Zamfara State, led by Governor Dauda Lawal, was named Nigeria’s most egregious governance failure from 2023 to 2025 by the Good Governance Rating Index (GGRI) midterm report, which the Arewa Youth Council for Peace (AYCP) fully supports.
The UK-based organization’s damning evaluation, which ranked Lawal’s administration dead last in terms of infrastructure, security, health, education, and transparency, revealed it to be a disastrous betrayal of Zamfara’s citizens.
This report is a “long-overdue indictment of a governor who has turned Zamfara into a living nightmare,” according to the AYCP.
Under Lawal’s leadership, armed banditry and mass kidnappings have increased despite billions being embezzled as security votes, as the GGRI report exposed.
In addition to health facilities that are underfunded, Zamfara has become a death trap for mothers and babies, with maternal mortality rates among the highest in Nigeria. More than 60% of rural children are denied an education and are left to rot in dilapidated schools.
According to the report, Lawal has squandered public trust on a wellspring of political cronyism, corruption, and a lack of developmental vision, resulting in impassable roads, unpaid workers, and a sharp rise in poverty.
Comrade Usman Yusuf signed a statement in which the AYCP denounced Lawal’s leadership as a “monumental disgrace,” pointing out that his claims of security and prosperity during the 2023 campaign were nothing more than falsehoods.
The GGRI’s conclusions, supported by audits, public input, and field surveys, show a state in freefall where public funds disappear into the governor’s networks of patrons and government employees collude to exacerbate insecurity.
The AYCP warns that the collapse of governance is a ticking time bomb for Nigeria’s stability, with the suffering of Zamfara potentially destabilizing the entire North-West.
Yusuf went on to say: “Dauda Lawal is a disaster in human form; he is a governor who has robbed Zamfara of its dreams and abandoned its people to live in poverty and violence.”
He needs to get down on his knees, ask for forgiveness, and step down right away for sending our state into this pit of despair. Zamfara’s soul is tarnished by his corrupt and inept rule; bandits control our territories, children begging rather than learning, and mothers die needlessly as a result of his failure and greed.
At the polls in 2027, Lawal will be subject to the wrath of Zamfara’s youth. To ensure that he is remembered as the cause of our suffering, we will sully his name through the muck of his own creation.
Our rallying cry is the GGRI report: “Lawal’s time in office is running out, and we will relentlessly pursue his removal for his crimes against our people.”
Public indignation has increased as a result of the GGRI reports’ revelation that security budgets are opaque and unaccountable for money intended to prevent banditry.
Ordinary families are living in fear as Lawal is accused by the public of transforming Zamfara into a “bandit’s paradise” due to reports of government agents conspiring with criminals.
The president of the AYCP declared: “Dauda Lawal is not just a failed governor; he is a coward who steals Zamfara’s dreams and hides behind false promises while our people suffer.”
“His resignation cannot be negotiated; he must step down immediately or face expulsion in shame.” He is ashamed of every school that is in disarray, every mother who is dying, and every child who has been abducted.
“In 2027, we will ensure that Zamfara rejects him, burying his political career in the ruins of his own shortcomings.”
“We demand justice, accountability, and transparency. No amount of political scheming will spare Lawal from the storm that is headed his way; he will have to face the judgment of the people.
“Every Zamfaran who is subjected to Lawal’s oppression has our solidarity. We will unite our people to demand justice after the GGRI report exposed him as a fraud.
“Until Lawal is gone, his friends are exposed, and Zamfara is released from his chokehold, we will fight our way from Gusau to the smallest village.” We promise that Lawal will fall and we will rise.
