Ahmed Aliyu has narrowly won the 2023 governorship election in Sokoto State to the delight of many. He polled 453,661 votes to defeat his closest rival, Saidu Umar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 404,632 votes. Umar was the anointed candidate of incumbent Governor Aminu Tambuwal.

Ahmed Aliyu was Tambuwal’s running mate when they won the governorship in 2015 with a landslide on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Tambuwal had defected to the opposition, APC, shortly after he resigned his position as the Speaker of the House Representatives, paving the way for ex-Imo governor, Ihedioha, to become the Speaker of the House.

Reports in the media, however, claimed that the sweet union between Ahmed Aliyu and his boss soon became sour after “irreconcilable differences” forced the Governor-elect to resign his position as the deputy governor of Sokoto state in November 2018.

Ahmed Aliyu has been a grassroots breed who rose from Finance and Audit head in Wamakko LGA to become the Commissioner for Social Welfare, where he initiated many skill acquisition programmes to get less-privileged children off the street.

Today, the 48-yr-old Aliyu Ahmed’s resignation as deputy governor of Sokoto state in 2018 seems to have paid off as it has kept the APC alive in the state after attempts to “kill and bury” the party shortly after the defection of Governor Aminu Tambuwal to the PDP.

The young Ahmed, who was born and brought up in Tudun Wada Area in Sokoto Metropolis, started his Quranic education at an early age in line with the tradition of Hausa land and Islamic teaching where he was taught the rudiments of reading and writing, which prepared him for further tasks in search of knowledge.

He was enrolled in primary school education at Magajin Rafi Model Primary School, Sokoto, from 1977 to 1983 and began his secondary school education at the Government Secondary School, Yabo, from 1983 to 1989 where he obtained his West African School Certificate (WASC) in flying colours. He then proceeded to the College of Administration of the Polytechnic of Sokoto State.

He succeeded in obtaining a Clerical Officers Certificate (Accounts and Audit) in 1991. In pursuit of further career advancement, Ahmed Aliyu went back to the same institution between 1991 to 1992 where he obtained a Certificate in Accounts and Audit (CPAA). Ahmed Aliyu’s thirst for knowledge spurred him to go back to the same Polytechnic of Sokoto State between 1992 to 1994 where he obtained a Professional Diploma in Public Accounts and Audit (DPAA).

The untiring Ahmed Aliyu has always been on the lookout for ways to academically enrich his knowledge and develop his career. He was at the Abdu Gusau Polytechnic, Talata Marafa in Zamfara State, from 1995 to 1997, where he successfully studied for and obtained a Higher National Diploma in Local Government Studies.

The ambitious Ahmed in his quest for more education, applied and got admitted into the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto (2000) where he obtained a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) in 2001. Ahmed Aliyu again went back to the same citadel of learning between 2002 to 2003 where he successfully added another feather to his cap by bagging a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA).

Despite a tight schedules as an accountant, an administrator, and a politician of note, his energy in the search for more education was never sapped. He enrolled and study as an undergraduate student at the Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto between 2004 and 2007, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration (B.Sc).

The Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna, Africa’s first and best military university was Ahmed Aliyus’s next institution of higher learning, where he enrolled and obtained a Master’s Degree in International Affairs and Strategic Studies in 2010. Today, the unruffled and determined Aliyu is about to complete his final research work on his Ph.D. programme at Nasarawa State University, Keffi.

According to the philosophical saying that “Your true success in life begins only when you make the commitment to become excellent at what you do” has been explicitly exhibited by Ahmed Aliyu’s unbroken urge to further his education, which took him to the walls of both the polytechnics and universities. 

Today, the Governor-elect of Sokoto state is indeed, well-read, well-educated, well-certificated, well-exposed, well-enlightened, groomed, and exposed to be entrusted with leadership.