By Abubakar M. Kareto
Public commentary across Northern Nigeria has always been rich with passion, but it is equally rife with stark contradictions.
The explosive friction surrounding Hausa praise-singer Dauda Kahutu Rarara and former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Sheikh Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, offers a textbook case study in how political loyalties operate, how selective memory is deployed, and how partisans often end up fighting over two sides of the very same coin.
To fully grasp the irony of the present moment, one must look back at the tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari. During that era, Rarara was celebrated across vast swathes of the region, crafting political tracks that served as the soundtrack to a political movement. Yet, this intense praise-singing unfolded even as the North West, the home region of both the former President and the singer, faced a catastrophic breakdown in rural security. While mass abductions, village raids in Zamfara and Katsina, and tragic events like the 2022 Abuja-Kaduna train attack devastated local communities, the public reaction toward figures in power remained remarkably patient, shielded by regional solidarity.
The sharp decline in Rarara’s public standing occurred when he redirected his musical machinery toward President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. As inflation surged and insecurity persisted, critics began calling him out for eulogizing the central administration while ordinary citizens suffered.
This disfavor has now culminated in a full-blown political feud. The release of Rarara’s controversial track targeting Pantami, replete with personal innuendos while endorsing political figures, sparked immediate backlash. Religious scholars and commentators swiftly condemned the attack, which paradoxically backfired by generating widespread public sympathy for Pantami and highlighting the toxic descent of political praise-singing into personal character assassination.
Yet, the deepest comedy lies in the blind spots of those waging this war. Politically, both figures operate within the broader ecosystem of the current administration, whether through main-line All Progressives Congress (APC) structures or through the Nyesom Wike-led faction of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that effectively functions as an auxiliary wing of the ruling center.
More crucially, both sides rely on the exact same institutional defense mechanism. When critics questioned Pantami’s relative silence during the height of insecurity under Buhari, his loyalists insisted that as a cabinet minister, he offered quiet, direct counsel to the President rather than grandstanding in the media. Today, Rarara invokes that identical defense, frequently boasting of his private meetings with National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu and President Tinubu to address national issues behind closed doors.
When the partisan noise and online exchanges are stripped away, the current feud reveals less about principled opposition and more about selective outrage. Until public discourse shifts away from personalities and demands consistent accountability regardless of who is in power, Northern political commentary will remain caught in this recurring loop of irony.
Author Bio:
Abubakar M. Kareto is a Public Affairs Analyst and Strategic Communications Specialist writing on governance, public policy, and institutional development. He can be reached via email at amkareto@gmail.com and on X @amkareto.
