Politics
Dauda Lawal: Between Leadership Award and Zamfara Reality By Silas Ajogwu
*Dauda Lawal: Between Leadership Award and Zamfara Reality
By Silas Ajogwu
There are moments when public honours become mirrors that doesn’t reflect virtue but to magnify dissonance. Governor Dauda Lawal’s recent acclamation as “Governor of the Year” by Leadership newspapers should, in a sane political economy, invite sober celebration only if the facts on the ground corroborate the plaudits. But in Zamfara, where villages are sacked, whole communities flee in fear, educational system keep declining in the wake of violence, and mass abductions have become grim headlines, the award reads less like recognition than a rhetorical conjuring trick. The editorial board that printed the accolade owes Nigerians an apology for easily being misled: how did the red ink miss the echoes of wailings and the river of bloods that flow through Zamfara today?
Let us begin with the unassailable facts. Over the past months, and indeed years, Zamfara has been one of the epicentres of Nigeria’s northwestern security catastrophe. Evidently, reports from reputable international media and rights groups have documented catastrophic violence like brutal mass killings in mining towns, the abduction of scores of villagers in single operations, and the sacking of hundreds of communities that have produced waves of internally displaced persons. Amnesty International and Reuters, among others, have catalogued attacks that leave behind corpses, razed homes, and scarred families. These are not the figments of partisan reportage; they are verifiable tragedies with names, dates, and grieving families.
If an award is to have any moral weight, it must answer this simple ledger: have lives been preserved under your watch, or have they been squandered? Has the governor provided a credible roadmap toward safety, or has he delivered platitudes and photo-opportunities while bandits seize towns and terrorize children? The empirical answer, as chronicled by independent observers is damning. Recent attacks in Zamfara have included mass abductions. One reported incident alone saw over 100 people taken, and repeated massacres in villages where citizens were slaughtered as they laboured. An outbreak of cholera in Bukkuyum and the deaths recorded there are not incidental; they are symptomatic of collapsed access to health, water, and security which are the very public goods that should mark competent stewardship of a state. Unfortunately, the massive federal allocation are only seen in the frivolous spending and luxurious purchase made by the governor and his cabinets, but not reflective in the lives of Zamfarans.
And yet, on glossy pages and curated websites, a different narrative is being sold: that a governor whose tenure coincides with such human carnage deserves a laurel. This is not merely a question of taste; it is an ethical indictment of how awards are dispensed and of what our public culture has become. When honour is decoupled from measurable public welfare and instead telescoped into ceremony, we impoverish language itself. Words like “leadership” and “transformational” warp into euphemisms for impunity. If an editorial board is prepared to bless a record marred by abandoned communities, the public is entitled to ask whether the accolade Is commensurate with performance or contaminated by other influences. Indeed, social scepticism is not cynicism; it is a civic alarm that sounds when lived reality diverges dramatically from celebratory headlines.
It Is tempting and rhetorically effective to leap to causation: Yes! awards are being bought; editorial independence is for sale; governors are laundering reputations with chequebooks. But responsible criticism requires discipline. In the absence of a smoking gun that proves pay-for-play in this specific case, the argument must rest on demonstrable incongruity and pattern. Across Nigeria, there have been recurring controversies where awards and honours were criticized for being influenced by patronage, and commentators have warned that some prizes have become transactional. What we can say with confidence is this: where public life is ravaged by banditry and humanitarian collapse, the optics of bestowing “Governor of the Year” warrants interrogation, not because the act of awarding is per se illegitimate, but because the moral calculus of governance demands that survival and dignity must come before plaudits.
The human cost of misgovernance is not an abstraction. Mothers in Zamfara and cradle children who have lost fathers to kidnappers; entire marketplaces lie empty because people fear to travel; mothers with infants cannot reach clinics because roads are controlled by armed men on motorcycles. These daily indignities corrode social trust and exact stealthy, intergenerational harm. When an editorial desk fails to look these mothers in the face and instead crowns their governor, the message sent is corrosive: that rhetoric can substitute for remedy, and that spectacle can displace sorrow. The moral outrage that follows is neither theatrical nor petty; it is a legitimate expression of popular grief and righteous indignation of personal experience.
However, it is important to consider the broader data of how human-rights organizations and investigative outlets have documented thousands killed, villages burnt down, and how hundreds of thousands were displaced across Zamfara State. These can only be a result of structural failures; failures of intelligence, of community protection, of preventive policing, and of governance allocation. If a governor’s tenure coincides with such systemic collapse, editorial boards should, at minimum, scrutinize if the state apparatus has been deployed, how it has been deployed to protect citizens. Obviously, Dauda Lawal’s administration has not strengthened local security architecture, ensured functioning clinics and safe water points, and has not exercised fiscal courage to fund durable counter-insurgency measures.
When the governor and his apologists insist on celebrating awards, they must be asked to explain, with documents and demonstrable outcomes, why the lives of their citizens were not the primary metric considered. What specific policies, funded projects, or security innovations justify a Governor of the Year title? Are there transparent records showing reductions in incidents, successful rescue operations, improved infrastructure, rehabilitated health centres, or secure corridors that allow commerce to resume? Or is the award a prophylactic meant to sanitize a political brand while the rot continues underneath? The difference between governance and marketing is precisely this: the former is accountable to the ledger of life; the latter is answerable only to visibility.
We must also confront the rhetorical posture that seeks to delegitimise popular critique by branding it as mere “political attacks.” When mothers cries for their missing children, when communities cannot till fields for fear of ambush, when clinics close because health workers cannot commute, the critiques that arise are not partisan truculence; they are the anguished responses of citizens demanding protection. To dismiss these legitimate cries as envy or opposition theatre is to perpetrate a moral inversion: those who ask for security are branded as troublemakers while those who preside over their vulnerability are lauded. If the editorial pages are to retain moral authority, they must resist becoming instruments for image laundering.
What, then, should be the civic response? First, Newspapers must demand transparency before publication. Newspapers that confer high honours must publish their criteria, and the evidentiary basis for their choices. If “Governor of the Year” is to mean anything beyond a headline, it must be backed by transparent metrics: measurable improvements in healthcare access, documented reductions in violence, convincingly audited security spending, and demonstrable community rehabilitation. Second, insist on investigative curiosity: it is important for civil society and independent media to probe the governance ledger, which are budgets, procurement processes, and security strategies. Third, let the people of Zamfara judge for themselves: community hearings, testimony from survivors, and on-the-ground reportage should be the sources that shape public memory, not paid-for adverts or celebratory galas.
Finally, there is a moral plea. Awards are supposed to confer encouragement on those who have alleviated suffering, not camouflage those who have presided over it. If Governors wish to be celebrated, let them first clear a simple threshold: make their states safer, make clinics work, make schools open, restore markets, and stop the nightly toll of abductions and killings. Let them invite independent monitors to verify progress. Let their citizens sleep without fear. Only then will a “Governor of the Year” title be more than a headline: it will be a justly earned tribute.
To the editorial board that printed the accolade, and to every Nigerian watching: do not let ceremony smother scrutiny. To the shameless governor who accepted it: Honor must be tethered to the dignity of life. In Zamfara today, that dignity is endangered; mothers weep while trumpets sound. If honour is to mean anything at all, let it begin by answering the children’s cries and the empty chairs at family tables. Let the paychecks of Civil servants bring smiles to their faces. Until then, a paper’s gold foil Is a poor balm for the blood and the silence.
Ajogwu is a security expert writing from Kaduna.
TINUBU RENEWS TENURE OF THREE PERMANENT SECRETARIES
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the renewal of tenure for three Permanent Secretaries in the Federal Civil Service, in line with existing public service regulations.
The approval was disclosed in a statement issued by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, indicating that the renewed appointments will take effect from April 27, 2026.
The affected officials include Kachallom Shangti Daju, Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare; Beatrice Jedy‑Agba, Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Justice; and Mary Ada Ogbe, Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Regional Development.
According to the statement, the renewal represents a second and final four-year tenure for the officials, in accordance with the provisions of Public Service Rule 020909, which allows Permanent Secretaries an initial four-year term with the possibility of a second term based on satisfactory performance.
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Esther Walson‑Jack, congratulated the Permanent Secretaries on their reappointment and urged them to see the renewed mandate as a call to greater dedication and excellence in service delivery.
She further encouraged them to deploy their experience and professional expertise toward strengthening governance and advancing national development.
The statement was signed by Eno Olotu, Director of Press and Public Relations in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, and dated March 6, 2026.
Politics
Governor Dauda Lawal’s Prompt Action Against Insecurity in Zamfara State Yielding Positive Result’ – GDL Media Force Fires Back at Critics
‘Governor Dauda Lawal’s Prompt Action Against Insecurity in Zamfara State Yielding Positive Result’ – GDL Media Force Fires Back at Critics
The attention of GDL Media Force and other well-meaning supporters of the Dauda Lawal-led administration has been drawn to a recent statement syndicated on social media by influencers from a group calling itself the Zamfara Good Governance Forum, which ludicrously attempted to portray the Governor’s security efforts as a “total failure.” This characterisation is not only divorced from reality. Still, it represents a desperate attempt by political opponents to rewrite history and undermine a Governor whose growing influence and performance clearly terrify them. It should be on record that in the whole of the North West region, Governor Dauda Lawal has tackled insecurity head-on with verifiable evidence that even those in the opposition have commended him for his huge investment in equipment that will further give security and armed forces an edge over those fueling insecurity in the country.
Since his assumption as Governor of Zamfara State, Dr Lawal has vowed that as the Chief Security Officer of the state, as well as the chief rescuer, an unprecedented commitment to tackling the security challenges that have plagued Zamfara for over a decade is his top priority and he is engaging it with much gusto. Unlike previous administrations, that engaged in shadowy deals with non-state actors, this Governor has chosen the path of transparency, capacity building, and decisive action. He was one of the Governors who openly declared that His administration would not negotiate with bandit rather his administration with fight them to a standstill and ensure they are cleared out.
In a bid to address the issues of insecurity with a well-planned arrival plan, he procured heavy Security Assets that even the Federal Government commended, him for. The recently procured and unveiled 25 units of Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and an 80-meter endurance surveillance drone capable of covering 50 kilometres and operating continuously for eight hours. This represents the single largest state-government investment in security hardware in the history of Zamfara State.
The Defence Minister, during the inauguration ceremony, praised what he described as a clear demonstration of the Governor’s commitment to protecting lives and property, making the striking projection that “if we continue like this in the second term, Zamfara will look like Dubai”. This is not praise from a partisan source it is professional acknowledgement from the highest level of Nigeria’s defence establishment that Governor Lawal is doing something right.
Beyond heavy military hardware, the Governor has operationalised the Community Protection Guards in accordance with the law, providing them with 60 brand-new, well-equipped Hilux operational vehicles and specialised motorcycles to ensure swift response and effective first-responder services in difficult terrains. This is complemented by the distribution of 150 Hilux vehicles to mainstream security agencies including the Nigeria Police, DSS, and NSCDC, plus 20 Toyota Buffalo vehicles (both armoured and soft-body).
Perhaps most significantly, Governor Lawal established the Zamfara State Security Trust Fund, which provides a predictable, structured framework for logistical support to security forces. This moves the state away from the era of fragmented, reactive responses to a professional, sustainable security architecture.
When recent attacks occurred including the unfortunate February 19 incident in Anka LGA, Governor Lawal did not go into hiding or issue condolence statements from his office in Gusau. He immediately convened and personally presided over an emergency security meeting with all heads of security agencies at the Government House in Gusau, tasking them to urgently review the current security framework and implement coordinated countermeasures.
The Governor charged security chiefs to maintain “heightened vigilance, strengthened intelligence, and immediate, coordinated countermeasures” to ensure that criminal elements do not gain further ground. He also commiserated with affected communities and assured them of his administration’s full support both logistical and institutional. This is not the behaviour of a detached leader. This is the conduct of a Governor who understands that his primary constitutional responsibility is the protection of lives and property.
The public needs to understand the pedigree of those behind these allegations. The so-called “Zamfara Good Governance Forum” has a well-documented history of partisan attacks against Governor Lawal. A simple review of their previous statements reveals a pattern they have consistently attacked the Governor while remaining conspicuously silent during the administrations that presided over the worst years of banditry in the state. Interestingly, these attacks often coincide with political manoeuvres by the immediate past governor, Bello Matawalle, now Minister of State for Defence. The Zamfara State Government has previously accused Matawalle of using federal security apparatus to intimidate opposition figures in the state. The current criticism fits a familiar pattern, when you cannot defeat a Governor politically or at the ballot box, you attempt to undermine him through sponsored propaganda spreading sheer falsehood to ensure the public turns their back on a performing Governor who is rebuilding the rot the Matawale-led administration caused.
These same critics who now demand a “security roadmap” conveniently ignore that Governor Lawal inherited a state that was virtually a failed entity where farmers could not access their lands, where markets were paralysed, and where government had lost all credibility through failed negotiations and ransom payments to bandits.
Critics also conveniently ignore a fundamental reality Governor Lawal is the only opposition governor in the entire North-West geopolitical zone. Since taking office in 2023, his administration has received no federal intervention funds beyond statutory allocations no special palliatives, and no enhanced security support that flows to states with ruling-party governors. Yet despite this political isolation, he has managed to fund security without resorting to new borrowing, while monthly servicing N1.2 billion in inherited debts from the Bello Matawalle-led administration. This is governance under siege fiscally constrained, politically isolated, yet still delivering.
Governor Dauda Lawal has never claimed that the battle against banditry is easy or that success will come overnight. What he has demonstrated is sincerity of purpose, strategic vision, and relentless commitment. From the Security Trust Fund to community protection guards, from armoured personnel carriers to surveillance drones, these are not the actions of a leader who has failed. The growing influence of Governor Lawal across the North-West clearly frightens those who benefited from the old order of insecurity. When banditry thrives, politicians who negotiate with criminals remain relevant. But when peace is restored through genuine security architecture, such elements become obsolete.
Zamfara State is on the path to lasting peace. The detractors may continue their campaign of falsehood, but the facts on the ground speak louder than their sponsored propaganda. Governor Dauda Lawal remains focused, undeterred, and absolutely committed to restoring full normalcy to every inch of Zamfara State. The people of Zamfara see the progress. The Federal Government acknowledges the investment. And history will remember who truly fought for the state’s liberation.
Signed: GDL Media Force Support Group
March 4, 2026
Abuja, Nigeria
Politics
DANFULANI, A PARTY STALWART, MAKES CASE FOR APC PUBLICITY SECRETARY ROLE, PROMISES DIGITAL REVOLUTION, URGES DELEGATES SUPPORT
DANFULANI, A PARTY STALWART, MAKES CASE FOR APC PUBLICITY SECRETARY ROLE, PROMISES DIGITAL REVOLUTION, URGES DELEGATES SUPPORT
In a move set to reshape the communication dynamics of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna State, a prominent party stalwart has formally declared his intention to contest the position of State Publicity Secretary.
The aspirant, Ibrahim Dahiru Danfulani, brings a deep history of party service to his candidacy. Born in Mando, Afaka ward, Igabi Local Government of Kaduna State, Danfulani was SA Northern media strategies to the APC Publicity Secretary Mr Lai Mohammed, he is also the founder of the APC at Your Door Campaigns Forum. He previously served as the North-west Secretary for the GMB support group, which campaigned extensively for the late President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. Danfulani was also a founding member of the Tinubu Support Organization and is the Convener of the General Christopher Gwabin Musa Support Initiative. His practical electoral experience includes serving as the Returning Officer for the APC in Afaka ward, Igabi Local Government, during the 2023 Presidential and Gubernatorial elections.
Now holding the traditional title of Sadaukin Garkuwan Keffi/Betara Biu, Danfulani has called upon party leaders, delegates, and critical stakeholders to rally behind his candidacy in the upcoming state congress scheduled for March 3, 2026.
This appeal was contained in a personally signed statement released to the press on Tuesday, wherein Danfulani outlined his vision for a more robust, strategic, and modern party publicity machinery.
Citing his formidable and unparalleled experience spanning over a decade at the intersection of journalism and practical politics, Danfulani positioned himself as the ideal candidate to articulate and defend the party’s programmes, policies, and achievements. He argued that this unique blend of skills is precisely what the APC needs to enhance its narrative, engage a broader electorate, and consolidate its gains in the state.
“My extensive background in media practice and deep-rooted involvement in political mobilisation have equipped me with the requisite insight to drive an effective communication strategy for our great party,” the statement read in part. “I understand both the power of the pen and the pulse of the people.”
In a pledge that signals a forward-looking approach, the aspirant promised to revolutionise the party’s media engagement by introducing several innovative digital media strategies if elected. This proposed digital overhaul aims to leverage social media platforms, data analytics, and targeted content creation to connect with younger demographics, counter misinformation swiftly, and project the APC’s activities with greater clarity and impact.
Political observers note that Danfulani’s entry into the race brings a significant weight of credibility and strategic acumen, bolstered by his extensive grassroots and national campaign experience. His background underscores deep community ties and respect within traditional circles, a factor considered invaluable for trust-building.
The statement concluded with a confident appeal: “I humbly seek your mandate. With your support, I am committed to serving as a dynamic, proactive, and articulate voice for the APC in Kaduna State, ensuring our story is told accurately, persuasively, and consistently across all media frontiers.”
As the congress date approaches, Danfulani’s candidacy—built on a proven track record of party service and a promise of digital innovation—is poised to be a major point of discussion among party faithful seeking a communicative edge for the elections ahead.
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