi Ganduje was born on December 25, 1949 to the royal family of Alhaji Umar Shi’aibu. He attended Dawaki Tofa Primary School from 1956 to 1963. In 1984, He proceeded to Government Secondary School Birnin Kudu for his Secondary School education. He also attended the Advance Teachers' College Kano where he obtained his Nigerian Certificate of Education (NCE) in 1972. In the same year he proceeded to Ahmadu Bello University Zaria for a Bachelor degree in Science Education. He went further to pursue a Masters degree in Applied Educational Psychology from Bayero University Kano in 1979 and another Masters in Public Administration at the Institute of Administration, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria from 1984 to 1985. In 1989, he proceeded to the University of Ibadan for a PhD in Public Administration. He began his career as a teacher in 1975 at Oleh College in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria during his one year mandatory National Service Corp (NYSC) Programme. After the one-year programme, he was employed by the Kano State Ministry of Education as Education Officer II in 1976 but left later that same year for the Advance Teachers' College, Kano to take up a position as Lecturer I1 in Educational Psychology. In 2011, was elected as Deputy Governor of Kano State. He contested for in the gubernatorial election in May 2015 under the membership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and emerged victorious