Senator Kabiru Marafa Quits APC, Cites Tinubu’s “Use-and-Dump” Leadership and Zamfara’s Neglect

On August 29, 2025, former Zamfara Central Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa, who served as the Zamfara State Coordinator for the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign in the 2023 presidential election, announced his resignation from the All Progressives Congress (APC), accusing President Bola Tinubu of a “use-and-dump” leadership style and neglecting Zamfara’s security and developmental needs (Web:0, Web:14). The decision followed a two-day meeting of the Senator Kabiru Marafa Consultative Forum in Kaduna on August 27–28, 2025, attended by supporters from all 14 local government areas of Zamfara (Web:0).

The Forum’s communiqué, signed by chairman Comrade Bashir Muhammad Mafara and secretary Dr. Mannir Bature Tsafe, highlighted Marafa’s pivotal role in securing Tinubu’s 2023 victory in Zamfara, where he delivered 298,365 votes against Atiku Abubakar’s 196,389 (INEC, 2023). Despite this, the group decried Zamfara’s marginalization, noting the state received only a Minister of State for Defence (Bello Matawalle) compared to two ministerial slots for other Northwest states (Web:0, Web:17). Zamfara, which recorded 1,203 of Nigeria’s 4,722 kidnappings in 2024, faced 25 village attacks post a recent bye-election, with 145 abductions and 21 deaths, yet lacked federal intervention like visits or aid seen in other states (Web:0, Web:18). The Forum also criticized the APC’s use of security forces to secure the Kaura Namoda bye-election while failing to curb banditry (Web:0).

Marafa’s faction, spanning 147 wards, resigned en masse, citing “injustice, mistrust, marginalization, and deliberate neglect” (Web:0, Web:14). The group plans to announce its next political move soon, prioritizing Zamfara’s interests (Web:0). X posts from @ZamfaraVoice (August 29, 2025) amplified the resignation, while @Naija_Activist noted 71% public discontent with Tinubu’s handling of insecurity in the Northwest (Afrobarometer, 2025) (Post:3). The move reignites tensions within Zamfara’s APC, previously fractured by Marafa’s rivalry with former governors Abdul’aziz Yari and Bello Matawalle, which led to the party’s 2019 electoral losses (Web:0, Web:4, Web:17).