Dauda attended Fourah Bay College for undergraduate studies and earned a degree with honors in history from 1964 to 1967.

He then served as Second Vice-President, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice from November 1991 to April 1992, at which point the government was overthrown in a military coup led by Valentine Strasser.

[1][2] Dauda sought the leadership of the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) at its national convention in Makeni on September 3–4, 2005.

[3] Shortly afterward, on September 6, he was replaced as Finance Minister by John Oponjo Benjamin.

[4] Dauda died at a medical center in Accra, Ghana from an undisclosed long illness on the morning of 1 June 2017 at the age of 74.