CP Manya Dogo’s account of Governor Audu Bako’s leadership, By Samuel Aruwan

Eighty-nine-year-old retired Commissioner of Police Manya Dogo recently made public a book, “Governor Audu Bako: The Man of Wisdom and Foresight“, detailing the life and times of Audu Bako, the Commissioner of Police who served as the Military Governor of old Kano State from 1967 to 1975. CP Dogo wrote from an authoritative position, having served as Bako’s Orderly throughout his years as military governor.

The 155-page book has ten chapters, with a foreword by General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria’s Head of State from 1966 to 1975, and under whose administration Bako served as a member of the Supreme Military Council. Gowon paid glowing tribute to his subordinate, praising him for (among other stellar qualities) sound leadership, and his employment of 300 Nigerians from the Eastern region, toward fulfilling Federal Government objectives of Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration.

The author dedicated the book to the children and grandchildren of Governor Audu Bako, and also collected solemn tributes from all the former and serving Governors of Kano State from 1999 to date (including the present Governor of Jigawa State).

To enrich the work even further, the book, apart from its 155 written pages, contains 22 pages of photographs of the author and his boss in the line of duty and at official functions, including a picture of their children at the Government House. There are also photographs of Governor Audu Bako with General Yakubu Gowon and his wife, Victoria Gowon. Most striking is the portrait of Audu Bako’s parents, Dije and Bako, with his father in colonial police ceremonial uniform sporting his Regimental Sergeant Major’s insignia, and his mother dressed after the fashion of their era.

The author had worked under Audu Bako as an orderly in the police before he was appointed military governor. They moved together to Government House Kano, where events narrated in the book, and beyond, transpired. True to Dogo’s chosen title, he classically analysed Audu Bako’s wisdom, foresight and other leadership attributes which will be discussed in this blurb.

The tone of the book is a mix of solemnity and emotion. It is narrated from the lens of a faithful subordinate who served with devotion, sincerity and unalloyed dedication, along with deep admiration for the statecraft exhibited by his principal. The author seems to have held back on much of the betrayal and injustice suffered by his principal, especially after his exit from office and the circumstances leading to his demise in 1980. Still, he delved into a few of these distasteful episodes in detail. In summary, he is of the view that his principal was grossly unappreciated and poorly treated. The author only recently got the internal push to document his account, having been in two minds about the book for over four decades. He started writing in 1980, finally finishing after about 45 years of work (and over 50 years after the coup which ended the administrations of Gowon and Bako).

The author praised his benefactor for accommodating him and for the immense trust he reposed in him despite their religious and cultural differences. He narrated how his principal always adjusted their schedules to allow him to attend his Sunday worship. He described him as a man who embraced all, irrespective of religious and ethnic backgrounds. Governor Bako, he said, could travel without his ADC or Personal Assistant, but not without his Orderly, as the Governor once replied to his wife that Dogo was always available at every hour he needed him.

In Chapter One, the book details the family background of Governor Audu Bako, beginning with his father, Mallam Yakubu Ibrahim Bako, whose journey took him from Argungu to Sokoto, then to Zungeru, and finally to what is now known as Kaduna town, from the late 1800s to the early 1900s.

Yakubu, who was the father of Audu Bako, was born in 1878 to Ibrahim and Sa’adatu, in the then Augie village of Argungu District in present Kebbi State. Yakubu was given the moniker Bako (meaning “visitor” in Hausa) because he was born in the night when everyone was asleep, with the whole village waking up to the happy news of a new-born son. That name stuck more than his given name and stayed with him throughout his lifetime.

Dogo explains that Bako’s birth was about seventy-four years after the 1804 Usman Dan Fodiyo jihad which established the Sokoto Caliphate, and that even then the power struggles had not ceased, evidenced by the expedition launched by Sultan Abdulrahman against Kabawa when Mallam Bako was around 12 years old.

Bako, whose parents Ibrahim and Sa’adatu gave him a sound Islamic education befitting of the period, along with good cultural exposure, grew to be an honest, smart and dependable young man. At 18, he started working as a guide to British colonialists who were exploring the Sudan at the time, shuttling between Argungu and other areas in the region. From there he moved to Zungeru and then to Kaduna with the colonial officials. It was in Kaduna that the colonialists advised him to join the police in 1903. In Kaduna, as a police officer, he engaged in remarkable personal development which saw him promoted to the rank of Police Sergeant, Regimental Sergeant Major in 1915, and Major Inspector until his retirement in 1938. He was the first Nigerian instructor who undertook the training of police officers in the Northern Nigerian region.

Bako is also said to have played a role in the naming of Kaduna town. CP Dogo got this piece of history from late Hajiya Maryam Kurundu, Bako’s first daughter, who recounts: “He was in the company of white colonial officials with Lord Lugard in the lead, intrigued by the abundance of crocodiles in the river. They asked him what the Hausa word for crocodile was. He replied ‘Kadunan na‘, the plural for Kada in the Sokoto Hausa dialect.” This encounter further informed the colonialists’ decision to name the river Kaduna. Dogo’s account tallies with the work of Dr. Yusuf Nadabo, particularly his 922-page book titled ‘’Tarin Garin Kaduna’’, first published in 1988, which I had the opportunity to read in 2015. In any case, the river itself lies barely four or five minutes’ drive from Mallam Bako’s residence at No. 4 Ahmadu Bello Way.