Aloma Mariam Mukhtar was born in Lagos on November 20, 1944. She attended Gibson & Welder Law School and graduated in 1966 before being called to the English Bar in the same year. She was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1967. She joined the Northern Nigerian Ministry of Justice as a Pupil State Counsel and Magistrate becoming the first female magistrate in the North Eastern Government from 1969-1973. In 1973, she moved to Kano State to be the Chief Registrar of the State Judiciary, and five years, she was appointed a judge of the High Court of Kano State. Justice Mukhtar was nominated as the Justice for the Court of Appeals of Nigeria in 1987. She served in this position for 17 years, 12 years of which she was as President. In June 2005, she was promoted to Supreme Court of Nigeria from the Court of Appeals. From there, in 2012, Honorable Justice Mukhtar was elevated to the Chief Justice position of Nigeria until 2014 when she reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. Additionally, she served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of The Gambia from 2011-2012, in an interim position. Throughout her career, Honorable Justice Mukhtar was the first woman to be the attorney for Northern Nigeria, the first female Chief Registrar of Kano State Judiciary, the first female judge for the High Court in Kano State, and the first female jurist to be appointed to both the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Nigeria. She then became the first female Chief Justice for Nigeria. After leaving the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the Honorable Justice joined the National Council of State, the highest advisory body in Nigeria, as the first female permanent member.