From 2006 to 2007, Professor Yakubu was the Task Team Leader responsible for tertiary education at the Federal Ministry of Education and a member of Presidential Technical Committee for the consolidation of Federal tertiary institutions. In 2007, he was appointed as the Executive Secretary of the Education Trust Fund (ETF), which later became the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund). In this position, he served as a member of the Federal Government team on the Renegotiation of the Federal Government Agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) under the Chairmanship of Deacon Gamaliel Onosode. He was also member of the Presidential Task Team on Education, the Committee on Presidential Scholarship for Innovation and Development (PRESID), Implementation Committee on the Presidential Fund for the Revitalization of Nigerian Public Universities, the Ministerial Implementation Committee on the establishment of nine new Federal Universities, the Almajiri Education System and Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Needs Assessment of Nigerian Public Universities.