ADC North West Gov’ship Candidates Sign Compact For Zonal Security, Development *Back Atiku’s Fuel Subsidy Reversal Proposal 

Governorship candidates of the African Democratic Convention (ADC) in the seven North Western states, have signed Compact 2027–2031 as a regional covenant for security, development and shared prosperity if elected in next year’s gubernatorial election.

The guber candidates signed the Compact organised by the North West Governorship Strategy Group at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja on Wednesday as the 2027 governorship campaigns kicked-off.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) timetable and schedule of activities for next year’s polls, Governorship and State Houses of Assembly campaigns commenced Wednesday, September 9, 2026.

The governorship candidates include: Kebbi – Abubakar Malami, SAN; Sokoto -Manir Mohammad Daniya; Jigawa – Sabo Mohammed Nakudu; Zamfara – Shinkafi Bilyaminu Yusuf; Kastina State – Senator Ahmad Babba Kaita represented by deputy, Aminu Yar’adua Ahmed; Kaduna -Isa Mohammed Ashru represented by deputy, Kantiok Irmiya Ishaku an Kano -Ibrahim Ali Amin  represented by Deputy Sabo Mohammed Nakudu.

Speaking on behalf of the governorship candidates, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice who is the ADC flag-bearer for Kebbi state, Abubakar Malami lamented that the region is crisis ridden with over 16,000 lives lost on account of insecurity between June 2023 and August 2026.

He also stated that more than 1,583 kidnapping incidents since January 2023 have taken over 10,000 of our people from their homes and farms while tens of thousands of households had been displaced, and more than 533,000 hectares of farmland in Zamfara and Katsina alone now lie abandoned.

Malami said the zone also accounted for 45 percent of Nigeria’s out-of-school children as insecurity had emptied farms which brought hunger, driven children out of the classroom, and denied them the education the region requires to dry up the recruitment pool for future banditry, kidnappings and all associated crimes.

He expressed commitment of the governorship candidates to reorient governance to respond effectively and efficiently to break that vicious cycle of crisis and restore peace, security and normalcy to the region.

The Attorney General said states and local government areas in North West had received over N8.33 trillion in federal allocations between June 2023 and August 2026, and yet these revenues have not translated into accessible transport, affordable food and healthcare, functioning schools, and improved living conditions for our people.

He said if elected, the North ADC governorship candidates if elected would individually and collectively take deliberate measures to reverse the reality and ensure that public resources deliver measurable improvements in the lives of our citizens.

“This is why we commit to reform with responsibility, relief with accountability, and growth our citizens can feel.The level of looting witnessed across the Northwest under the current administrations is massive and unprecedented in the region.

“We hold that the APC-led administrations in this region have little or nothing to show for their stewardship, neither in the lives of our people, physical infrastructure nor the security of lives and property. Rather than progress, our people are more impoverished today than at any time in history,”Malami stated.

He declared the total support of the ADC governorship candidates of the seven Northwest states for the proposal by the party’s presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar to restore fuel subsidy as one of the immediate steps to halt the further slide of their people into abject poverty.

“The removal of fuel subsidy by the APC-led Federal Government has pushed the masses of our zone into abject poverty. Households that had hitherto lived on the fringe of hardship now live in abject penury, and the supposed gains claimed for the removal of subsidy have brought no positive impact to their daily lives.

“We, the ADC Governorship Candidates of the seven Northwest States, hereby declare our total support for the promise made by the ADC Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to restore the subsidy as one of the immediate steps to halt the further slide of our people into abject poverty,”Malami stated.

The former Minister of Justice announced plans by the ADC governorship candidates to implement a minimum wage of N110,000 for workers across all seven states of the North West when elected.

“We will not surrender the constitutional authority of our individual states, nor dissolve the distinct priorities of Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara. Each of us will remain answerable for our own budgets, procurement, civil service, state education and health systems, land administration, internally generated revenue, state agriculture and infrastructure within our borders.

“But where our people’s problems cross our borders, we commit to govern together to resolve them. We will coordinate our security architecture. We will hold ourselves to common standards.

“We will pool investment where pooling multiplies impact. We will open cross-border trade, share data, build joint infrastructure and speak with one voice in advocacy for our region,” he added.

Malami said a technology -enabled surveillance and rapid-response network will be established in each of the 21 senatorial districts across all seven states of the region with drones deployed and setting up of a Northwest Regional Security Coordination Centre to combine lawful aerial surveillance, community intelligence, emergency reporting and geospatial data into a single chain: surveillance, early warning, among others.

Stating other parts of their blueprint, he said: “we will ensure more land is safely farmed, and our food security is strengthened through protected agricultural corridors, formalised livestock production, agro-processing, a regional grain reserve and irrigation rehabilitation.

“We shall declare emergency on education, secure full UBEC access, integrate Almajiri and Tsangaya children into formal schools, support girls’ school attendance, and build a credible system for teacher recruitment, continuous training and mopping up out-of-school children.

“We will ensure full access to the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), revitalize primary health care centers, expand midwives, telemedicine and community health insurance deployment. We shall establish one specialist hospital in each senatorial district (21 region wide).

“We shall prioritise regional infrastructure (roads, rail network), independent power generation, solar power for public facilities, water systems, digital backbone and the border and logistics infrastructure our trade depends on.

“We shall coordinate access to a Regional Youth Fund, prioritize Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), establish digital hubs, formalise MSME and facilitate access to development finance.”

Malami announced the establishment of Central Coordination Committee chaired by the Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abdussamad Dasuki, technical Committee chaired by Maj Gen Aminu Bande (RTD) and co-chaired by Prof. Sadiq Abubakar and Media and Strategic Communications Committee co-chaired by Salihu Tanko Yakasai.

The committees,he explained demonstrated the candidates’ ideals of cooperation, preservation of the constitutional authority and priorities of their states, planning, publishing of deliverables, protection of their citizens through reform and responsible management of public resources.