By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

Broadcast journalism icon, Danladi Bako is remembered for his pioneering role in setting the stage for modern television live talk shows in Nigeria.

The debonair presenter of the innovative Morning Ride programme on NTA subsequently rose to the peak of the broadcast industry as the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC and then moved on to the political terrain. With one foot still in politics, the Sokoto born Bako has also emerged as a confidant of royalty with his installation as Kogunna Sakkwatto.

Ahead of this weekend’s gubernatorial primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Sokoto State, Bako gave his views on the factors and issues that would define the contest at a session with newsmen.

Excerpts:

What are the chances of the main contenders in the contest?

I will tell you something about the Sokoto State Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko that you may not know. Alu, as we fondly refer to him here in Sokoto. He is the man of the people and a grassroots 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 it is the best way to get to a Sokoto local man especially when you visit him. On every other thing, 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. He has been 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 in the hospital. That is the kind of leader he is.

Now we had a DPP candidate, Maigari Dingyadi who was just Secretary to the State government and Bafarawa’s government was run by just Bafarawa, Umaru Kobo and the SSG. At that time commissioners could not sign a cheque of N50, 000 and they had a candidate, Maigari Dingyadi, PDP had Mukthari (Shagari). Mukthari was nice but he won’t do the things Aliyu did.

Danladi Bako

So, as at 2007 ANPP was going to win because they had a good candidate and they had the masses behind them. DPP was going to come second because they had incumbency but a poor candidate. Then PDP that was the Federal government party had low patronage in the state and 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 took it to Baba.

So, we sat down, deliberated and found out that we in the PDP cannot win this 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 organize 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 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 in our choice that one senate seat should go to the PDP and two senate seats should go to ANPP.

So, the two senate seats that went to ANPP were given to Dahiru Tambuwal and Maccido so that Sokoto Central and Sokoto West went to ANPP. PDP took Sokoto East which was given to Gada.

Amongst the eleven Federal House seats, seven went to PDP and four to ANPP. So, Umar Bature and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal were among the beneficiaries of those seven seats that were shared to the PDP. This arrangement was since 2007 and the whole idea was that after eight years it will be the reverse. The federal House seats, seven will now go to the ANPP, four to the PDP. Then 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 governor.

Now, the whole matter is that the people who are contesting against Aliyu cannot wait for those eight years.

So, you were part of the old PDP?

Yes.

There are complaints that the old PDP has been marginalized?

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 oath, some might want cornflakes, others might even want omelet along with it.

For me I thought that the arrangement was okay. As I speak to you, the PDP arrangement of ministers has made the PDP to still be Minister, deputy governor, ambassador – old PDP; 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.

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.

I was 2003 senatorial candidate; I won my primary landslide and I won the election also but I was rigged out, but I am not the “Wahala” type because I cannot see why I should fight or get Area Boys to go fighting for me due to senatorial seat.

What of this issue of the Governor supporting opposition parties in Zamfara and Kebbi and the assertion that he has fathom educational qualification?

I do not think and I know that Aliyu did not sponsor or support Abdulaziz Yari (ANPP Governor of Zamfara). That they are friends… 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 tribunal. Aliyu still went to visit him to pay condolence.

Secondly, I strongly believe that PDP regime of Zamfara with all modesty and seriousness, they needed to have upped their game. There was internal crisis and 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 elusive. May be 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 and many times interceded between Mahmoud Shinkafi and Rijima. So if anything, Aliyu should have been credited for assisting in trying to resolve this crisis.

Then to the second question about qualification, I do not think that on my part because I am not going to defend what the University has said. Even if Aliyu was still a grade two teacher after Sokoto Teachers College, I will still vote for him as well as campaign for him. This is because beyond being educated, he is that humble, accommodating, intelligent and a grass root person. So, in terms of performance Aliyu does not even need a bachelors degree to be governor of Sokoto State.

What of allegations that he pushed Tambuwal to contest for Speaker of the House of Representatives?

When that election of Tambuwal was on, Wamako was in Saudi Arabia. Supposing he asked Aminu not to contest and he did not listen to him and went on to win the election, do you think by now that they would have being in good terms?. The elders in Sokoto don’t want to talk to somebody and the person will not heed. That is why sometimes people like Shagari do not want to talk.