Gaya Kabiru Ibrahim

Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya (born 16 June 1952) is a Nigerian politician who has served in the Senate of Nigeria since 2007 representing the Kano South constituency of Kano State. He is a member of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).

Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya was born on 16 June 1952 at Alkala quarters Gaya LG, to the family of Magajin Garin Gaya Sani. He attended Gaya Primary School from 1961 to 1964 and Tsangaya Primary School where he finished his primary school in 1968, his senior brother was then the Headmaster and Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila was the Assistant Headmaster who taught him maths at the primary school.

He attended Government College, Birnin Kudu from 1969 to 1973 where he obtained the West African School Certificate. From 1974 to 1975, he attended the College of Advanced Studies. He received a bachelor's degree in architecture from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria in 1977. He later received a master's degree in architecture in 1980. After graduating, he lectured at the Kano State Polytechnic.

In 1985, he became a board member of Kano State Environmental Planning and Protection Agency. He was a member of the National Party of Nigeria (N.P.N.) in the Second Nigerian Republic. In 1992, during the transition to the Third Nigerian Republic, he was a member of the center-right National Republican Convention (NRC) and was elected executive Governor of Kano State from 1992 to 1993.

In 1997, during the General Sani Abacha transition, he joined the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) and was a member of the National Caucus Committee. The UNCP included prominent politicians such as Atiku Abubakar, Emeka Ojukwu, Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila, Mohammed Daggash, Ali Modu Sheriff, Ibrahim Saminu Turaki, Attahiru Bafarawa, Bello Matawalle, Hope Uzodinma, Adamu Aliero, and Anyim Pius Anyim.

In 2003, Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya ran for the National Democratic Party (NDP) in the 2003 gubernatorial election in Kano State. He was elected to the Senate for Kano South in 2007 and served as the Senate's Deputy Minority Whip from 2007 until 2011. He was reelected three times in 2011, 2015, and 2019 elections.

Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya has constituency projects spread across all sixteen local government areas in his senatorial district (Kano South). As a senator, he has facilitated over 60 intervention projects, including the construction of classrooms, model primary healthcare centers, electrification of rural areas, and motorized boreholes.

He has created job opportunities for the youths in his constituency. Notable bills sponsored include the Federal Medical Centre Rano, Kano State (Establishment) Bill, 2019, the Nigerian Merchant Navy, Coast Guard and Security Corps (Establishment) Bill, 2020, and the National Road Fund (Establishment) Bill, 2019.

In May 2008, as chairman of the Senate committee on works, he lamented that some projects were moving slowly but opposed the idea of privatizing Nigerian roads. In November 2009, he supported a motion by the Kano chapter of the ANPP to allow the governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, to nominate the ANPP candidate for the 2011 governorship elections.

In April 2011, Kabiru Gaya ran for election as Senator for Kano South on the ANPP platform and was reelected. In October 2016, he was elected vice president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) for Africa at the 135th general assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. He is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA) and the Nigerian Large Scale Farmers Association (NLSFA).

He was awarded an honorary Doctorate Degree by the University of Science and Applied Management, Porto-Novo, Benin. Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya is also a member of the committee on Marine Transport.