Uba Sani

Uba Sani is the Governor of Kaduna State. An engineer by training and a long-time aide to Nasir El-Rufai, he succeeded El-Rufai in 2023 after one of the closest governorship races of that year, then publicly fell out with his former boss over the state’s finances.¹²

Early life and career

Sani was born in Zaria on 31 December 1970 and trained as a mechanical engineer at Kaduna Polytechnic, later studying business administration and finance. After 1999 he became a special adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo and worked with El-Rufai at the Federal Capital Territory. When El-Rufai became governor in 2015, Sani was his adviser on political affairs. He was elected senator for Kaduna Central in 2019.¹

The 2023 election

Sani won the March 2023 election with 730,002 votes to 719,196 for the PDP’s Isa Ashiru, a margin of about 10,800. Ashiru challenged the result, but the tribunal, the Court of Appeal and, in January 2024, the Supreme Court upheld it.¹³

Governor (2023–present)

In December 2023, a military drone strike meant for insurgents hit a religious gathering at Tudun Biri in Igabi, killing about 85 civilians. The army acknowledged the error; the governor visited the community and the federal and state governments promised reconstruction.⁴

In March 2024 Sani said he had inherited debts of $587 million and ₦85 billion from the El-Rufai administration, which left little money for salaries and projects. The State House of Assembly then set up a panel to investigate the former government’s borrowing and spending. El-Rufai’s allies rejected the claims as politically motivated, and the two men became open rivals.²⁵

2027

In May 2026 the APC returned Sani unopposed as its governorship candidate for 2027.⁶

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