Mahmud Sadis Buba Faces Fresh Age Controversy After Alleged Passport Leak

Amid the growing political momentum surrounding Mahmud Sadis Buba, popularly known as Abin Al-Ajabin Zazzau and regarded as one of Kaduna’s youngest politicians, controversy has emerged after a family member allegedly uploaded a copy of Buba’s international passport online.

The document, reportedly shared by a relative, indicated that Buba was born on 27 August 2010, suggesting that he is 15 years old.

It would be recalled that the age of 30 earlier claimed by Hon. Mahmud Sadis Buba during his screening process had already generated widespread controversy among both supporters and opposition figures.

The Sabon Gari-born politician is the eldest of nine children a position that carries significant responsibility in Nigerian families and cultures, where the firstborn is typically expected to lead, set examples, and eventually contribute to the welfare of younger siblings.

Growing up in a large family in Sabon Gari, surrounded by the economic pressures and social dynamics of one of Northern Nigeria’s most diverse urban communities, shaped in him the empathy, practicality, and community orientation that have become defining features of his public persona.

Mahmud Sadis Buba, who is physically challenged, has lived with dwarfism, a condition that results in significantly shorter-than-average stature and is recognised as a form of physical disability under Nigerian law and international human rights frameworks.

He has not used his condition as a crutch, nor has he allowed it to become a ceiling against his ambitions. Instead, he has placed it within the broader context of his life story, one of the many circumstances that make his rise to political visibility both unlikely and meaningful.

He has publicly described himself as someone whose political ambition was ignited not by personal calculation or elite encouragement, but by direct calls from people within his constituency who wanted him to represent them.

“I was called to serve,” he said during his APC screening exercise in May 2026, a statement that places the initiative not within himself, but within the community that has watched him and decided to trust him.

From the most populated streets to the classroom, Mahmud Sadis Buba holds a National Examinations Council (NECO) certificate, which he presented during the APC screening.

His educational background became a subject of public discussion following the screening exercise, where panelists questioned his qualifications, among other aspects of his candidacy.

The broader debate sparked by his educational background, whether the National Assembly should require higher educational qualifications for its members, or whether the Constitution’s existing minimum standard remains appropriate in a country where millions are denied access to higher education, has itself become a valuable contribution to Nigeria’s ongoing national conversation about governance and representation.

Information circulating in the public space indicates that Mahmud Sadis Buba, now a public figure and aspirant for the Green Chamber, once worked as a driver, a profession that kept him in daily contact with the rhythms, conversations, and economic realities of ordinary Nigerian life.

His time as a driver placed him in close contact with the realities of everyday life, the traffic, conversations, economic anxieties, and social experiences that rarely make their way into the speeches of career politicians.

Far from treating this period of his life as something to minimise or conceal, Buba has placed it at the centre of his political narrative.

“From my beginnings as a driver to this moment, my journey has been built on hard work, resilience, and the belief that every individual, no matter their background, can rise to serve,” he wrote in his official candidacy announcement.

This positioning honest, unvarnished, and community-embedded has resonated deeply with a Nigerian public that has grown weary of politicians who present sanitised narratives of elite service and inherited entitlement.

Buba’s transition from driving to active political engagement did not happen overnight. Over several years, he built his presence in Sabon Gari through grassroots community mobilisation, participating in local political discussions, building relationships across the area’s diverse population, and establishing himself as a recognisable and trusted figure in the community’s political and social life.

This ground-up approach to political capital building, in a country where political visibility is often purchased through patronage networks or inherited through family connections, remains one of the most distinctive features of his story.

Sources disclosed to TROVE online MEDIA correspondents that the APC aspirant currently serves as chairman of the “Tinubu–Uba Sani Agenda ’27” support group and has steadily gained visibility within Kaduna political circles.

This role positions him at the intersection of federal-level APC politics under the Tinubu presidency and Kaduna State-level APC politics under Governor Uba Sani, connecting him to both layers of the ruling party’s patronage and campaign structure.

The “Agenda ’27” framework represents the grassroots mobilisation architecture being built by APC loyalists across Nigeria to campaign for the party’s candidates in the 2027 general elections, and Buba’s chairmanship of the Sabon Gari/Zaria chapter gives him both a formal organisational role and a legitimate platform within APC structures.