Foremost broadcaster and former Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Alhaji Danladi Bako (Kogunna Sokoto) is a grass-roots politician in Sokoto politics. He recently spoke to a team of Politics editors ahead of the gubernatorial primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state. Group Politics Editor, Taiwo Adisa, presents the excerpts:THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in yourstate appears to have been fragmented andthere are threats that Governor Magatakarda Wamakko is under the threat of being dropped by the party. How did things get to this pass'I will tell you something about the Sokoto State governor, Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, that you may not know about. Alu, as we fondly refer to him here in Sokoto, is the man of the people and a grass-roots politician. We have a cherished tradition here of honouring invitation to weddings and burials ceremonies as matter of duty to humanity and obedience to the will of God. Aliyu does that on a daily basis and the best way to get to a Sokoto man is when you visit him. It doesn't matter how much quarrel between you and him. The day you pay him a visit, you have subsided his anger.Aliyu does that excellently well. He was a permanent secretary, Clerk to the state House of Assembly, and has gone to every local government. He knows everybody and he visits everybody at home. If Aliyu's driver is ill and in the hospital, Aliyu would go and see him. That is the kind of leader he is. Let me give you a background to what you are seeing today.In 2007, the DPP had a candidate, Maigari Dingyadi, who was Secretary to the State Government (SGG), under Attahiru Bafarawa. And the Bafarawa's government-led was run by just Bafarawa, Umaru Kobo and the SSG. At that time, commissioners could not sign a cheque of N50, 000. The PDP had Muktari Shagari. Muktari was nice but he won't do the things Aliyu did. And after five years as minister, one cannot point out five people that we can say Muktari had installed or helped. So these are the differences between him and Aliyu.So, as at 2007 that was where we were. The ANPP was going to win because they had a good candidate and they had the masses behind them. Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) was going to come second because they have the incumbency but a poor candidate. Then PDP that was the Federal government's party had low patronage in the state and relatively poor candidate. So, it was important at the time that two of these parties needed to fuse together to be able to defeat the incumbent government at that time. So, we in the PDP merged with the ANPP. We went to beg Aliyu to come and join the PDP and we took it to Baba (former President Olusegun Obasanjo). So, we sat down, deliberated and found out that we in the PDP cannot win the election without the support of one of the parties. We merged with the ANPP and made Aliyu the candidate and Mukhtari, the deputy. So PDP and ANPP merged. Now, when we won the election, the whole idea was that when we take out the DPP government of Bafarawa, we would now sit down and organise ourselves.We sat down and agreed that we are going to run this government and share positions. So, the deputy governor went to the PDP, the SSG was more like ANPP. The minister at the centre was PDP; the Ambassador at the centre was also PDP. Then, PDP was given one Senate seat which (Senator Abubakar) Gada inherited without printing a poster. Gada won his PDP Senate election without printing one poster because of that structure of sharing or allocation. Since it is for us to defeat Bafarawa, we needed to share out these positions and unite. When we united, we ended up with our choice that one Senate seat should go to the PDP and two Senate seats should go to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).So, the two Senate seats that went to ANPP were given to Senator (Umaru) Dahiru Tambuwal and Maccido so that Sokoto Central and Sokoto West went to ANPP. The PDP took Sokoto East which was given to Gada.Among the 11 Federal House of Representatives seats, seven went to the PDP and four to ANPP. So, Umar Bature and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal were among the beneficiaries of those seven seats that were allocated to the PDP. This arrangement was since 2007 and the whole idea was that after eight years, it will be the reverse. In the lower chamber, seven seats will now go to the ANPP, four to the PDP. Then for the three Senate seats, two will go to PDP, one to ANPP while the deputy governor will go to the ANPP and the PDP will take the gubernatorial seat.Now, the whole issue is that the people who are contesting against Aliyu cannot wait for those eight years.Were you happy that you are part of the old PDP.Yes.But there is so much complaints that the old PDP has been marginalised. What would be your response to that particular allegation' That is one. Secondly, in 2007 there was this slogan: 'Sai Aliyu' and that was an indication of massive support that Dr Aliyu Wamakko got from the people of Sokoto State. Now people are wondering why the popular man of 2007 is coming under serious threat, so to say. Why so much opposition from the people within and can you shed light on what went wrong'I will give you the two answers, but they might overlap. I gave you a background. As a 2007 there was no way we were going to win that election on our own. And I gave you the breakdown as to the seniority in the order of arrangement. There were three parties contesting against the ANPP which had a good candidate and massive support. The DPP had SSG running, with moeny and power of incumbency; PDP had the federal might and fairly poor candidate. So, we were not the senior partner, and you are not going to expect us to have 50-50 arrangement. That was why even in giving out seven of the House of Representatives to PDP as against four for ANPP was a fair deal and two senatorial seats to ANPP and one to PDP, to me, was a fair deal.So, as at that time, the complaints were making the rounds and I mentioned that the Ambassador Abdalla Wali, Ladan Shuni, Shehu Wurno were all PDP. All the last four ambassadors since 1999 have been within the odl PDP fold, all of them, including the ministers, Ahmed Gusau and Yusuf Suleiman, while Muktari Shagari was there for five years from 2001 to 2006. So, for me I don't think that there was that level of marginalisation because we were not the senior partner in the first place.Those who brought the larger crowd and those who had a very good candidate and who had the masses and had the votes, had the driving seat. They had the steering and I thought that it was okay by that arrangement.Again it has to do with interpretation.Some people might be contented with akara and pap, some might want Quaker oat, some might want cornflakes, others might even want omelet along with it. For me, I believed that the arrangement was okay.As I speak to you, the arrangement has made the old PDP to still retain the minister, deputy governor, ambassador; all these three are extremely important. As far as I am concerned, by my own perception, I don't think there was anything wrong with that.Concerning the second part, as we are approaching primaries, you won't feel the heat and the noise of 'Sai Aliyu' until we pass the primaries. This is the first time we are doing primaries like this within the PDP. Way back, once the caucus and the party structure indicate one direction, nobody comes to resist it. There is a general consensus but because of the nature of the unification in 2006, we had to wait to decide that at the primaries on this occasion. But normally, we won't do primaries. But as soon as this primary is over by 17th, you will see the wave we will move towards 'Sai Aliyu'. I have a DVD that I can show you on his return from (I don't know how many of you were in town that time')But we heard about it.You saw the return, the traffic and the crowd' I have it on DVD. If I play it back to you now, you will understand that Aliyu is still a factor. Once upon a time, for eight years, there was a governor who did not allow commissioners to even spend N50,000.00 on their own. Now, all the commissioners have brand new Prado Jeeps, they have houses, they have commissioners' quarters here.Also, all the local government chairmen, for the first time, spend money the way they want. This government is so free and, in fact, to the point where some of us even feel that he is too lay back. He is too relaxed. Even some of these old PDP members, like Ladan Shuni, should not have been absolved. All of them should not have benefited from the government, if the governor is only patronising people from the old ANPP.The new PDP is the one that has the fusion of the ANPP and the PDP and a few others from the ACN and other parties like the Inuwa Abdulkadir, the Attorney-General. He was not really a member of any of these two. He was Orji Uzo Kalu's vice-presidential candidate. So, Aliyu accommodated everybody; that is why we have PDP and I gave you the background as to why we needed to fuse at that time to be able to push out the last government.Now, we did that fusion and it is a fact that some people are not ready to wait for the second round of the circle to complete. And they couldn't wait because as, at the time of the fusion, although they were ready to accept what it was, they rebuffed it because they now have money, having become senators, ministers etc, bought houses in Dubai and so on. So, the money excites them and they look forward to the next stage without qualms.I was 2003 senatorial candidate; I won my primary by a landslide victory and also I won the election, but I was rigged out. I am not the 'wahala' type because I cannot see why I should fight or get thugs to fight for me, when somebody was Speaker of Federal House of Representatives at 29 years and me, at 49 years, should fight for senatorial seat at that time' So, I let it go. I allowed it pass and since then, I have not been a minister, a senator or anything. I only do my little contribution to the growth of the state.For me, every experience that I have got counts. I did not leave the PDP today because I was not made a minister. The person I ran with in 2003, Jabbi Kilgori, the present Commissioner for Agriculture, ran for Sokoto West where Dahiru Tambuwal is today. Yusuf Suleiman ran for Sokoto East and I was the candidate for Sokoto Central and I actually won my own seat. Jabbi Kilgori has been Commissioner of Agriculture as well as for Works. Yusuf has been Minister of Transport and was also in Sports. I am only the one that has not and I don't complain.Can you please address the issue that the governor supported opposition party in Zamfara State and on the issue of his qualification, there are doubts over the veracity of his Masters degree'I will, for the benefit of this discussion, give you the answers. But I might skip some points. Firstly, on the issue of anti-party, remember that I gave you a background as to the relationship between all these parties, when everybody that was in ANPP, such as Aliyu, who was extremely popular, including Bafarawa, Sani Yarima and Aleiro. All of them were in the ANPP and there was that relationship. And I remember that I told you that the ANPP was seen as the former NPN, so that tradition of all those old conservative people was still playing and their relationship has been there for the past 20 to 30 years. So, I do not think and I know that Aliyu did not sponsor or support Abdulaziz Yari. They are friends in Sokoto. If you go to the commissioner's wedding today, some people from another party will be there. We don't do politics like that. I can be there, everybody else, including some of his friends that are in the ACN, including some from the CPC, could attain wedding. I told you that Aliyu is the kind of person who visits people.Even when Bafarawa's father died, Aliyu went to greet him despite the fact that there was a case in the tribunal. Aliyu still went to visit him to pay condolence. So, if these kind of relationships are interpreted to mean continuous friendship and support, it is unfortunate because in our religion, there is no provision for that kind.If, for any reason, his discussion with the gubernatorial candidate for ANPP gets blown out, you will take it that there is no provision for Aliyu to stop talking to Abdulaziz because he is running as a candidate.Secondly, I strongly believe that PDP regime in Zamfara, with all modesty and seriousness, need to have up their game. There was internal crisis. There was General Aliyu's faction, which Namadi Ango was heading, and there was another faction. So there were about three factions of the PDP in Zamfara. Remember, they had two chairmen, until the elections. So, the reasons for PDP losing Zamfara are not Alu's fault. Maybe as governor of Sokoto, he would have called them and resolved the issue but there were even elders of the party in Zamfara plus General Aliyu, Tafidan Gusau and the former governor, Yahaya Abdulkareem, who had, many times, interceded between Mahmoud Shinkafi and Rijima. So if anything, Aliyu should have been credited for assisting in trying to resolve this crisis. Remember that I also told you about the candidate which I listed that we had in 2007 of ANPP, DPP and PDP. I am not sure whether the candidate that ran in 2007 in Zamfara for the PDP was the most charismatic and the most popular. I am not sure, I might be wrong.Then to the other question about his qualification, I do not think so. On my part, I am not going to defend what the university said or where they have got their facts from. Even if Aliyu was still a grade-two teacher in Sokoto Teachers College, I will still campaign and vote for him because beyond being educated, he is humble, accommodating, intelligent and a grass-roots person.I don't know when any of you came last to Sokoto but I am sure that when you saw a fly-over in front of the Union Bank, you must have wondered when it happened because there has never being one there. The road leading to Sokoto has been dualised and for 35 years, this Kontogora road had been stones. But it has been asphalted. All the roads have now been dualised as well as roads in the local governments. So, in terms of performance Aliyu does not even need a bachelors' degree to be governor of Sokoto State.
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