Born in in 1944 in Hidd, a small village on Muharraq Island, Bahrain’s historic hotbed of pan-Arabism, Al Nuaimi graduated from the American University in Beirut in 1966 with a degree in mechanical engineering.
He became politically active in 1961 when he joined the pan-Arab Movement that year before becoming member of the Popular Front. In 1974, he was the secretary general of the movement.
Al Nuaimi left Bahrain in 1968 and was exiled for 33 years. He returned home in 2001 when King Hamad launched a series of political reforms that allowed all exiles to return to Bahrain.
He worked on establishing a political society that would be an umbrella for liberals and nationalists in Bahrain and founded the National Democratic Action Society "Waad". He was elected its secretary general in October 2001.
He ran for parliamentary elections in 2006, but narrowly lost in the second round.
Al Nuaimi, known as Abu Amal after his eldest daughter, lapsed into coma in April 2007 while he was in Morocco to attend a political conference.
He reportedly had an acute pancreatic failure that necessitated his admission to a local hospital where he was put on life support. He was moved to Saudi Arabia in April and to Bahrain in January 2008.
Throughout his life, he took part in several regional, Arab and international conferences and authored several books and articles on local and Arab issues.
