Why ne and ce are not verbs:

Technical writings on Hausa refer to ne and ce as "stabilizers" (the term used by the great Hausa scholar, F.W. Parsons) or "copulas" (the term used by most linguists today). There are a number of reasons for not calling ne and ce "verbs":

• The subject pronouns which go with all other verbs do not go with ne or ce.
• Following from the first point, since Hausa uses subject pronouns to express "tense" or mood (completedness, futureness, imperative or exhortation, etc.), none of these overtly expressed distinctions are available with ne and ce.
• No verbs have separate forms to show gender agreement, whereas ce is restricted to feminine singular and ne to masculine singular and any plural.
• Verbs go after the subject; ne and ce go at the end of the sentence, at least in simple statements of identification.
• Ne and ce are invariable. One cannot, for example, make them into nouns meaning 'being'.
• Ne and ce can be omitted in many contexts--identification can really be accomplished just by stating a subject followed by an identifying noun. With the exception of the verb 'do' in specific contexts, verbs must be expressed since they are fundamental words in their sentences.