Governor Dauda Lawal has never hidden the fact that he came into Zamfara with a rescue mission. Today, that mission is visible in new hospitals fitted with modern equipment, schools brought back to life, and civil servants who can finally depend on their salaries. A former banker with a taste for discipline, he has turned governance into a matter of delivery rather than promises. On September 2, he marked his 60th birthday, not as a man slowing down, but as a governor intent on proving that Zamfara’s story can be rewritten. Konye Chelsea Nwabogor reports
When Dauda Lawal talks about Zamfara, he doesn’t sound like a man overwhelmed by crisis; he sounds like someone who has chosen his battlefield. Banditry, poverty, broken institutions! They were the inheritance no one envied when he became governor in 2023. Yet, two years on, Zamfara’s narrative is beginning to shift. Roads are reopening, hospitals are being fitted with CT scan and MRI machines, and civil servants are earning a living wage. And all of this, he insists, without borrowing a kobo. It is a bold claim in a country addicted to debt, but also classic Lawal: part banker’s discipline, part reformer’s stubbornness. The former First Bank executive who once managed billion-naira portfolios has imported that same fiscal prudence into government, insisting that every project launched in Zamfara is fully funded before the first block is laid. “Let me make it categorically clear, I, Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, have not borrowed a single kobo from any financial institution since assuming office, and I remain financially okay. He says in a recent media parley. There’s nothing wrong with borrowing if you have projects to show for it. But I am against borrowing just to steal.”
A Son of Zamfara
Dauda Lawal Dare was born on September 2, 1965, in Gusau, Zamfara State. His story is rooted not in privilege, but in grit and hard-earned progress. Education became his passport to a wider world: first at Ahmadu Bello University, where he studied political science, then a Master’s in International Relations, and later a PhD in Business Administration from Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. He didn’t stop there. Short courses at Harvard Business School, Oxford University Business School, and the London School of Economics gave him the polish and exposure that shaped his outlook.
That mix of local grounding and international perspective would later serve him well. First in the diplomatic service, then in banking, and eventually in politics. For Lawal, education was never just about degrees; it was about equipping himself to solve problems bigger than himself.
Banker’s Discipline, Politician’s Resolve
Before politics, Lawal’s career unfolded in measured steps. He served in Nigeria’s Embassy in Washington, D.C., first as an assistant consular officer and later as chief protocol officer. But it was banking that defined him. Joining First Bank of Nigeria in 2003, he rose through the ranks to become executive director, public sector (North). Handling high-value portfolios, he became known for discipline, negotiation skills, and a refusal to cut corners.
That discipline translated into politics when he decided to run for governor. In 2018, his first attempt ended in defeat at the APC primaries, where he lost to Idris Shehu Mukhtar. For many, that might have been the end of the story. For Lawal, it was only the beginning. He regrouped, switched parties, and in 2023 ran on the PDP platform. Against the combined weight of APC heavyweights — including then-incumbent Bello Matawalle and former governor Abdulaziz Yari — Lawal won. He often describes the victory as nothing short of divine. “In 2023, weren’t all the big names in APC still there? Yet here I am. That’s the will of God.”
That mix of grit and faith remains central to how he governs.
The Rescue Mission
From the moment he assumed office, Lawal framed his tenure as a “rescue mission.” It was not rhetoric. What he found shocked him: hospitals where “no human person would allow even an animal to be treated,” he says, schools in ruins, civil servants earning ₦7,000 a month, debts to exam bodies so high that Zamfara’s children could not sit WAEC or NECO.
In December 2023, after touring healthcare facilities across the state, he declared a state of emergency in health. That decision set off a chain of projects. The Yariman Bakura Specialist Hospital was rebuilt entirely, equipped with new CT scan and MRI machines — some of the best in the country. Primary health centres were upgraded into general hospitals. Entirely new hospitals were launched in Maradun, Maru, and Kaura Namoda. Nursing schools in Tsafe and Birnin Magaji were modernised with lecture theatres, hostels, and laboratories, training a new generation of health professionals.
Education received equal attention. Lawal cleared ₦3.4 billion in WAEC/NECO debts, rehabilitated hundreds of schools, and recruited thousands of teachers. Through the World Bank-supported AGILE programme, Zamfara now has mega schools rising across its senatorial districts, with a particular focus on girl-child education.
The civil service, long demoralised, was revived. Salaries were cleared and raised to the new ₦70,000 minimum wage. Workers received a 13th-month salary bonus in December, a symbolic gesture that carried enormous weight in a state where arrears were once the norm.
Urban renewal became another focus. Gusau, the state capital, got its first traffic lights and improved road networks. A four-star hotel and an international airport are under construction, projects designed not just for prestige but to make Zamfara look and feel like part of the 21st century. “We are changing the narrative,” Lawal insists, “and showing our people that Zamfara can be different.”
Security: The Unfinished Battle
Still, in Zamfara, every story eventually returns to the issue of security. For more than a decade, the state has been a hotbed for banditry, kidnappings, and cattle rustling. Farmers abandoned fields, roads became death traps, and whole villages emptied into IDP camps.
Lawal’s response has been a bold experiment in local defence: the Community Protection Guards (CPG). Over 3,000 men, recruited from every local government, profiled by the DSS and trained by the military, now patrol communities in partnership with conventional forces. They have received uniforms, vehicles, arms, and steady funding. “These are our people,” he says. “They understand the terrain. They serve as the first line of defence.”
The results are visible. Travelling from Zaria to Gusau today tells a different story. Farmers are back on their land, roads are busier, and there are fewer reports of kidnappings. But the picture is not yet complete. Bandit attacks still occur, sometimes with devastating consequences. Critics argue that Lawal should focus more on security than infrastructure. His answer is consistent: “We must invest in development if we want lasting security.” In his view, schools, hospitals, and jobs are as important as soldiers in ending the cycle of violence.
He has also rejected the popular tactic of negotiating with bandits, insisting it only postpones conflict. “I have always said, any peace initiative must be holistic. If you negotiate in Katsina while I’m cracking down in Zamfara, they will just cross over, he argues, calling for a unified northern security strategy. So we need a unified approach. That’s what I keep telling my colleagues. We must agree on the same strategy and stick to it.”
Politics and Perception
Lawal governs in a state where politics is notoriously unforgiving. His predecessors, Bello Matawalle, now Minister of State for Defence, and Senator Abdulaziz Yari, still a formidable figure, continue to cast long shadows. Yet Lawal is quick to assert his place. “As for whether I’m the governor of Matawalle and Yari — yes, I am. I’m the governor of every Zamfara citizen. Our policies are for everyone, not just PDP members.”
That confidence has begun to carry weight within the PDP itself. Last month, he hosted fellow PDP governors in Gusau for a strategic meeting, drawing the party’s centre of gravity to Zamfara, and also positioning him as one of its rising power brokers.
Turning 60: Legacy and Second Term
On September 2, Dauda Lawal celebrated his birthday, stepping into what may be the most decisive chapter of his career. For him, age is less a marker of time than a reminder of legacy and the work still ahead. The next two years will test whether his “rescue mission” can evolve into a sustainable transformation. More hospitals and schools are in the pipeline, IDP resettlement centres are under construction, and efforts are underway to formalise mining, particularly Zamfara’s much-talked-about lithium deposits.
But beyond projects lies politics. 2027 is not far, and Lawal knows it. Publicly, he downplays ambition. “I’m not desperate,” he says. “If God says I will win again in 2027, no one can stop it.” But every governor knows that a second term is the real canvas for legacy. For Lawal, the question is whether his mix of fiscal prudence, development drive, and hardline stance on insecurity will be enough to secure another mandate in one of Nigeria’s most unpredictable states.
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