10/11/2025
Rarara’s Songs as Instruments of Historical Documentation!
By: Ibrahim Malumfashi
In recent years, many people have reached out to me, often inquiring why I engage so deeply with Rarara’s music - sometimes even suggesting that I approach it with a kind of religious devotion, as though his art holds some monumental significance. This reflection, drawn from one of my current research areas, serves as a response to such curiosity. To me, Rarara’s songs function as vital instruments of historical documentation and critical analysis.
The song “Masu Gudu, Su Gudu” by Rarara vividly illustrates what I have emphasized for years; that political songs can embody archives of knowledge and encapsulate the spirit of their historical moments.
The return of General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) to power through the ballot box in 2015, after his earlier tenure as a military Head of State (1983–1985), marked a watershed in Nigeria’s democratic history. His ascension, achieved under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC); a grand coalition formed from the merger of major opposition parties including the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) - signaled the first peaceful transfer of power from a ruling party to the opposition in the nation’s history.
This study, titled “General Muhammadu Buhari’s Ascension to the Presidency in 2015: A Kaleidoscopic Analysis from the Lenses of Dauda Kahutu Rarara’s Political Songs,” interrogates the meeting point of music, politics, and literary history through the creative and ideological expressions of Dauda Kahutu Rarara, the preeminent Hausa political singer whose musical corpus chronicles Buhari’s political trajectory across a decade of shifting alliances, defections, and realignments.
Adopting a qualitative and interdisciplinary framework that integrates ethnomusicology, political discourse analysis, and cultural historiography, the study explores how Rarara’s songs function as both historical documentation and political commentary. His lyrics mirror the evolving dynamics within the APC; from its inception in 2013 to its consolidation in governance - and capture the intricate power plays involving figures such as Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Yemi Osinbajo, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, Aminu Bello Masari, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Ibrahim Shema, Attahiru Ɗalhatu Bafarawa, Ibrahim Shekarau, Rotimi Amaechi, and Mustapha Inuwa, Faruk Adamu, Dino Maleye, Rochas Okorocha, Adams Oshiomhole.
Through metaphor, praise, and satire, Rarara’s compositions embody the political optimism that accompanied Buhari’s victory over President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in the 2015 election and the subsequent transformations within Nigeria’s polity.
By contextualizing Rarara’s works alongside Buhari’s cabinet and other electoral victories formation: featuring key appointments such as Babatunde Fashola, Lai Mohammed, Amina Mohammed, and Abubakar Malami, Sadiya Umar Farouq, Dr Isa Ali Pantami, and elected leaders at all levels, like Yahaya Bello, Babagana Zulum, Umar Bago, Alu Magatakarda Wamakko, Aminu Tambuwal, Uba Sani, Umar Raɗɗa, Abba Yusuf, etc - the research illuminates how political songs mediate public perception of governance, reform, and accountability.
The songs serve as an alternative archive that traces the regime’s ideological promises - anti-corruption, economic revival, and national security - against the realities of political contestations, defections, and shifting loyalties that characterized the period between 2015 and 2025.
The study argues that Rarara’s music represents a kaleidoscopic lens through which Nigeria’s democratic evolution can be interpreted, not merely as entertainment but as a mode of political communication and cultural memory. His artistry transforms complex political narratives into accessible oral texts that reflect the pulse of the northern electorate and the broader national consciousness.
Consequently, the research contributes to understanding how popular musicians become chroniclers of historical change, shaping and reflecting the ideological contours of leadership, loyalty, and legitimacy in contemporary Nigerian politics.
