13 PERSONA We should be honoured while alive – Sadiq Daba
Abdulkareem Baba Aminu & Nathaniel Bivan
Daily Trust: Many people know about your many lives on screen, but what is it like when you are not on screen?
It depends on what side of the curve you are looking at Sadiq Daba the actor, the producer or the broadcaster. If you go to work, you try to do your best. If you are in the newsroom, you go find your news, read it, print it. If you are in production, you produce or direct. So, you dedicate yourself to it and hope for the best. In my case, second best is not good for me. If it’s not good, it is not good. If you are working, you think of the best. That’s what I do.
DT: One of your recent outings in film was the movie ‘October 1’ which earned you the award of Best Actor for your role as Inspector Waziri in the Africa Movie Academy Award. How easy do you find it to jump into roles like that one?
Daba: Drama has been a kind of hobby of mine while growing up, when we used to go to the cinema to watch John Wayne and co, these things run through my mind. When I came back from Sierra Leone to Nigeria to be a broadcaster, acting never crossed my mind then.
Acting came along the line and I have to go back to my younger archives to see what was it I used to like and what those actors like Jammy Cluckin’ were doing. Acting for me is an all-encompassing thing. You put your life and soul into it, because when you are acting you are no longer you, you are somebody else. So you strive as much as you can to interpret that role that you are doing to the best of your ability, because the sooner people are convinced about what you are doing the better. I loved the ‘October 1’ script.
I like going back to my roots because these are things that happened. The Yoruba man fights with the Hausa man, the Hausa man fights with the Igbo man, these are situations we are trying to run away from, but we cannot run away from our history. What happened in ‘October 1’ was reality, and for me I am a child of the 50s, so I knew some of these stories. So it’s a question of going back memory lane.
DT: From the classic TV show, ‘Cock Crow at Dawn’ to the more recent ‘October 1’, how much would you say you have grown as an actor over these decades?
Every film and every movie has its challenges. ‘Cock Crow at Dawn’ may have put me on the acting map of Nigeria. Even when we were in Sokoto there were other programs and they were as good as ‘Cock Crow at Dawn’.
But because ‘Cock Crow at Dawn’ was more like history wide and it ran for several years that kind of took the shine out of the others. I think on a scale of one to 10, as far as Nigerian audience is concerned, it was ‘Cock Crow at Dawn’ that launched it.
DT: Speaking of ‘Cock Crow at Dawn’, recently your friend and co-star, Kasimu Yero, died after being ill for a while. How have you been grieving?
Kasimu Yero is not the first one. There have been several that have died, but Kasimu’s hit me too hard. Mainly because he is from the north and we need to put the north on the map. Our people sit lackadaisically and don’t know what to do for us. You don’t wait for a man to die before you start paying eulogies.
Kasimu put the map of the north far beyond the reach of Nigerians. He was editor of a book. I get angry when I talk to Kasimu because I expected the north, and I am not talking about Kaduna or Kano only, I am talking about the entire north. He was a detribalised Nigerian. Every side of Kasimu is laughter and a story. He should have been given much more than he was given.
DT: You yourself have been battling with an illness. What more can you share with us on that?
It started about three years ago. I was in Abuja and working on a documentary and I thought I had fever and so was rushed to a hospital. I was diagnosed with leukaemia. The doctors advised that I hurriedly seek medical treatment from a tertiary institution, a teaching hospital.
That brought me down to Lagos. I was on admission. After that I had a little respite. Six months after I had a relapse because the drugs I was treated with were just not working. Again I was admitted in the hospital. I was referred to the university teaching hospital in Ile Ife. That was the only hospital in the whole of Nigeria where leukaemia is being treated. Also, that is the only place where there is a donor organisation. That is what I have been battling with.
As I speak to you I have a catheter, and they had to do one or two tests before they recommended me for surgery. The fact of the matter is, why can’t we be honoured while we are alive? Now Kasimu is dead, a very wonderful friend of mine, a very good camera man, Hussaini Baba Ahmed, is dead, Yusuf Mohammed also died.
DT: What would you say are the most striking differences between an acting career years ago and one today.
When we started, we were doing it for the love of the profession. I remember when I was in ‘Cock Crow at Dawn’ I think I was given a stipend of N6, but now actors run to the bank with millions. They have endorsements nowadays. During ‘Cock Crow at Dawn’ all the money went to NTA. There was this notion that we were doing our jobs because we were civil servants.
DT: Have any of your kids shown signs of following your career footsteps?
My first son is into Mass communication, the second is into Computer Engineering, another is into Political Science. The fourth is in his second year in business administration. I don’t dictate for them what they should do. DT: You have all boys?
I have five boys and a girl. She is married and has five kids.
DT: Let’s go back to your illness. Obviously it has been affecting your professional life?
I was up again until the last two or three months. I had to go to Ife and come back home. It is the only place you can get drugs and once you run out of it you are in trouble again.
DT: Your treatment is extensive and expensive. How do you cope with it?
God has been wonderful. I must say thank you to some very good friends of mine. Alhaji Yakubu Mohammed was very nice to me too. If I tell you the bill it’s crazy and out of this world. A drug for three months costs about N500, 000. Where would one get that kind of money? Now I need to do surgery and I hope help will come somewhere. But I know God is in control and help will come.
Sadiq Daba is a veteran television broadcaster, actor, director and producer. In this interview, he talks about his illness, mourning late Kasimu Yero, his journey as an actor, and more. Excerpts: As I speak to you I have a catheter, and they had to do one or two tests before they recommended me for surgery. The fact of the matter is, why can’t we be honoured while we are alive? Now Kasimu is dead, a very wonderful friend of mine