Parliament Spotlight: Rep. Sha’aban Ibrahim Sharada | Kano ADP Governorship Candidate

This week, in continuation of our series on lawmakers seeking to be governors of their state, attention is on a first-term lawmaker in the 9th National Assembly and Governorship Candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) in Kano State

Reputed to be the first non-indigenous politician from outside the walled city of Kano to be elected to parliament, he’s got loads of controversies too.

Check out our profile of Sha’aban Ibrahim Sharada; a 40-year-old member of the House of Representatives and one-time ‘most powerful media aide’ of President Muhammadu Buhari, on this edition of Parliament Spotlight.

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LEGISLATIVE PROFILE

• Member representing Kano Municipal Federal Constituency (2019 – date)
  All Progressives Congress (APC)
• Chairman, House Committee on National Security and Intelligence
  Ninth National Assembly

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS

• As a first-term lawmaker, he was appointed Chairman of one of the most sensitive committees in the House responsible for coordinating oversight of public security and intelligence matters of the federation
• Gave scholarship covering admission, air tickets, school fees and upkeep allowance to about 80 indigent students in his constituency to study in Sudan.
• In 2020, he was elected as the President of the Network of African Parliamentarians for Defence and Security Committees in charge of Anglophone countries.
• In 2021, he was elected as the President-General of the Network of African Parliamentarians for Defence and Security Committees

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POLITICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

• Member, Directorate of Communication (2011)
  CPC Presidential Campaign Council
• Member, Directorate of Communication (2015)
  APC Presidential Campaign Council 

• Personal Assistant to the President on Broadcast Media (2015 – 2018)
  State House, Abuja 

• Governorship Candidate (2022)
  Action Democratic Party (ADP)

MAJOR POLITICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

• A national daily touted the lawmaker in a June 2017 publication as the President’s ‘Most Powerful Media Aide.’
• Sharada is acclaimed as one of the first non-indigene politicians from outside the walled city of Kano to win an election to parliament in the state
• Sharada defeated a member of the State Executive Council (during the primaries) and the incumbent lawmaker in the 2019 National Assembly election with over thirty thousand votes.

MAJOR POLITICAL CONTROVERSIES

• As Presidential aide, he was alleged to be pompous and flamboyant, using every opportunity to demonstrate his closeness to the president by calling him on the phone.
• Before he fell out with Governor Ganduje, he criticised the governor for allegedly selling plots of land belonging to the state for personal enrichment.
• In June 2021, the Ward Chapter of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) banned him from relating with members of the party for one year over complaints of alleged high-handedness.
• In May 2022, Sharada alleged that he “narrowly” escaped an assassination plot at the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primaries in Kano
• In August 2022, he decamped to the Action Democratic Party (ADP).READ ALSO: Parliament Spotlight: Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru | Speaker, Ebonyi State House of Assembly