[2] His educational career began in 1928 where all through till 1932 he attended evening classes, before proceeding to the Elementary Teachers Centre, Toro (now in Bauchi State) between 1933 and 1935.
[3] As soon as the program ended at Toro, Awan returned home to begin teaching at the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) Elementary School, Gworog (Kagoro) from 1936.
However, his ascendancy was seen as a threat to the Zaria Emirate aristocrats who envisaged a danger to their interest in the Atyap area and the neighborhood due to the continuous enlightenment through education; Christian missionary activities by the SIM and its members; and more threatening, the tendency of the new western-educated Christian chief aiding the Atyap against them.
In May 1946, there was a revolt by the Atyap in the Zangon Katab district, north of the independent Chiefdom of Gworog, who wanted their separation from the Zaria Emirate and the creation of an Atyap Chiefdom and Awan was blamed by the Emir of Zaria, as reported by the British colonial Resident, G. D. Pitcairn, for escalating the crisis.
[3] Gwamna Awan was the longest-serving traditional ruler in Northern and Middle Belt (central) and the entire Nigeria and in Africa as at the time of his demise in the early morning hours of Wednesday 1 October 2008, at the age of 93 at the ECWA Evangelical Hospital, Jos, after a protracted illness.