 After finishing his studies, he returned to Nigeria and joined the colonial service as a junior medical officer in 1940.He gradually rose through the ranks of the civil service, becoming a senior medical officer in 1953 and a principal medical officer in the endemic disease division of the Northern Nigeria Ministry of Health in 1960.During the regime of Gen Yakubu Gowon, he was appointed as the Federal Commissioner for Mines and Power in 1967 and Federal Commissioner for Transport in 1971.