Revealed: The Yahaya Seriki You Know and the Man Behind the Name, By Haroon Aremu
POLITICS DIGEST – In Kwara politics, Abdulfatai Yahaya Seriki Gambari is a name that rarely arrives quietly. It comes with politics, money, mining, influence and, increasingly, the 2027 question. To some, he is the businessman who stepped into the political arena; to others, he is the political operator whose influence has grown far beyond the ballot box. But there is another side to Seriki — one that is easier to miss when politics takes over the conversation.
Behind the headlines is a businessman who spent years building a mining empire before seeking political power, a philanthropist whose interventions have reached thousands of Kwarans, and a political figure whose biggest victories have not always come from winning an election. That is where the less familiar story begins.
Seriki is the founder and Chairman/CEO of Kursi Group, a Nigerian mining, mineral-processing and trading company. The company says it operates across 22 states, employs more than 1,000 people and deals in minerals including gold, lead, zinc, tin, tantalite, manganese and other resources.
What makes the business story particularly significant is that Seriki did not emerge in politics from nowhere. His public profile was built on an industry that many Nigerians rarely associate with political influence: solid minerals.
Kursi says its operations have expanded into multiple parts of the country and that its business includes mining, processing and trading for domestic and international markets. The company has also participated in international mining platforms, including the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh.
But perhaps the more interesting part of Seriki’s story is what happened when business met politics.
His political journey became particularly visible during the “O To Ge” era in Kwara, the movement that challenged the dominance of former Senate President Bukola Saraki in the state. Seriki later withdrew from the 2019 governorship contest and supported AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, subsequently serving as Director-General of AbdulRazaq’s campaign. He also played a campaign leadership role in the governor’s 2023 re-election effort.
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That history is important because it reveals something about Seriki’s political profile: his influence has not depended entirely on occupying elective office. In 2026, he again became one of the central figures in the Kwara APC governorship contest. Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq publicly backed him ahead of the party primary, describing him as young, broad-minded and a political mobiliser.
But politics, as Seriki’s own journey demonstrates, does not always follow endorsements. At the May 2026 APC governorship primary, he finished second with 41,700 votes, behind Saliu Danladi, who polled more than 94,000 votes.
For many politicians, losing such a contest could mean disappearing from the conversation. Seriki’s story appears more complicated. Long before the latest political contest, he had built another vehicle for influence: the Yahaya Seriki Foundation.
The foundation says its focus includes education, youth empowerment, community development and healthcare. In 2023, it distributed N250 million to more than 1,800 Kwarans, including artisans, students, traders and other beneficiaries. Reports from the event also documented scholarships, business support and assistance to communities. And the interventions have continued.
In July 2026, Kursi Investments, working with the foundation, announced a N100 million empowerment and healthcare intervention for Eji-Dongari community in Moro Local Government Area.
There is another detail that says much about the model Seriki appears to be building: his business and philanthropy frequently overlap. Kursi says it has installed solar-powered boreholes in seven host and neighbouring communities, while presenting community development as part of its mining operations.
This makes Seriki an unusual political character: a businessman whose business has become part of his political identity, and a politician whose philanthropy has become part of his public brand. Yet perhaps the most revealing fact is that Seriki’s political story is still unfinished.
He has contested before. He has withdrawn before. He has supported another candidate before. He has lost a major primary before. And still, his name remains in the conversation. That may be the real story behind Yahaya Seriki.
Not simply the man seeking political office, but the entrepreneur who built before campaigning, the political organiser who helped others win before seeking victory for himself, and the philanthropist whose interventions have created a constituency outside the traditional machinery of government.
Whether that translates into political power remains a question for Kwara voters. But one thing is increasingly difficult to ignore: Yahaya Seriki may have lost a primary, but he has not lost relevance.
Haroon Aremu Abiodun is an Author, Strategic Communicator and National Development Advocate. He writes from Abuja and can be reached via [email protected].
