Alhaji Sani Zangon Daura’s career spanned from the days of the Northern Regional Service, where he was an assistant district officer to the North Central State and was also a commissioner in the military administration of Brigadier General Abba Kyari (1968-75). During the Second Republic, he was one of the founders of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), and in the Third Republic, under the government of Olusegun Obasanjo, he was a Minister of Agriculture and Environment. In this abridged piece extracted from an earlier interview, he averred that the North is endowed with abundant natural resources and has the population advantage for its development.
The sentiment on whether the country should continue as one is mostly dominant in the South. And the feeling is that in the North, it would be a disadvantage to us as there is no oil and economic power to pull out of a big country like Nigeria; what do you think?
All factors of socio-economic growth are in the North. The North has 80 per cent of the total landmass, and you know that land is a great resource. Secondly and the most important thing is that if a non-political census is conducted, honestly, even the South knows that more than two-third of the total population of the country are in the North. So when you have got these two factors, land and population, you are there.
So you don’t think we will miss the oil?
No. For anybody to tell you that we have no oil is bunkum. We have oil in Nasarawa more than what we have in the South. It is still the political ability or will to exploit it; go and check. We have gas in Bauchi in large commercial quantities. And today, the importance of gas is even more than that of oil. Almost everywhere in the North, Allah has given us mineral resources. I don’t know their names, except gold.
I think Zamfara ranks one or two in terms of mineral resources in the world. The same thing applies to Niger, even Sokoto and Katsina. We have uranium. Every state in the North is endowed with mineral resources but political will is lacking.
Each state can be independent and generate more than enough to cater for their services and do whatever they want.
I believe sincerely that if we got the right leadership like we had during the First Republic, education would have been free from primary to university level. I am sure that each state can do that instead of squandering the money for nothing.
You have been a leader in the North for a long time. Some of us the younger generation will say it is the failure of your generation to give the needed leadership you saw with Sardauna that has led us to where we are?
Well, in a way we have participated.
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You were a commissioner at a young age; you were also a minister.
When we came in as commissioners, I and Umaru Dikko represented the youth. We believed in good leadership and demonstrated it. We tried as much as possible to see that the right people were put in the right places. But subsequently, unfortunately it became money politics, such that good people will not be elected unless they have money. This is what has landed us into this problem today.
During the Second Republic you played a role in the formation of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN); and talking about money politics, why didn’t you play a role like your colleague, Umaru Dikko? He became a big factor (minister) in the NPN but you were edged out of the party. Why did that happen?
Well, they didn’t like our views.
Why didn’t you play any role in the government of the Second Republic like Umaru Dikko?
When we came to Lagos to inaugurate the formation of the NPN, people like us wanted Aminu Kano for president because of the role he played. After the assassination of our political and military leaders, he was at the forefront of bringing Arewa back together, with Tarka and others.
When the question of presidential candidates started coming up, Maitama Sule was still a chief complaints commissioner and I told him point blank that if Aminu( Kano) was coming, we were not for him. He said he believed in what I said.
Eventually, he left the post of a chief complaints commissioner and joined politics. When he joined we were for him but there were so many factions. The government wanted Adamu Ciroma.
You played the role of a minister in the Obasanjo government. How would you assess that government? Why did you leave, just after two years?
There were quite a number of incidents, which quite a number of people know, but I don’t have to recount them all.
While you did not formally take part in the Buhari government, you were a very strong member or adviser, informally; is that correct?
You could be right to a certain extent.
There is this complaint that even the Kano-Katsina road could not be completed in his eight years as president, what is your take on this?
I think that towards the end, he realised that the gentleman who was there as minister of works ( Fashola) had not been very helpful and useful to him.
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