Since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999, the opposition in Zamfara Sate have always done well against daunting challenges. They have defeated two sitting governors (2007 and 2023), and have won seats in the state and national assemblies in every election cycle.
In 2023, fuelled by the popularity of a relatively new politician, Dauda Lawal, a weak Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wrested the governorship and a senatorial seat from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), retained its three House of Representatives seats and won a majority in the 24-member state House of Assembly. With the current Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, sitting as governor and the ruling party having Senators Abdulaziz Yari, Kabiru Marafa, Sahabi Ya’u, Hassan Nasiha, Ahmad Sani and a host of other heavyweight politicians in its rank in Zamfara, supported by federal might, not many political pundits gave the PDP much chance in the state. But it did.
Three years later, however, the canvass has changed and the APC is once again going into the elections as the state’s ruling party. Mr Lawal, just like his predecessor, Mr Matawalle, did, has taken all the PDP members of the House of Representatives and State House of Assembly to the APC. All the members of the state executive council also followed the governor, except Wadatau Madawaki, the education commissioner, who has now joined the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
