Bello Halliru Mohammed, a veterinary doctor, spent some time as a lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) before holding political and other appointments. First in the old Sokoto State as a Commissioner, as Minister of Communication during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, Minister of Defence under Goodluck Jonathan, as well as chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) until 2015. He also served as Director of Customs during the Babangida regime. He answers the traditional title, Dan Galadiman Gwandu. In this interview he spoke on his background, transition to politics, and the state of the nation.
Let’s start by asking about your background.
My background is a little haphazard. I started as a veterinary surgeon and ended up as a politician.
I was born in Birnin Kebbi, now in Kebbi State. I am from the Abdullahi Fodio family. My grandfather was the son of the Emir of Gwandu, Halliru, and uncle to the emir, Haruna; and sort of grandfather or grand uncle to the current emir.
My maternal grandfather was Magajin Rafi, who was a member of the House of Representatives during the First Republic. I grew up in his house, so he is one of the people who influenced my upbringing. He sent me to school and encouraged me to do well.
After my primary education in Birnin Kebbi, I went to the Sokoto Provincial Secondary School, where I took the West African School Certificate (WASC) examination and came out with Division I. After that, I went to Barewa College for a Higher School Certificate (HSC) because at that time you didn’t go directly to the university; you would first do either A-level or HSC. So, I passed through HSC to the Ahmadu Bello University, where I read Veterinary Medicine. In the process, I became the president of the Student Union Government at ABU in 1970/1971.
After my studies at the ABU, I was recruited as a lecturer in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and sent to the University of Minnesota, where I read Veterinary Public Health.
When I came back, I had a short period of teaching before the then governor of Sokoto State, Colonel Umaru Mohammed, invited me to assist in the administration of our state. I joined his government with the intention of going back to the Ahmadu Bello University, but fate intervened, and immediately after my time as commissioner for agriculture and that of education, I was enticed to run for the post of the deputy governor of the state under the Great Nigeria People’s Party (GNPP).
That was how I made a transition to politics, thinking that it would be temporary, but it never happened; every time a new dispensation came up, the people kept coming back to me to join them.
What influenced your choice to read Veterinary Medicine?
Gwandu Emirate and the then Sokoto State were major livestock holding areas in Nigeria; and being a Fulani, I am naturally attracted to cattle. Besides that, what really influenced me when I was young in junior primary school were two great men, including Dr Buka Shaib, the then chief veterinary officer in Birnin Kebbi.
There was a livestock breeding centre, and Dr Shaib was there. We used to admire him when he came driving in his Jeep with his beautiful wife. They came to the market, my grandfather’s house, where I grew up, was just facing the market. So, anytime Dr Shaib came, I would follow him through the market.
Did he know you or you just followed him as an admirer?
I just admired him as a doctor and all that. Then later in life, one of my uncles became a livestock superintendent. That one too encouraged me to like or love what I saw veterinarians do, especially going around to inoculate cows in the bush on horseback, and things like that. I watched all these things and that’s what encouraged me to do veterinary medicine.
You were a student leader in 1971; would you say that was the beginning of politics for you?
I wasn’t thinking of politics at that time. It was still under the military government; it was during Gowon’s time.
I am talking of student politics. Why would a very busy veterinary student like you think of contesting for the post of the president of the student union?
It was just the interest. I think I have always had that innate interest in politics because my grandfather, whom I grew up under, was a member of parliament in northern Nigeria and I read a lot of documents he brought back from Kaduna. That was the beginning of my interest in politics.
Tell us about your stay in the United States. It was very rare for people from our part of the world to travel to America. How long was it and how was the experience?
About two years; and it was a very good experience. I was lucky to go to Minnesota because at that time there was no racism there; they were not having a large black population.
So, we had a very good stay—I and my wife—because we had classmates who were mostly US army officers. They used veterinary training so that they could send them to be in charge of food hygiene in various military formations all over the world. Few of us were civilians, maybe one or two from Nigeria. I know one from Indonesia and a couple of others from Latin America. All the American citizens were military veterinary officers.
We had a lot of social interactions, inviting one another to our homes and having parties. Even some of our lecturers who were Americans were very liberal and invited us to their homes. Some had lakes behind their houses, and we would go boating and things like that. In all, I think it was a very good experience, and it broadened my outlook.
Were you on a full scholarship?
I was on ABU scholarship. I was comfortable. And the relationship with all the people was good. I used that opportunity to tour a number of states. I was in California. I also went to Texas to attend some American Veterinary Society conferences, as well as American Food Hygiene Association, of which I became a member before I left. I am still a member, but as you know, it is not easy to go to the US for conferences and meetings.
Even for someone like you?
I have not had the chance to go to their meetings since I came back in the 1970s.
But as a minister and Director of Customs you would have had the chance to travel to the US?
As Director of Customs I visited the United States, but then, it was a different thing because I was with the Customs Director of the United States. I toured some of their ports and formations, but I didn’t have time to attend to veterinary work.
Let me take you back to the ABU. I believe the expectation would be that when you came back from your studies abroad you would stay in the school and teach, but apparently, you didn’t do that. Did that not upset the university?
That was the agreement, but that time was the beginning of military government, so all institutions were flexible, in terms of their staff being called to assist in governance. When I got that invitation, I reported to ABU and they didn’t raise any issue. I got approval immediately.
How did the invitation come?
It was really funny because Colonel Umaru Mohammed was somebody I never met. When I came back from the US, one of my classmates, Lawali Bungudu, was the head of Operation Feed the Nation in Sokoto. I was out of the country when he got his appointment, so I went to the state secretariat where the Ministry of Agriculture was situated and where his office was, to see him. He was happy to see me. While I was sitting before him, the governor called him and he asked me to go with him and I agreed since I am from the state and just came back from study leave. So I went to the Government House with him. When we met the governor, he was impressed that there was somebody from Sokoto with a postgraduate qualification in veterinary medicine because at that time, the chief veterinary officer for the state was an Egyptian. I was the first veterinary surgeon from Sokoto State. We had a good discussion and I left.
Not long after that, my friend, Bungudu came to Zaria. He too was a lecturer there. He later came to my house and said the governor wanted to see me. I asked why he wanted to see me and he said he instructed him to personally bring me so that he could talk to me. I told him that I would go the following day because I thought I should at least prepare myself.
Did you guess what the call was all about?
I never guessed. However, if I thought of anything, it was that maybe he wanted me to be the chief veterinary officer of the state.
The following morning, I drove to Sokoto and went to Bungudu’s house and he took me to the Government House. We had some discussions about the country and development in Sokoto State.
He asked if I would help in developing the things we talked about and I said, “Why not?” I went to the university on Sokoto State scholarship, so it was my duty to assist in any way he wanted me to assist. We parted at that point. The following day, I went back to Zaria and resumed my duty. A few days later, Bungudu came again and said the governor wanted to see me. This time, I started suspecting that there was something else, so I went with him to see the governor. It was then that he asked if I would accept the position of a commissioner for agriculture since I am a vet.
Was his cabinet not already in place at that time?
It was in place. What happened was that somebody from Gwandu, my emirate, Halliru Gwandu, an agricultural officer, resigned. In fact, at one time he was the head of the Department of Agriculture in Gwandu Emirate. At that time, there were native authorities.
He resigned to join the Nigerian Tobacco Company as an agricultural officer. That was when I got the invitation and I accepted. I was always ready to serve the state.
As a young man in his early thirties being appointed into public or political position in his state, how did you cope?
I think I did fairly well because after some time as Commissioner for Agriculture, I was appointed Commissioner for Education, which was a bigger ministry. That’s why I thought I was doing well.
I guess many people were coming to you to look for contracts; what were the challenges?
Things were not very bad at that time. There was sanity in government. At a later stage, I was even the chairman of the state’s Tenders Board, but I was never harassed by anybody looking for contracts. Also remember that I had just come back from the United States after the university, so, I didn’t know many people. Even the ones I knew were strictly civil servants; and traditional rulers were traditional rulers, not like now when everybody is a contractor. So there wasn’t really much pressure.
We knew the main contractors in the state at that time. To get a contract you had to bid and be evaluated. And we had technical people who were mostly foreigners; they didn’t have favourites.
So, I would say it was a good opportunity for me as a young man. And with the atmosphere as it was, everything was professional. We had a very good time. I had a very close relationship with Umaru Mohammed, but unfortunately, he died in a plane crash.
After being a commissioner in two ministries – agriculture and education —when civilian rule came back, you attempted to become a deputy governor, why didn’t you go back to the university?
My plan was to go back to the university, but people from my emirate again came and solicited that I should join the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and run for the deputy governorship position, but I declined.
When politicians claim that their people asked them to contest, we wonder if it really happened. Did people from your emirate actually encourage you to contest?
I had no notion of contesting anything, such that when they first came, I told them that I didn’t know what to do.
Who were they?
Members of the GNPP, mostly the business community. When Waziri Ibrahim formed the party, he mostly interacted with businessmen. Wherever he went, he would pick top businessmen and ask them to be the leaders of the party.
But as you know, most of our businessmen are not usually educated, so they were looking for somebody with some level of education to be the candidate.
When the first group came, I declined and told them that I was not yet 35 years, which was the cutoff limit for the position of a governor. They left disappointed. Even when the NPN was meeting to select a candidate, somebody threw my name in. And I was not a member of the party; I was still a commissioner. So, Garba Nadama and Shehu Kangiwa were elected as candidates.
I was kind of part of the leadership of our emirate at that time. Sokoto was the biggest emirate, so, we agreed that if they took the governorship position, Gwandu, being the second emirate, would take the deputy governorship seat. But they ignored us completely and took everything. Argungu took the governorship while Sokoto took the deputy governorship and Gwandu was left in the open.
And since I was the commissioner from that area, they asked me to do something about it. I went to see the then leaders of the NPN, but they told me that I was too late as they had already finished their arrangements. That response kind of annoyed me and I told our elders like Mallam Idris Koko that these people had snubbed us, so we needed to find an alternative. So, we went to leaders of the GNPP. That’s why the GNPP was very strong in Sokoto State although we lost the election due to hanky-panky.
Who was the governorship candidate of the GNPP?
Mohammadu Anka, the then permanent secretary. The leadership of the GNPP agreed that we would take the governorship candidate from Sokoto and his deputy from Gwandu and we agreed to contest.
Of course you lost the election; but as an academician then, how would you describe your experience in partisan politics?
It was really an eye opener, especially considering the backstabbing and deceit. The chairman of the GNPP was Sarkin Kudu, the son of the late Sultan Machido. When he saw that all the big men like Ibrahim Gusau, Ibrahim Dasuki, Shehu Malami and Shagari were in the NPN, he became apprehensive and went to his father who was supporting the GNPP and advised him.
And at that time, there was a very bitter rivalry among Dasuki, Machido and Shehu Malami on who would succeed Sultan Abubakar. When he saw that the other two were in the same party with all the big shots, he became apprehensive and went to his father and they changed their mind.
Overnight, without even consulting any of us, Sarkin Kudu switched to the NPN and that also affected all the district and village heads under the Sultan.
In almost every district, the GNPP was the reigning party, but after that action, everybody switched and that was how we lost the election.
Would you like to speak on the issue of money?
Actually, at that time there was no money. Waziri Ibrahim would bring N20,000; and of course he bought some vehicles, including motorcycles for the organising secretaries who would go from one place to another.
But the situation was not like now that you have to send millions of naira and buses have to be hired for people to come. That time, when we went to all our rallies, everybody would come on their own. And when we visited any town, it was leaders of the GNPP that would collect money for our entertainment.
Where you had a rich man, he may make some food, and where there was no big man, they would buy bunch of bananas or bucket of mangoes and some water. At that time, bottled water was not common, so everybody drank from the well. That was how we held our campaigns; it didn’t cost me a kobo.
But after that attempt you were rewarded with a number of appointments; is that correct?
I was not rewarded. After the contest, I spent the whole of Shagari’s first term trying to put ends together.
So, you were excluded because you were in the wrong party?
Of course, yes. We later formed a company with the gubernatorial candidate, Mohammed Anka and called it Alpha and Beta. We were trying to trade, but he, being a former civil servant and I an academician, we didn’t know anything about business.
You didn’t want to go back to ABU?
Well, at that time it was too late. I had already lost my position because after being a commissioner, which was condoned, I should have gone back. But as I went into politics, I had to resign because you could not be a public officer and in politics at the same time because it was a military regime. So I had to resign and couldn’t go back. But we tried to get ends to meet.
In Sokoto?
Yes. We were travelling to Maiduguri and other places where we had a GNPP government and the governors were trying to help us, but we didn’t know anything about business, so it was not a success.
Eventually, I was the secretary of the GNPP in Sokoto State; and that time, I was more vocal than I am now. I was really giving them a tough time and Shagari was not comfortable with that at all, so he sent people to talk to us, saying he would give us jobs. But I didn’t want to take it. Mohammed Anka went and was sent to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) as one of the directors.
I was told that Bello Kirfi, who was the then minister of state for foreign affairs, was looking for me. He said I had been given appointment as an ambassador to Argentina. But I said I didn’t want it because I knew they wanted to take me out of my people and send me away so that I would not be a nuisance to them.
When they stopped pressurising me, I continued as a GNPP stalwart. I was at one time the national secretary of the party. Mallam Adamu Ciroma was somebody I admired over a long time. I used to go to Mahmoud Tukur’s house because he was marrying one of my cousins and I would see Ciroma there. When I started going to his house, he called me and said, “Look, you are a professional, you are wasting your time. Why don’t you go back to your veterinary work?”
Was he a minister?
He was the minister of agriculture. I didn’t agree then. Then Bukar Shaib was made the National Security Adviser to Shagari. And if you remember, he was the Vet in Birnin Kebbi I used to admire.
When he was given the appointment, I went to Dodan Barracks to see him, and in the process, we became acquainted. And he was somebody I already knew and admired. When we became acquainted, I was visiting him and he was even visiting me. I remember that he visited me in my house in Sokoto.
When I went to see him, he repeated the same thing Adamu Ciroma said, explaining that I was not a politician. He said he was there because Shagari, who was his friend, asked him to assist him, adding that professionals like us were not cut out to be politicians, so it was better to go back to one’s veterinary work. I took his advice and asked where to start and he said I should go to Ciroma who was the minister of agriculture and he must find a place to fix me.
So, I went to see Ciroma and he already had this idea that I should stop wasting my time. He gave me a letter to Prof Shehu Bida, who was the managing director of the National Livestock Production, owners of the Mokwa ranch.
Bida was my lecturer in ABU and he was close to me because I was good in Pathology, his course. I was visiting him in his house. When I went to see him with a letter from Mallam Adamu Ciroma, he said they had a position of an assistant general manager but he could not do anything about it so I had to wait for the Board; I agreed. He said there was Board meeting the following day and if I would stay around, when the chairman came, he would introduce me and give him my letter.
And behold, when the chairman came, he was my grand uncle, Muazu Lamido. In the hierarchy of Sokoto and Gwandu, he filled the same level as my grandfather. That was how they related. So he was my grandfather. So I knew him very well because of my grandfather, the Magajin Rafi, who was a member of parliament.
When he came and called me by name, the managing director was surprised. He told him that I was his grandson. So there was no difficulty in getting me a job there. I didn’t go to Mokwa; I stayed in Kaduna as a deputy general manager because they had two assistant general managers. And they didn’t have a deputy managing director.
Seeing that I am a veterinarian, he wanted me to be the one to succeed him, so he proposed to the chairman to create a post of deputy general manager so that I could fit in. That’s how I was recruited.
Bukar Shaib, who advised me to come to them, was by then the minister of agriculture after another coup.
After Shagari was removed?
Yes. He left the position of a national security adviser to become the minister of agriculture under the military government.
One day, he came to Kaduna and one of the places he visited was our livestock company, so he saw me there. I think he forgot that he advised me to come there, so he was surprised to see me.
The Buhari government was just coming on board. The general manager of the Sokoto River Basin Authority, Muhammad Arzika, was an in-law to Shagari. Out of anger that his in-law was removed, he too resigned from the job.
Bukar Shaib was at a dilemma on who to send there, so he came and met me, saying he was surprised to see me there. After the meeting with the management, he said he wanted to see me separately. He told me that Arzika wanted to go and he would like to send me to Sokoto as an assistant general manager so that I would relieve him when he was gone. I agreed.
Although I was a deputy general manager here and going to become an assistant general manager, I knew there was a future plan. When Arzika left, I became the general manager. And that time, I think the Bakalori project was commissioned by Obasanjo.
So, things were happening?
There was a lot of production. In addition to rice, during the dry season they produced potatoes. A good number of vehicles were coming from the South to load tomatoes and potatoes. It is really a pity that they allowed that project to die.
Why did the project die? As one who had been in a leadership position for years, you must have an insight. Why did we fail to sustain such agricultural project?
It was simply because the government was not interested enough to fund the project. At the beginning, we had a Gusau Agricultural Development Project financed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
When the FAO had a four or six-year project time, the intention was that the state government would take over and continue the project after it is established.
But when the FAO left, the state government was not interested enough to fund the project properly. And by that time, I had left.
Tell us about this big switch, as I may call it – you were made the Comptroller-General of Customs under General Babangida. How did that happen?
Well, I was the general manager of the Sokoto RIMA when Babangida appointed (Gen Gado) Nasko as minister. They were friends and classmates. Babangida was a bit unhappy with the Customs at that time, so he said he was not going to appoint anybody from the organisation.
At that time, Atiku Abubakar, the Wazirin Adamawa, was the number one candidate; everybody expected that he would be the one to take over, but Babangida didn’t want to put a professional Customs officer, he wanted a reform. So, he was searching for somebody of high integrity to appoint. Then his friend, Gen Nasko, who knew me as his commissioner, told Babangida that he knew somebody in Sokoto, whom he had worked with, but the problem was that he could not be controlled.
Babangida said that was the kind of person they were looking for. Nasko said I could not be controlled because of the experience he had with me when I was the chairman of the State Tenders Board, during which we awarded a contract to a Kano company to build the state assembly complex. The contending contractor who came from Lagos wanted to dictate for us and I refused. He was so confident that he would get the contract because he came from Lagos. He was arrogant, so we awarded the contract to somebody else.
The contract had to go to the Executive Council for approval. When we went to the council, the administrator (Nasko) was in a dilemma because it was one of his bosses in Lagos that sent this man, and now, the Tenders Board said they would not give him the job.
Did you get the job?
Yes.
Would you say that the job was difficult?
It was not difficult for me at all.
How many years did you serve as Customs boss?
I did it for six years. We raised the revenue from millions to billions of naira for the first time and everybody was surprised.
How did Atiku feel, having been denied that opportunity?
Actually, he did his best to cooperate with us. He was my deputy but I think he was not happy with the situation. There were some issues between him and some men from Adamawa, his state, who were in the Supreme Military Council. That’s why he didn’t get the job.
You were a minister under Obasanjo and Jonathan; how would you compare these two leaders?
They are two different people. One key thing about Obasanjo is that he was decisive as president.
What about Jonathan?
Well, honestly, Jonathan is a very good person, but he didn’t have that push, the decisiveness I saw in Obasanjo. Jonathan was a gentleman. If you told him that something was not possible, he would not pressurise you. If you remember, he was saying that his election was not worth the blood of Nigerians.
Politicians often make such statements; do you think that Jonathan meant what he said?
He meant it; that’s why he lost the election. If he had gone out with the presidential power to win that election, nothing would have stopped him, but he didn’t.
He insisted on contesting in 2011 and most people say that was the beginning of our problem of rotation. As a party chairman you supported him; why?
Mostly governors from the North didn’t want him to contest, but his people encouraged him to contest.
But you supported him as party chairman.
No. I was in the UK when the governors said that if Jonathan wanted to contest he would have to do one term and they would write an agreement.
So, an agreement was actually drafted. My secretary then, Abubakar Baraje, called me when I was in the UK and told me what was happening.
Was he also prepared to contest in 2015?
Exactly.
And go beyond the single term agreement?
Exactly.
So, the gentleman’s agreement didn’t happen.
No.
During your long career there have been issues. You mentioned integrity as your selling point; would you like to address the issue of probes by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)?
That was a very unfortunate situation. The Siemens and the other one, Ericson from Sweden, were our main contractors.
Election was coming and the party was soliciting for campaign contributions from major contractors and Siemens was contacted. They gave their contribution but I wouldn’t want to say to whom they gave it to. They didn’t give it to me.
And you were the party chairman, right?
In their record, they stated that they gave it to me as the party chairman, but actually, it went into somebody’s account. I know whose account it went into, but when the matter came up, I didn’t want to say it.
The EFCC never confronted me with anybody to say this is the person who gave you money or who collected it in your name; but I knew what happened. So I took responsibility and the matter fizzled out because the people in power then knew who took the money, and since I was determined enough not to expose them, I took the blame alone. If I had mentioned the persons involved, it would be a bigger scandal, so I decided to take the cane.
Didn’t you feel that would compromise you in the public perception?
It is part of one’s responsibility as a leader. If you accept a job you are responsible for anything that happens. The same thing happened in Customs. I took responsibility for anything that happened.
How would you look at a gentleman like me and say that I didn’t have my own mind? It would be ridiculous, so I thought it was better to face the public. Nobody gave me anything. If you go to the EFCC you would will find the record there.
Have you retired from politics?
I have not retired. I am still a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
What do you do now?
Well, I had stroke and I am still in the process of recovering. But I was attending meetings. I am the leader of the Elders Forum in Kebbi State. So I will say that I am still active in politics. You can never retire in politics because the people you brought up and those you are leading will always come to you.
What do you feel about the current happenings in the country since the government of the All Progressives Congress (APC) took over?
The APC has been a disaster to this country, starting from Buhari. They came with fake integrity. The dynamism we saw when Buhari was military president was all due to Tunde Idiagbon, it was not from him because he was leading from behind, Tunde was the one leading in the front. So, when he came without Tunde, there was nobody to push him or take the decision. You could see that he couldn’t take any decision. In fact, people said he didn’t know what was happening; he was just there and the cabal was taking the country for a ride.
There has never been so much corruption in this country as we saw during the Buhari regime. People who were nobody became billionaires overnight. Then of course, Tinubu had already announced that he would continue from where Buhari stopped; hence when he came in, it got worse.
How do you characterise the last 15 months of the Tinubu administration?
It is a disaster, a continuation of what Buhari was doing. His own is even worse because he has members of a Lagos cabal that surround him. You could notice that most of the people in high places, especially finance-related positions, are from his cabinet in Lagos while he was governor. So it has become an internal affair for them to decide where the economy goes and who gets what.
Do you think the PDP can recover and take charge? Unfortunately, the main opposition and other parties are divided.
Nobody expected the PDP to recover after Buhari’s second term, but we came back and were able to contest vigorously against Tinubu. So, the same strategies and people that revived the PDP after Jonathan’s defeat are still at work. We will see what happens in 2027.
Tell us about Dr Bello as a private man. How is your family life?
I have a wife and six children, but the eldest male child died not long ago. We are still managing the grief. It is not something you can forget but we are recouping our lives and starting to forget it. What I mean is that the grief is not as deep as it was at the beginning. You know that with time, everything passes.
My children have grown up. The second male child has taken over from where Abba stopped; he is running an estate business. The third child is now a member of the National Assembly. Some of my female children are married and some are working.
I have one doctor and one administrator and they are both working. I have one daughter who has married but she is still not in a permanent job. She is working in a non-governmental organisation. I would say I have a stable and fairly happy family.