LEADERSHIP Governor of the Year 2025: Dauda Lawal

Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State has demonstrated tenacious leadership and development strides in infrastructure and service delivery in a state beguiled by almost a decade of insecurity. Unfettered by the daunting burden of securing the state, Governor Lawal has significantly raised the bar of governance by ensuring that education and health services are given a prime place in his administration.

Under a series of projects known as the “Zamfara Rescue projects”, the governor has executed and commissioned various projects spanning road construction, school renovation, and medical facilities rehabilitation both in the cities and the hinterlands of the state.

He introduced the Tsangaya school system which has ensured universal basic education for all school-age children across the state. The system ensures that Islamic education and Western education co-exist, and most significantly give children the knowledge and skills to fit better into the new scheme of things worldwide. This project comprised the construction of nine hostels, teachers’ quarters, a perimeter wall, solar-powered electrification, boreholes, furniture, teaching and learning facilities, and much more.

The school has a vocational centre where trainings in carpentry, woodwork, masonry, tailoring, computer appreciation, and cobbling are provided for the learners.

What’s more, the newly reconstructed Zamfara State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development building, and the newly renovated Zamfara State College of Arts and Sciences (ZACAS) structures cast the Dauda Lawal administration in bright light.

The state has made significant strides in improving the health sector by investing in renovating and upgrading hospitals and primary healthcare centres across the state.

To reduce maternal mortality and infant mortality, there has been recruitment and training of more health workers, procurement of essential drugs and equipment, and introduction of free maternal and child health services.

The Yeriman Bakura Specialist Hospital was fully renovated and equipped with state-of-the-art facilities. Also rehabilitated and equipped is the General Hospital in Kauran Namoda local government area of the state. The General Hospital serving Kauran Namoda and its neighbouring communities has been equipped to deliver quality healthcare services effectively. It has been equipped with diagnostic sets, delivery beds, ECG machines, centrifuge machines, blood-mixing machines, an automatic haematology analyzer, an electronic weighing system, and an LED theatre operating lamp, among other equipment.

In Nasarawa Burkullu, Bukkuyum LGA, the General Hospital was also upgraded. Besides healthcare services such as emergency care, surgical, maternal and child health services, structures for an isolation centre, a mortuary, an accident and emergency ward, a theatre room, male and female surgical wards, GOPD, a laboratory, a pharmacy, antenatal care and paediatrics wards have been built. Other improvements include administration blocks, staff quarters, mosques, and boreholes.

Also in Maru LGA, the General Hospital was renovated and state-of-the-art facilities provided.

The governor has also embarked on an urban renewal project, which has led to the renovation of major roads in the state.

As for security, Zamfara has in recent years enjoyed some respite. On Governor Lawal’s watch, mass killings and kidnappings have significantly reduced in the state. This is due partly to the establishment of community protection guards across all the 14 local government areas in Zamfara State.

The carefully selected individuals, based on full security clearance by the DSS, were trained to be the first line of defence; they work hand in hand with the conventional security agencies to fight banditry in the state. The governor recently distributed 140 operational vehicles designated for various security organisations across the state.

Dauda Lawal Dare was born on September 2, 1965, in Zamfara State. After his primary and secondary education, he attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he obtained a B.Sc in Political Science. He also holds an M.Sc in Political Science/International Relations from the same university. He added a PhD in Business Administration from the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.

After his PhD programme, he took courses in the Harvard Business School, Oxford University Business School, London School of Economics, and Lagos Business School, among others.

The governor served as a political education officer with MAMSER, the agency for mass mobilization for social justice and self-reliance in Nigeria. In 1989, he joined Westex Nigeria Limited as an assistant general manager.

He was appointed an assistant consular officer (immigration) in 1994 and later became chief protocol officer in the Embassy of Nigeria, Washington, DC, U.S.

In 2003, he joined First Bank of Nigeria Plc as a relationship manager and was at various times senior manager in the Abuja Area Office. In 2011, he was promoted to the position of executive vice president, public sector, North, of First Bank of Nigeria Plc, after he had served in numerous other positions. In 2012, Dauda Lawal became the executive director, public sector, North, of First Bank of Nigeria Plc.

He later joined politics and ran for governor of Zamfara State. In the APC primary election held in 2018, he lost to Idris Shehu Mukhtar. In the 2023 Zamfara State gubernatorial election, however, he contested and won under the Peoples Democratic Party.