The Zamfara State Government has named Alhaji Shehu Baraya as the new Head of the State Civil Service, in a move that continues Governor Dauda Lawal’s steady reshuffling of the state’s top bureaucracy since he took office in 2023.
The appointment, which took immediate effect, was confirmed in a statement issued Wednesday by the Secretary to the State Government, Abubakar Nakwada, and signed on his behalf by Suleman Ahmad Tudu, Senior Special Assistant on Media in the SSG’s office.
Baraya takes over from Alhaji Yakubu Haidara, who has retired after a long career in the state civil service.
According to the government statement, the new Head of Service arrives with a résumé built almost entirely inside Zamfara’s public administration machinery,, having risen through several Permanent Secretary postings before his most recent role as Permanent Secretary of the Zamfara State Civil Service Commission, a position that placed him at the heart of personnel policy, promotions and discipline across the state’s ministries, departments, and agencies.
The statement described him as “a seasoned career civil servant with extensive institutional experience and a deep understanding of public administration,” credentials the administration is clearly banking on as it pushes ahead with its self-styled Rescue Agenda, a reform program built around leaner government and tighter service delivery.
Baraya’s elevation continues a now-familiar cycle in Zamfara’s civil service leadership. Haidara himself was only installed as substantive Head of Service roughly a year ago, when he was appointed by Governor Lawal to replace Ahmad Liman, who had retired from the position in February 2025.
At the time, Haidara, a 1989 political science graduate of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, who had been made permanent secretary in 2012 and served across multiple ministries, departments, and agencies, was himself praised for bringing institutional depth to the post before moving on to the Civil Service Commission and, eventually, into retirement.
The repeated cycling of top civil servants through the Head of Service office reflects a broader push by the Lawal administration to keep reshaping the machinery of government.
Since assuming office in May 2023, the governor has periodically overhauled the civil service structure, including an early executive order that restructured state government ministries from 28 down to 16, a move aimed at cutting waste and eliminating duplication of functions, a philosophy the administration describes as “lean government,” focused on efficient service delivery.
In the statement, Governor Lawal thanked Haidara for his years of service and contribution to strengthening the civil service and wished him well in retirement.
Turning to Baraya, the governor charged him to draw on his institutional experience to deepen professionalism, tighten discipline, and lift both productivity and efficiency across the civil service, objectives the administration frames as central to the success of its Rescue Agenda.
Officials familiar with the workings of the Zamfara civil service note that the office of Head of Service carries significant weight: it oversees postings, promotions, discipline, and coordination across the state’s ministries, departments, and agencies, and works closely with the Office of the Secretary to the State Government on personnel matters, including, notably, the appointment process for permanent secretaries, a function the Head of Service’s office is required to coordinate.
Baraya is expected to resume duties immediately, with attention now turning to whether his tenure will bring further changes to the senior ranks of Zamfara’s civil service as the Lawal administration continues consolidating its governance agenda ahead of the 2027 election cycle.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Governor Dauda Lawal has appointed Alhaji Shehu Baraya, a career civil servant and former Permanent Secretary of the Zamfara Civil Service Commission, as the new Head of the State Civil Service, succeeding the retired Alhaji Yakubu Haidara with immediate effect.
This appointment is part of a broader pattern of the Lawal administration continually reshuffling top civil service leadership to drive its “lean government” Rescue Agenda, with Baraya now tasked with deepening professionalism, discipline, and efficiency across the state bureaucracy.
