Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, the Governor of Sokoto State from 1999 to 2007, likes to describe himself as a career politician. Unlike many Nigerians in politics who gleefully call themselves politicians, Bafarawa has good reasons for wearing that tag. He did not happen upon the political scene by accident; he was almost born a politician with Ishaya Ibrahim
Coming from a part of the country where Western education was not fashionable, at least at the time of his infancy, Bafarawa would tell you that he was lucky to have a father who, instead of making him a cattle-rearer, chose the path of western education for him. The young Attahiru did not disappoint; he gave a good account of himself in school.
But the politician in him was developing cheek by jowl with his academic pursuit. It was, therefore, little wonder that Bafarawa joined politics early in life. By 1976, when he was barely 22 years of age, Bafarawa was already making headway as a politician. He was a Supervisory Councillor in charge of Education in his local government council.
By the time Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1979, after 13 years of military interregnum, Bafarawa was already set to go to the National Assembly. He ran election into the House of Representatives on the platform of Ibrahim Waziri’s Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP), which broke away from Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP). He was doing this at the time his kinsman, Shehu Shagari, was the arrowhead and presidential candidate of National Party of Nigeria (NPN) which eventually formed the government at the centre. Unlike most Nigerian politicians who are guided by primordial considerations in their choice of political parties, Bafarawa is usually propelled by principle. He acts according to the dictates of his conscience.
Despite his loss at the elections, he trudged on like a Spartan. Between 1994 and 1995, he was a member of the National Constitutional Conference of Gen. Sani Abacha. When a fresh whistle was blown for political activities in the country following the ascension of Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, Bafarawa was one of the earliest Nigerians who responded to the clarion call. He was to become a founding member of the All Peoples Party (APP) which was later rechristened the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). It was on the platform of this party that Bafarawa got elected as the Governor of Sokoto State in 1999.
The governorship years of Alhaji Bafarawa were remarkable for a number of reasons. Apart from the infrastructural transformation that he unleashed on the Sokoto landscape, he was one governor who was noted for making his word his bond. He is a man of his words. If some other politicians are slippery or are masters of ghost words, Bafarawa differs significantly from the maddening crowd. He means what he says.
He does not suffer fools gladly. He demonstrated his legendary frankness when his fellow Northern governors, in 2002, chose him to present their position on the Northern political agenda under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. Bafarawa did not disappoint. His delivery at the Kaduna Trade Fair Complex, venue of the gathering, was pungent and incisive. He fed the audience with home truths. He obviously touched raw nerves in the process. Nevertheless, the frankness of his thoughts endeared him to many. Today, if you are looking for a Nigerian politician who would look authority in the eyes and tell truth to it, Bafarawa is it. He does not mind whose ox is gored in the process of telling the truth.
Bafarawa’s principled stand on issues is not limited to politics. He is also a devotee who believes in and professes what his religion teaches. As a devout Muslim, Bafarawa believes that it is wrong for anyone to jostle for power. This is because he believes in the Qur’anic injunction which holds that Allah gives power to whom He wills and takes it from whom He wills. Bafarawa said this much to the people of Sokoto during the third anniversary of his governorship.
People had beseeched him then to declare interest in standing for second term in office. He rebuffed the entreaties and reminded the people, instead, that the holy prophet had made it clear that power should be denied anybody who canvasses for it. He believes in letting the people make this judgement. That is why he has never fallen into the Tamike trap. For Bafarawa, this is an abiding principle. The people are the determinants of whatever he does.
He is not swayed by the dictates of personalities. If anything, he loathes the brand of politics that is personality-based. He is almost a leftist politician who believes in defining a system that he believes in, rather than be enslaved by other people’s systems. When he left the ANPP in 2006 to found the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), he did so because some political buccaneers were out to make nonsense of the lofty dreams of the founding fathers of the party. As one guided by principle and good conscience, Bafarawa would not be a part of that desecration. When the forces of revisionism could not be reined in, Bafarawa took the path of honour by finding political accommodation elsewhere.
In politics as in other spheres of life, Bafarawa has always worked hard. He does not believe in jumping unto the victory bandwagon. That was why Obasanjo as the president of Nigeria could not convince him to join the PDP. The party, under Obasanjo, was under siege and Bafarawa would not be part of that perilous siege. In whatever setting he finds himself, he usually makes the best of it.
He has had cause, at various times, to run for the Presidency of Nigeria. He did so in 2007. In 2011, he tried his hands again on it, but ended up at the level of the selection process because the people he thought were his allies were treacherous human beings who would tell you one thing in the morning and do another in the evening. His quest for the presidency is borne out of patriotism. He yearns for a new Nigeria where tribe and religion will not be stumbling blocks to unity. That is why he loathes intrigues. He avoids environments that are founded on treachery. That explained his parting of ways with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the party through which he sought to become president in 2011.
As a builder in politics, Bafarawa returned to the familiar arena when some political parties decided to come together to present Nigerians with another formidable political platform other than the PDP. As a member of the ANPP, Bafarawa joined forces with others from the ACN and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the merger talks that gave birth to the All Progressives Congress (APC). In forming the APC, Bafarawa, again brought his dexterity and large-heartedness to bear on the process. He led the team that gave the party its manifesto and constitution. He donated his Abuja residence as the secretariat for the exercise. His commitment to the new project was total and sincere.
But again, Bafarawa was to part ways with the party owing to treachery and bad blood on the part of the leadership. After working so hard to see to the formation of the APC, the party’s leadership betrayed him by giving unmerited recognition to an outsider at his expense of. An Aliyu Wamakko, a PDP chieftain and governor of Sokoto who knew nothing about the formation of APC, was asked to come and lord it over Bafarawa.
Equity, justice and good conscience revolted against the arrangement. As someone who listens to the voice of the people, Bafarawa maintained his composure until the people spoke to him. They asked him to leave APC for PDP. He bowed to the dictates of the people. Today, he is a prominent member of the PDP and leader of the party in Sokoto. The re-alignment of forces is already redefining the politics of the state that houses the Caliphate. His sense of equity, fairplay and accommodation promises to give PDP the much needed lever with which to take over the reins of governance in Sokoto.
