Memories of Yusuf Dantsoho (I)

The first time I ever saw Alhaji Yusuf Dantsoho was in late 1991. I was sitting in Citizen Magazine’s newsroom, scribbling a story when he came in. He was annoyed by a certain twist in the ultimately disastrous Babangida transition programme, and had come to Citizen to vent his displeasure. Dantsoho tried to introduce himself, but I told him not to bother, because I kind of knew him very well from the radio and newspapers.

I was not old enough to know the First Republic, but I knew when Dantsoho was elected chairman of Kaduna Local Government in 1976. I also knew the main political actors of the Second Republic more or less from Day 1. Within weeks of the lifting of the ban on politics in September 1978, some very vocal politicians had shot into the limelight, mostly with the help of Halilu Ahmed Getso’s extremely successful Radio Kaduna programme Dandalin Siyasa. Most of the really eloquent ones were PRP men, including Alhaji Sabo Bakin Zuwo, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Alhaji Danjani Hadejia and Alhaji Musa Musawa. The UPN had Alhaji Mamman Nasir of Kaduna, and GNPP had three very vocal people, Hajia Gambo Sawaba, Alhaji Lawal Isa and Alhaji Yusuf Dantsoho.

Dantsoho was often heard on the programme railing against the NPN, on one occasion calling its leaders “tsofaffin machuta”, kind of old crooks. He received as much as he got, for one listener wrote a letter saying, “Kai Alhaji Yusuf Dantsoho, akwai tsohon macuci kamar ka?” The man alleged that as Chairman of the then Kaduna local government, Dantsoho uprooted some people at Hayin Banki and made them to leave Kaduna permanently. [In 1993, I asked Dantsoho about this, and he said military authorities uprooted them, because they snuggled too close to the Nigeria Defence Academy, and that KDLG had nothing to do with it].

After our first encounter, I used to see Dantsoho regularly visiting Alhaji Mamman Jallo, who owned the building that Citizen rented at Unguwar Kanawa. He used to come in an old Peugeot 505, with his driver, because at that point he was no longer driving a car himself. From January to August 1992, Dantsoho was very busy with Alhaji Lema Jibrilu’s presidential campaign and he came to Unguwar Kanawa less often. Soon after the first round of the NRC primaries in August 1992, Alhaji Lema pulled out of the race and Dantsoho crossed over to Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi’s Choice 92 group. As it happened, that was the reason for my getting to know him very well, because my friend Malam Mohamed Lawal was a Choice 92 top organizer and he soon took me to Dantsoho’s house.

Dantsoho followed up on that by regularly visiting me at Citizen to comment on unfolding political events. But Citizen, being a newsmagazine, couldn’t accommodate such running commentaries, so instead I suggested that we do a major story on his life and times. He made things easier for me, for he spoke to Citizen’s managing director Mohamed Haruna, who then directed me to do a major interview with Dantsoho.

The next day, I went to Alhaji Yusuf’s house on Irra Road. I already knew that he was always to be found from around 3pm to sunset, sitting in an old cane chair in front of his house. He was very glad to see me, and we immediately did a two-hour interview, one of the richest in my journalism career. Though Dantsoho spoke good English, he was extremely effective in Hausa, and so I asked my questions in Hausa in order to draw out his rich anecdotes, proverbs and jokes.

What a story I heard that day. Dantsoho talked about his father, who he said was from Tibati, in northern Cameroun. His father was a cook to the Germans who ruled Cameroun up until 1918, and when the British took over from them, a British officer brought Dantsoho’s father first to Lagos and then to Kaduna, where Dantsoho was born in 1926. He talked about his schooling and work as the Geological Survey Assistant in 1942-46. He said for months on end, they went in survey teams all over Plateau and Bauchi provinces scouting for tin and other minerals.

Dantsoho told me about his political radicalization in the mid-1940s, how he joined trade unions and then the NCNC in 1948, before he moved over to the NEPU in 1950 and became its Kaduna Secretary. He told me how, in the early 1950s, he used to visit his father, who was a cook at the European Hospital in Kaduna [the present Barau Dikko, I think]. In those days, the office of Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Northern Region Minister for Local Governments, was directly across the road from the hospital’s kitchen, and Dantsoho said whenever he saw Sardauna approached his office, he would stand up conspicuously and urinate. The big man took notice, and he angrily demanded, “Dan gidan wanene wancan yaron?”

Dantsoho told me how the NPC people sought revenge. He was arrested for an offence and hauled before the much-feared Alkali Malam Bako. “I committed an offence”, Alhaji Yusuf said, studying my face closely. Then he said, “Let me tell you what I did. I drank beer. You know in those days, we used to drink”. He, however, said unknown to the NPC men, Malam Bako was his father, because in 1944, when Malam Bako’s eldest son Audu Bako [later the Military Governor of Kano State] got married, Dantsoho was the groom’s best friend. He said the Alkali asked the prosecutor where the mug was in which the accused person drank beer. When the policeman said he forgot to bring it, Alkali summarily dismissed the case.

He also told me why he left the NEPU. He said at the party’s famous Lafia Convention in 1954, several party leaders, including founding leader Abba Maikwaru, Magaji Danbatta and himself complained that the NEPU had too many enemies. They said it was difficult to fight the British, NPC, regional government, emirs and chiefs, and the Native Authorities all at the same time, and they suggested a realignment, but he said Malam Aminu Kano dismissed the idea, so they left the party.

When Yusuf Dantsoho crossed over to the NPC in 1954, the Sardauna, who was by then Premier, welcomed him warmly, gave him many gifts, and soon made him party secretary in Kaduna. However, despite their best efforts, NEPU beat NPC for Kaduna’s seat in the 1957 regional assembly elections. Some NPC people rushed to Sardauna and said they lost, because Dantsoho was still secretly working for his old party, but Sardauna did not buy the story.

To be concluded next week