He served as Legal Adviser and Senior State Counsel in the defunct Northern Region of Nigeria.

He entered private practice in 1973 as Managing Partner of Abdullahi Ibrahim and company.

Ibrahim was Legal Adviser and later Chairman of New Nigeria Development Company Limited, (NNDC).

[1] Ibrahim held cabinet positions as Federal Minister of Education, Science and Technology.

[3] He was a Commissioner of the International - National Boundary Commission, and was a member of the Nigerian team that negotiated the Maritime Boundary Treaty between Nigeria and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea and the Unitization Agreement of the Zafiro/Ekanga Oil Fields.