Hon. Justice Fati Lami Abubakar (née Sambo, born 24 March 1952 at Minna) was — and remains — the only Nigerian First Lady to enter Aso Rock as a serving judge. Educated at Queen's College Yaba and the University of Lagos Faculty of Law (LL.B. 1977, called to the Nigerian Bar 1978), she was appointed to the FCT High Court bench in 1991 and was sitting there in June 1998 when her husband General Abdulsalami Abubakar was sworn in as Head of State following the death of Sani Abacha. She took leave of absence rather than resigning.
Her First Ladyship lasted 354 days (9 June 1998 – 29 May 1999) — the shortest in the post-1979 record. She declined to assume the BLP/FSP infrastructure inherited from Maryam Abacha; the Aso Rock Office of the First Lady was substantially downsized, FSP funds were redirected to mainstream MDAs, and the dedicated First Lady aircraft was reabsorbed into the Presidential Air Fleet. She made no claim to a separate budget line and gave no formal public address as First Lady. The Justice Abubakar approach — minimal, technocratic, conscious of the role's lack of constitutional footing — has not been replicated by any successor.
After 29 May 1999 she returned to the FCT High Court bench (1999–2008), retired at the mandatory age in 2008, and was appointed Chair of the Niger State Council for Arts and Culture (2008–11). She founded and chairs the Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation in Minna, which runs the Minna Maternal Health Initiative and runs scholarships for indigent law students. She lives at the Abubakar family compound at Minna; her husband remains active in the Africa-wide National Peace Committee work that grew out of the 2015 Buhari–Jonathan transition.