I Made Babangida, Buhari to Become Friends Again
• I Bought My First Mercedes Benz Car for N6, 000 from Saraki • Why I battled Babangida over June 12 • Why I Made Bola Tinubu the Jagaban • The Day I Ran Into a Lion
Deep in the sockets, his eyes are glistening mists that keep his pupils illuminating. Regal, resplendent and retrospective, he sits on the throne of his ancestors. His dress flows gracefully, filling where he sits. He takes retrospective glances once that harbours all bygone stories he will soon share. He sighs. He heaves a sign of relief of a gloomy past. He motions respectfully, royally. His lips for the first time begin to part. His story is a very long one…but the episodes of it keep the heart racing. A palatial childhood did not shield him from the pains and persecutions that lay in wait. A die-hard man of integrity, he came, he saw and he conquered. In this pulsating narrative, the Emir of Borgu Dr Halliru Dantoro shares what seems like a larger-than-life story with Stanley Nkwazema. A man with 37 children, and a heart large enough to care for all, tells of his personal relationship with Buhari, Babangida, Tinubu and the late Saraki Childhood and lessons
One important lesson I learnt was the way I was brought up –in a disciplined manner and we learnt to respect elders, truthful, honest and sincere in whatever we do. And my mother, even though she was not educated, took it upon herself to ensure that her children were educated. On our return to school after holidays, my mother would give us something from the little money she had made selling akamu and other things. Uneducated though, she loved education and sold akamu to send us to school.
I grew up in old Bussa, an area that used to be in the Old Ilorin Province and later, Kwara State. I was born in 1938 into the family of Alhaji Mohammed Sani, the late Emir of Borgu of blessed memory. It was in Old Bussa which is now completely submerged as a result of the construction of Kainji Dam. That Old Bussa is now a tourist site. I attended Bussa Elementary School. I started in 1946. I ended up being transferred to Ilorin. In Ilorin, I was admitted at Pakata Elementary School. From Pakata I went to Baboku senior Primary School. From Baboku I went to Ilorin Secondary School, being a middle school then. When I finished from there, being born into a royal family, my father wanted me to stay in the palace with him. Father loved me so much and that love ironically resulted in my being denied a lot of things. It was the day a white man, the Divisional Officer came to the Emir (my father) and advised the Emir that, “Look, you better send this young man to school. Keeping him with you will not help you, especially his own future.”
Heeding the white man’s advice, father allowed me to be transferred to Ilorin where I went to do my elementary school. When I finished from Ilorin Middle School, then I went back home. My father did not allow me to go any further. At that time, I sat for Entrance Examination into Kings College, Lagos and I was successful. I was admitted to that school but when I went to see my father and showed him my letter of admission, he said, “Why should you go to Lagos while other northerners are looking towards North? Why should you be looking towards south? Barewa College is there, you should go there instead of Kings College, Lagos, and after all I have no money to pay for your education.”
That was how I became a victim of circumstance. My father then instructed me to start working with him. He employed me as his own Personal Secretary. Wherever he went I was all along with him and I was keeping records. In most cases when he had visitors especially those who cannot speak Hausa, I was the interpreter. So all along, I grew in his hands and tutelage. And in 1955, there was an administrative officer; I still remember his name, R.W. Simmonds. He was a Divisional Officer. He saw me and invited me and asked me where I attended school and other things. Later he decided that instead of the Emir keeping me as his own secretary, I should work with the Native Authority. Without
much ado, I was employed as a Scribe in the Treasury in Borgu Native Authority. Immediately, he decided to send me to Zaria, in 1956 to attend the Institute of Administration. I was there between 1956 and 1957. Afterwards, I was employed as a Secretary to the Native Authority Council which is now Emirate Council. I was there but later sent back to Zaria to study for three years. I studied Public Administration. It was an in-service training. Upon completion of the course, I was appointed full clerk to the Native Authority Council.
Indellible Experience
I remember one or two things: one was when I was appointed Secretary to the Emirate Council. My uncle was the Chairman of the Establishment Committee. I think he had a dislike for me. As the Chairman of the Emirate Establishment Committee, he saw no reason why I should be employed. He put his foot down and said it was either I went to work with the Emir or I went somewhere else. I was disengaged. I went back to the palace to work for my father. The second one was my encounter with a lion. Then, I was the tax registrar. I planned my trip to western part of Borgu to go on tax drive. On that day, when I finished Council meeting, it was around 4pm and I started out with the hope of sleeping over at Warwa. I rode on my motorbike, AJS Blue. Suddenly, a lion appeared, crossing the road and because I was riding so fast I didn’t see it on time. I rammed into it. The lion survived and just walked away. As for me and my bike, we were flung in separate directions. With bruises all over my body I began shivering, running into a lion and still alive. The journey could not be continued. I had to turn back. There was another incident in my elementary school. I had a fight with one of my classmates. He pushed me and I had a cut on my head (shows deep scar on his scalp). When he saw that I was down and out with blood gushing, he ran away. Then the news went round to the Emir and the boy disappeared. Interestingly, up till today, I never saw the boy again.
Dream Profession
Well, honestly I had no inclination to a particular profession because of the way I was brought up in the administration; because when one is in the palace, one thinks only in terms of the palace always. Seeing that one is close to one’s father and the father is the Emir, one aspires to be an Emir. The nature of things is for a prince to aspire to be an Emir. So, one will be working towards that way in administration. I have been in the system for a very long time, since my childhood.
First Job, First Salary
For my first job, I collected three pounds, 11 shillings and eight pence. I was just a scribe then working in the Treasury. In those days, immediately we collected our salary the first thing we did was to go straight to our parents and present the money to them. They would decide what to take –we wanted their blessings. My father took a pound out of it and my mother –a kind woman –she did not take more than two shillings. The remaining money I did not spend alone; a lot of people got out of it. It was very interesting collecting that amount. It was like having millions today. I was very happy because I never had any personal money like that while I was going to school. It was money, good money for that matter.
Challenges in Life
I faced a lot of challenges. You know when one is rising among your peers he’s bound to have a lot of challenges because his peers will not want to see him rise. They will put all kinds of obstacles in his way. But I believe in one thing: that is the will of the creator. All along, it had been a battlefield. I always put God first in whatever I do. My battle is absolute faith in God. That I think, has kept me alive because I met a lot of challenges. A lot of things have been put in my way as obstacles. This is particularly so when I was a councillor. Then, I had older brothers with whom I had some problems –because I was rising above them. Later, from the Native Authority Service, I moved to the State Government Service. When I was Chairman of Kwara State Scholarship Board, which was my first assignment at the state level, I discovered that I was presiding over funds of which my people were not beneficiaries because scholarship was being offered in two areas: first, on merit and second, on divisional basis. I discovered that my people from Borgu were not benefitting from the scheme.
I raised an objection to the state government. I requested that it was either the government converted our own share to money so that we can continue to build secondary schools and fund secondary education so that our people can enjoy the fund. But the government was not prepared to do that and I insisted they either did it or I resigned. Fortunately, later on, it was a military regime. It was Col. T. Bamigboye who appointed me as the chairman, but it was that upheld my objection by George Innih when he became the governor of Kwara State. For that, he decided to convert the money to funds for secondary education. That really helped us a lot. From the scholarship board, I went to State Services. I was appointed commissioner, first for Agriculture and Natural Resources, from there again I was moved me to Finance but because of my uncompromising stance, I did not stay long in the state’s ministry of finance. You know what that meant? One either went against the governor’s interest or got moved to another ministry, or dropped. I was in the finance ministry for only six months. There was cabinet reshuffle and I was moved to Trade and Industry in 1975.
In 1975, there was this General Muritala Mohammed coup; all of us were thrown out of government. Late Ibrahim Taiwo took over as the Military Governor. I remember Col. Taiwo set up a probe panel on virtually all the ministries and parastatals. At that time, we built Kwara Hotels –most of the industrial projects were done under my leadership. There was this case of Kwara Hotels. The present Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade, was a businessman. He was the point man in connecting us with various investors abroad. We built the hotel and what happened was that during the probe, I was called to testify to certain things and asked to give details about my relationship with the governor as far as transactions of Kwara Hotels were concerned. I told them that as far as I was concerned, my relationship with the governor was official. I had no interest in what he did. We were very close and did a lot of things but these things were official. At the probe panel, one of the members asked me when we were in Germany there was an allegation that Mercedes Benz cars were given to us as tips.
Further Travails
When they said I was given a Mercedes Benz car, one of the members of the panel knew how I was able to buy my own Mercedes Benz car. It was true that Mercedes Benz cars were offered to us but I rejected that offer. I had a Volkswagen Beetle back home which I was using as a commissioner until I was given an official car so I knew nothing about it. But I knew what happened, the car they thought I got, I got it through late Dr. Olusola Saraki. We were very good friends so when I told him I wanted a car, he said he was going to arrange a car for me. What I did was to go and lease my plot of land in New Bussa; I sold it to one Wole Oye and company; it was one of the companies that constructed some of the houses in New Bussa. I gave them that land on lease and that was the money I used to pay as deposit to Dr. Olusola Saraki. Fortunately, one of the members of the panel was there, so he raised an objection to put records straight that he was a witness to the transaction. I think I bought the Mercedes Benz car for N6, 000. I deposited N4, 000 and later completed the payment for about a few months. The panel now said they were satisfied that I should go. They wanted to find out if there was an inducement or bribe between me and the governor but I told them there was no other relationship between me and the governor other than the official one. I didn’t go to him to gossip. At the end of the day we took our case to the National Assembly. I led the pressure group. We got there and asked for his removal as the Leader of the Senate. That was why he was removed. Saraki was so powerful at that time. He was replaced by Senator Waziri Jalo. During the second coming of President Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1983 the issue of who became the minister again cropped up; when he nominated me as one of the ministers. Of course, no sooner had the news got round in Kwara than most of the supporters of Saraki asked how he could allow such thing to happen. After all, Saraki was a member of the screening committee. Once a Leader of the Senate they questioned how he could be in that committee and yet screen Dantoro as a minister.
Interestingly, the late Alhaji Umaru Dikko invited me to the Federal Palace Hotel in Lagos State and told me that I had better reconcile with Saraki because he opposed my nomination as a minister. I told Dikko to forget it because I was not going to meet Saraki. If God said I would be minister nobody, not even Saraki, could stop it. I told him to watch and see what would happen. Fortunately, there were some senators like Agunbiade of the UPN the opposition party, Ajuji Waziri, the husband of the immediate past EFCC Chairman, Farida Waziri and one Fagboye. They told me not to worry that they were going to support me throughout the screening. My name was listed as those who were going to be screened first but when Saraki came they withdrew my name from the list and put it last. The day I was being screened the entire gallery was bursting its seams because they had come to see what kind of drama that was going to take place. I came in and was asked some questions. But I think the opposition was already behind me. They did not pose any problem to me. When it got to the turn of Saraki, Senator Okpanachi asked Oloye Saraki if he had any questions, he looked at me and said he had no questions. They asked again but he replied that he had no questions. Then the game was over.
Later, the Deputy Senate President invited me to his office with Saraki and reconciled the two of us. In that meeting we agreed to work together and ensure peace, stability and progress of Kwara State and the nation. That was how we ended up as best of friends. I was then appointed as the minister for the Federal Capital Territory. There used to be two ministers, senior and junior, but in my own case Shagari decided it was going to be only one minister and I was in charge as the third FCT minister after Adija and Dan Musa. But Saraki was not happy because he knew that my new position had endeared