The Good Governance Rating Index (GGRI) midterm assessment, which named Zamfara State, led by Governor Dauda Lawal, Nigeria’s most egregious governance failure from 2023 to 2025, has the full support of the Arewa Youth Council for Peace (AYCP).
In its damning evaluation, the UK-based group ranked Lawal’s government worst in terms of infrastructure, security, health, education, and transparency, exposing it as a disastrous betrayal of the people of Zamfara.
A “long-overdue indictment of a governor who has turned Zamfara into a living nightmare,” according to the AYCP, is what this report represents.
Despite billions being embezzled as security votes, the GGRI study exposed the apocalyptic situation of Zamfara, where mass kidnappings and armed banditry have increased under Lawal’s leadership.
With maternal mortality rates among Nigeria’s highest, Zamfara has become a death trap for mothers and babies due to a lack of funding for health services, and more than 60% of rural children are denied an education and languish in dilapidated schools.
Lawal is accused in the report of wasting public trust on a quagmire of political cronyism, corruption, and a lack of development vision, which has left roads impassable, workers unpaid, and poverty on the rise.
The AYCP denounced Lawal’s leadership as a “monumental disgrace” in a statement signed by Comrade Usman Yusuf, pointing out that his claims of security and prosperity during the 2023 campaign were nothing more than falsehoods.
Supported by audits, voter input, and field surveys, the GGRI’s conclusions paint a picture of a state in freefall where public revenues disappear into the governor’s networks of patronage and government employees collude to exacerbate insecurity.
According to the AYCP, Zamfara’s suffering might destabilize the entire North-West, making this governance failure a ticking time bomb for Nigeria’s stability.
“Dauda Lawal is a disaster in human form, a governor who has robbed Zamfara of its dreams and abandoned its people to drown in poverty and bloodshed,” Yusuf continued.
For sending our state into this pit of sorrow, he ought to get down on his knees, ask for forgiveness, and step down right away. His inept and corrupt government is a disgrace to Zamfara; outlaws control our territories, children begging rather than learning, and moms dying needlessly as a result of his ineptitude and avarice.
“Lawal will have to deal with the anger of Zamfara’s young when they cast their ballots in 2027. We will make sure he is recognized as the mastermind behind our misery by dragging his name through the muck of his own creation.
We will fight to remove Lawal from office for his crimes against our people, and the GGRI report is our rallying cry.
The public’s anger has been heightened by the GGRI findings, which also disclosed that security budgets are cloaked in secret and that funds intended to prevent banditry are not held accountable.
Citizens accuse Lawal of transforming Zamfara into a “bandit’s paradise” while regular families live in fear, and reports of government personnel working with criminals have further fueled the flames.
“Dauda Lawal is not simply a failed governor,” said the president of the AYCP, “but a coward who steals Zamfara’s hopes and hides behind hollow promises while our people suffer.
“He must resign immediately or face expulsion in shame; his resignation is not negotiable. His humiliation is evident in every collapsing school, every mother who passes away, and every child who is abducted.
“We will ensure that he is rejected by Zamfara in 2027, burying his political career beneath the debris of his own shortcomings.”
“We call for justice, accountability, and openness. Lawal will be judged by the people; no amount of political scheming can protect him from the impending storm.
“We support all Zamfarans who are enduring Lawal’s oppression. He was exposed as a fake by the GGRI study, and we will mobilize our citizens to seek justice.
We will fight all the way from Gusau to the smallest village until Lawal is defeated, his allies are exposed, and Zamfara is released from his grip. We promise that we shall rise after Lawal falls.
