By Ibrahim Kaula Moh’d
There is a title in Ilorin that now carries the full weight of history, character and loyalty — Sardauna. Yesterday, at the historic palace of the Emir of Ilorin, HRH Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, that title was formally conferred on His Excellency, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Governor of Kwara State. For those of us who have known the man for over thirty years, the turbaning was not a ceremonial gift; it was a recognition long overdue, earned across decades of friendship, generosity and steadfast loyalty that I have had the privilege to witness from very close quarters.
My path first crossed with Malam Abdulrahman in the early 1990s, when I was a young reporter on the sports desk of the New Nigerian Newspapers, covering the annual polo tournament season. Polo in those days was more than a sport; it was a gathering of Nigeria’s elite, and every tournament came with its own rituals, chief among them the pre-tournament press briefing. In one such briefing, my late friend, Senator Kabir Jibrin, who was then the tournament manager, gave me a preview of that year’s major sponsors before the official announcement.
That year, a new name entered the circle of sponsors, and it sent a ripples through the polo community. Alongside First Bank, the long-standing sponsor of the prestigious Georgian Cup, a young entrepreneur named AbdulRahman, founder and Chief Executive Officer of First Fuels, stepped forward with a donation running into millions of naira. It was an audacious gesture for a newcomer, and it announced his arrival in a world long dominated by old money and old names. In the years that followed, he became a fixture as major sponsor of both the Lagos and Kaduna polo tournaments, extending his patronage to trophies in Kano, Ibadan, Minna, Yola and Port Harcourt.
It was Senator Kabir Jibrin, of blessed memory, who formally introduced me to Abdulrahman at one of these tournaments. That introduction marked the beginning of a friendship that has endured, unbroken, to this day. From our very first conversations, I found him to be cool, calculated and remarkably generous — qualities that would come to define both his business dealings and his politics in the years ahead.
When Abdulrahman decided to contest the Kwara State governorship under the Congress for Progressive Change, he asked that I serve as his press secretary. He lost that election, and many assumed that would be the end of the story. It was not. Our friendship survived that setback, sustained in the quieter years by nothing more than Friday messages exchanged faithfully between us. When he eventually became Governor of Kwara State, that friendship did not fade into the formality often imposed by office; instead, it blossomed.
Today, that bond has grown to bridge two state governments. When Sardauna wishes to speak with my principal, Governor Dikko Umaru Radda of Katsina State, he does not go through protocol; he simply calls me and asks, “Where is your Oga, Katsina or Abuja?” That level of directness speaks to a trust built over years, not one manufactured for the cameras.
That trust was tested and proven last year, when Governor Radda was involved in a minor accident. Sardauna called repeatedly for updates, and I assured him, each time, that our principal was well and stable. It was I who eventually connected the two governors by phone while Governor Radda was receiving treatment at an Abuja-based hospital. They spoke at length, and afterward, Sardauna called me back personally to express his gratitude. The very next day, he mobilised his fellow APC governors to Katsina House in Abuja to congratulate Governor Radda on surviving the crash — a gesture that told the whole political class exactly the kind of friend Sardauna is.
That friendship was on full display again when Governor Radda selected Sardauna to commission one of his flagship legacy projects, the Radda Model Smart School, a multi-billion naira educational facility. Few could argue with the choice. Who else deserved that honour, if not the friend who had stood by him through crisis and celebration alike?
At that commissioning, I took the opportunity to introduce my colleague, MS Ingawa, to Sardauna. He received us warmly, turned to me and said, in his characteristically playful manner, “Kaula, ka boye a Katsina” — Kaula, you are hiding in Katsina — before adding that he had been following my work and encouraging me to keep it up. He then summoned Governor Radda’s photographer to capture a picture of the three of us together, a small but telling gesture that revealed the humility beneath the grandeur of his office.
It was around that same period that he told me, quietly, that he would soon be turbanned as Sardauna of Ilorin. That day finally came today, at the palace of the Emir of Ilorin, HRH Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, in a ceremony attended by dignitaries from across the country, including Vice President Kashim Shettima, whose tribute captured, in public terms, everything I had come to know about the man in private over more than thirty years.
It was, therefore, no surprise to me that when Governor Radda marked his 57th birthday, it was Sardauna, in his capacity as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, who penned the Forum’s congratulatory message on behalf of all thirty-six governors of the federation. In that message, he wrote: “On behalf of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), I extend our warmest congratulations to Your Excellency on the occasion of your birthday. Today, we celebrate not only another year of your life but also your dedication, leadership, and unwavering commitment to the progress and development of Katsina State and our nation as a whole.” It was a fitting tribute, coming from a friend whose loyalty had already been proven long before any title was conferred on him.
From a polo field in the early 1990s to the palace of the Emir of Ilorin today, the story of my friendship with Sardauna AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is, in many ways, the story of Nigerian public life at its best — where personal loyalty, once properly rooted, outlasts elections won and lost, survives accidents and crises, and eventually finds its way into titles that merely confirm what was already true.
On this note, I join family, friends and admirers across the country in congratulating His Excellency, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, on his well-deserved turbaning as the Sardauna of Ilorin. The title fits him because he had already lived it, long before yesterday’s ceremony gave it a name.
Ibrahim Kaula Mohammed is the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Katsina State
