Supposing this was a class assignment, one wonders what kinds of answers that would be turned in. But without sounding knowledgeable of the subject matter, it must be stated that he comes to different people by many definitions.
Quickly, let me attempt to submit a few that may come up from various positions that may be handed: He is a Mwaghavul man from Bwor, Panyam ward of Mangu local government area. He was reported to have been involved in a car accident that left him paralyzed.
Then imagine the others: They said he attended the University of Jos where he read law. He was the winner of the October 18, 2018 local government elections but was denied victory, because he was in the opposition. He was the man who was reported to have unsubstantiated allegations leveled against him that he was given the sum of One Hundred Million Naira (100,000,000) to defect to the APC.
What about these: He is the man who has built and distributed more tricycle-type wheelchairs for polio survivors in Nigeria than any government institution that is engaged in such initiative. He is the founder of Beautiful Gates Handicapped People Center in Jos launched in 1999. They said he left the PDP as a result of a disagreement with the then chairman, Damishi T Sango on account of his ambition to become the party’s gubernatorial running mate.
If you consider all, the above are either wrong or right. There are a number of things that states the fact about the man. They are in more ways than one responsible for his person and the brand of politics that he has played over the years; and for which he has created a cult followership that daily compounds political pundits and his acts of charity becoming agonizingly worrisome to his opponents.
To get to know the man Ayuba Burki Gufwan, perhaps it would only be right for a visit to his roots, where the truth about him could be rightly unveiled to all who may have thought otherwise. To know him is to understand where he is coming from and what he stands for that is going on for him. His life is a combination of the sweet and sour. You may, like many find him a likeable personality through this story.
‘I don’t know what happened or how I lost my legs. Even to this day, it is not accepted in my family that it was polio. My mother thought that some evil men had bewitched me. In Nigeria as a whole, a lot of people don’t see polio as a medical condition’; Ayuba is reported to have told a source way back in 2013.
Those who know him are quick to point to the fact that had he not been slowed down (Burki), no one would have known what station he would have reached by now. Even at that, the doors he has opened in his life cannot be closed by even able bodied men. ‘In Africa every name has a meaning otherwise it is not a name. The name Burki means to apply the brake. It was given to me when I contracted polio. They said “this boy would have been a great child but this polio has put a brake on his success.” Whatever task I was given, I put double effort into because I wanted to prove them wrong. The name motivated me to work harder to prove a point that polio did not put a brake on my life’.
In most local settings of the north, his early predicament in life would have been assumed as license to roam the streets in pitiable conditions begging for arms to survive. At the age of five when he lost his two legs to poliomyelitis, ordinarily together with his parents, hope would have been lost on him.
Indeed, his father had given up consideration to send the physically challenged child to school. He was reported to have insisted that no one would think of hiring a physically challenged child to work while several able bodied men and women were available for consideration, but who are yet to get something to do.
The young child was prodded by the father to take to blacksmithing. ‘But Ayuba didn’t find it appealing, he knew it wasn’t his calling and insisted on going to school even as he struggled to move around without a wheelchair’. 
That assumption would have caused him a huge prospect of what he later became in his sojourn on earth had he not defied all the odds that stood against him; after an uncle had bought a wheel chair for him. He went on to become a law graduate of the University of Maiduguri.
Even though he is today confined to a wheelchair, nonetheless; he has without doubt ‘turned his misfortune into a passion’ and has continued to provide needed ‘succour for about 80 orphans and handicapped’ at the centre that has become a source of ‘bridging the gap between polio eradication, rehabilitation of polio survivors and improving the lives of people with disabilities in Nigeria’.
In the course of several journeys to numerous ‘cities in northern Nigeria’ he came face to face with the level of polio devastation, which ‘was beyond my imagination; I saw hundreds of children and adults crawling with their bare hands and limbs, and I reminded myself that the wheel chair was the turning point in my life, therefore I knew that unless these people get mobility, their dreams would die.’
God was to open a door for him, for at the ‘age of 19, my uncle built a tricycle wheelchair. That was a turning point in my life because it restored my hope, my dignity, and put me on the path of progress once again. I went back to school and completed primary and secondary school. I couldn’t get into law school right away, so I attended a teacher’s college and earned a teaching position. That same year, I got into law school and trained as a lawyer.
‘In college, some of my lectures were on the fourth floor. There were no elevators and no ramps. I had to park my wheelchair and crawl on my hands. Sometimes the facilities were overcrowded and you needed to be fit to work your way inside. People would enter through the windows. As a result, there were courses I was never able to attend.
‘That changed my entire orientation. Previously I had thought I would be an advocate for the disabled. But I discovered that the number one need of all people crawling on the ground was to have mobility. This is the foundation upon which you can build any kind of rehabilitation effort’.
So far, in its 18 years of its existence, Beautiful Gates has distributed well over 13,000 wheelchairs. About 70% of them went to beneficiaries in the north; even as a substantial number of same were enrolled into the center to acquire skills as well as giving them a sense that they too can benefit society. Lately, in the remotest villages of Jos North, Jos East, Riyom and Barkin Ladi, Bokkos, Jos South and many more have become beneficiaries of free wheelchairs and certain palliatives to stave off the difficulties that came in the wake of Covid-19.
Ayuba Gufwan became popular by virtue of daring to go against what society has come to regard as ‘right’: People who have certain physical challenges should be confined to walk the streets begging for alms. He went against the ‘popular grain’ to contest for the position of the chairman, Mangu local government area in Plateau State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
A few weeks to the 2019 general elections, he surprised a number of people and indeed some of his followers; the PDP by defecting to the All Progressives Party despite allegations of having been rigged out when he contested to become chairman in the Plateau State local government polls held October 2018. He was alleged to have won, however the results were cancelled while he coasted to victory. The rerun was to later favour the APC.
Recall in 2015, he contested as House of Assembly candidate on the ticket of PDP. Many have not forgotten; he was touted as the favourite to win, even before the election was held. However, the popular wind of change swept him out of victory; but together with his party had gone to court to get justice. He lost and went back to re-strategize.
While everything was going on well, the search for the running mate for the gubernatorial candidate put spanners in the works as he was reported to have been discriminated upon by the party as not ‘fit’ for that position. He couldn’t swallow the disparaging remarks about his person; he left the party.
In his words: “Having done a lot in terms of mobilization, financing the party and even giving it credibility, I became a victim of discrimination on the basis that I am physically challenged by vested interest in the party. The emotional trauma my family went through when news of this discriminatory comment filtered into the public will take time to heal.
The then PDP Publicity Secretary in the state, John Akans, would take none of it as he said the party could not have discriminated against Gufwan on the basis of his disability as the PDP has a place for people living with physical disability in its constitution. He said he was too ambitious. 
Like it or not the Makaman Langai and Talban Panyam will remain a regular face in Plateau politics. One thing is certain: For a long time to come, whether in or out of party politics, the niche he has created is going to be felt in the ‘area of human capital development, disability rights advocacy and humanitarian service’. He has proven in practical terms, every man or woman deserves a modicum of respect; no matter what we feel or know about him or her.