The Kwara North SDP senate candidate in the 2023 National Assembly Elections, Alhaji Adamu AbdulKadir Manko will readily call himself an ‘accidental politician’ but many would, however, quickly note that ‘politics had actually begun to run in his veins since his childhood years.
His father, Alhaji Manko is a grassroots politician who has become very popular in Kwara North senatorial district and has become a force to be reckoned with for more than four decades now. Alhaji AbdulKadir Manko has also noted that considering the number of visits to his father’s residence in those days, this had conveyed a wrong impression and he had assumed that he was a native doctor. AKINLOLU ABAYOMI sat down with the amiable politician at his Ilorin residence for an in-depth conversation and he reminisced about things that happened during his childhood years, how he had the opportunity to meet with the late Alhaji Usman Baba Patigi popularly called Samanja in Kaduna, what has been his experience since joining politics about two years ago and other issues.
Manko began by explaining how he joined partisan politics and what made him to do this albeit ‘under pressure’.
‘I actually don’t talk too much but when I decided to join politics, I had to learn from the best people around me including Hon. Sulaiman Ahmad, Hon. Nda Musa Guyegi and lot of others. I have been the quiet type before coming into politics. I like operating from the background, I don’t talk too much. The kind of belief that I have is that whatever I’m doing first of all as a Muslim I believe I’m doing it because of almighty Allah because whatever I have got today is by the will of almighty Allah. It’s not by my powers and then people that care to listen, I keep telling them that I’m a son of a poor farmer that later on became a politician, a grassroots politician that is well known in Kwara State today as Manko.
He has been into politics for a very long time, I think over 40 years now during the time of Alh. Shehu Shagari. He was always having people around him. And for the fact that he’s a politician does not make us one. We were focused when we’re growing up. I will say that my coming into politics was by accident. Accident in the sense that it was pressure from people that I don’t even know and mostly people from Kwara South and Kwara Central I’ll not mention anybody’s name, then pressure started coming from my own people from Kwara north, at a point in time I said let me continue what I know how to do best; helping those I think needed my help without doing any other thing. Now everybody knows what happened during the last election, isn’t it? But one thing I believe in from the beginning Kwara first, secondly Kwara North. Of course, you cannot take that away from us. Whatever happens, Kwara belongs to all of us. So, whatever we have to do to savage Kwara as young men that have learned from the elderly ones, we should be able to carry on from where they stop’, he said.
The former Kwara North SDP senate candidate also disclosed that joining politics has given him surprises, having been made to learn new things.
‘I don’t like allowing the right hand to know what the left hand has done at all but after venturing into politics, people starting coming around that ‘No o! Distinguished, how will you do this without telling us, we heard that you did this, you did that, I said ‘yes I did it because of almighty Allah not because of any other person’. Then they said ‘now that you’re into politics people will get to know what you’re actually doing, yes, whatever you do is from your heart but politics is different’. I think there was a time I got angry. I said ‘okay you want me to be doing that because of politics then I’ll rather stop it completely’. I think we had that conversation. I said I’ll rather stop it because anything that has to do with me mainly just because of politics, I don’t like it. But you know I’m an individual but I’ll have to keep listening to the voice of my followers just like President Tinubu said when he was having issues with Ambode. He said ‘it’s not me, it’s my people so, whatever they want is what I’ll have to do’. ‘Since we’re into politics you’ll have to open up to us, whatever you’re doing, let us get to know because people need to know what you’re doing and all your efforts that will help us in talking to people’.
I wasn’t too comfortable with it because there are several things in politics, if you’re actually into politics to help Kwarans people and then your own zone because they discovered that what I’m doing is not for Kwara north alone, it cuts across, so if you’re doing that you’ll want to know so that they can use that in propagating my ambition so, like I said earlier, I wasn’t comfortable with it but along the line after some few months in politics I didn’t have a choice. I started confiding in them because most of the things that I was doing before coming into politics I didn’t allow the right hand to know what the left hand has done, whatever I do is between me and almighty God. But they said ‘politics is not like that’ and I said ‘okay’. Despite that, I still do some things without telling them but when they get to know, I open up to them that ‘yes I have to do it and I’m sorry because once you’re used to a particular way of doing things for a very long time you can’t just wake up one day and then take it off but gradually it will be reduce’, he submitted.
‘Part of what we have learned from politics is that as a politician, somebody will come to you, he’s talking to you and you know that he’s lying but you have to sit down and listen to his lies. You know that this man is lying but as a politician you have to sit down and listen to him. By the time he finishes, it is now left for you to attach importance to whatever he has said or not. Of course, we have the good ones that actually come with their good intentions’, he added while also talking about his character traits and the way he has handled things when it comes to politicking.
‘You must have been hearing about Alhaji Adamu Manko, this is me and I’m as simple as anything you can think of. I’m not a difficult person because I believe whatever we do in life, even after death people will still be talking about it, so, I believe in doing the best I can and I believe in listening to the leaders and friends to guide me incase I’m not doing the right thing but once my conscience is clear that whatever I’m doing is the correct thing I go ahead and do it. That’s the kind of person I am, I’ll go ahead and do it, you can’t stop me because once you’re very prayerful as a Christian, a Muslim, a traditional religion worshipper, we all serve one God and whatever you do today have it at the back of your mind that tomorrow we will all end up six feet under and that has been my belief and whatever will be will be, I’m never scared, I’m not. And that was why when I even ventured into politics, I said it is either you win or you lose, your life has to go on and I don’t believe in enmity.
I relate with almost everybody; Party A, Party B, Party C, Party D, the most important thing is Kwara like I said, secondly Kwara North, that’s what you cannot take away from me but wherever we go to, wherever we find ourselves, Kwara belongs to all of us. We all believe that there are lots of things that are happening that we’re not happy about and the only way we can actually change it is to join politics because you can’t sit at the back seat and be complaining all the time. A lot of my friends that we do business together in Lagos were like ‘Abdulquadri, why are you joining politics? We are here doing our businesses, we are running up and down, why? Why do you want to go and join them, they’re bad people so, I said ‘it’s because you’re allowing the bad people to take control of politics every time; that’s why you’re getting all the bad governance and then people are not getting any result. When you cannot beat them, you join them.
So, part of my reasons for joining politics is how do I give back to society. Like I said, I’m a village boy from Patigi local government. Patigi is city, my own village is inside where Yoruba people will call ‘Koro’. Patigi is the city, that was where we were born and raised. It is education that got us to the level which we’re today, it’s a gradual process, from village to Patigi, from Patigi to Ilorin, Ilorin to Kaduna, Kaduna to Zaria. It was service (NYSC) that took me to Lagos. It was by design, that God said ‘that is where your food is’, all the way from one small village, Patigi, Kwara, Kaduna, Zaria then Lagos. It’s not by my own power, it is that of almighty Allah. So, once you’re still alive, you’re healthy and strong, the next thing you should start thinking of is how will I help those who are coming behind. How do I give out to society since one has enjoyed the privilege of being rich among 50 or 100. You just have to find a way of rescuing people from poverty and you have to look for a way to actually assist people.’
He also noted that part of the reasons for joining politics was to have ‘greater opportunity’ to impact lives adding that if he has done a lot as ‘an individual that’s not part of the government. It means if I can join the system, I will be able to do more’. So, my aims and objectives of joining politics are to see how I can help my people which is a normal slogan of politician. At least, we have different mindsets but there are people that are actually into politics to see what they can grab, the first thing they will start thinking of is how they will build houses, how to buy big cars, how to fly a first class, and maybe how to travel to London, America or other places. God has given me all that so, what else am I looking for. It’s not by my powers, I got them through divine support. I have the needed exposures already and that was why my friends were asking me that ‘what else are you looking for, you want to go and join that problem that you won’t be able to sleep and do other things? so, I said I have not even joined them I’m already facing it because no matter how you hide somebody will surely bring you out. For example, somebody comes to you to help him ‘okay please take, don’t tell anybody o’, they won’t keep quiet. It means that you’re no more a private citizen because even those who brought me to the system, I know what they went through. Honestly, at a point in time I was not picking up their calls because it became a distraction to me but I think there’s this thing that the voice of the people will surely prevail. So, at the end of the day I had to say ‘okay’, he added.
Did his father play a role in inviting him to join politics?
‘The old man refused to say anything, he stood his ground that the man is an adult, don’t use me against him, talk to him if he accepts to join you fine if he doesn’t it’s his business. It doesn’t mean that because your father is a mechanic, you must be a mechanic. It does not mean that I should become a politician because my father is a politician. Eventually, I said ‘okay let’s give it a try’ but God knows that I didn’t come into politics to steal public funds or shortchange the system or do otherwise’, he said.
Alhaji Manko also said he was prepared to deliver ‘quality representation’ if he had got elected as representative of Kwara North in the senate. ‘Before I ventured into politics, we held a meeting and I told them that you people have made me join politics., they said ‘yes’. I said, okay’ we are going to do things in a way no one has done before in Kwara State. They said ‘how’, I said in our next week…I will talk about it. I said Kwara North has five local governments. They said charity begins at home. I said we’ll start from Patigi, we will visit every village, every town, every hamlet. They said ‘ah’. I said ‘yes’. Every village, every town, we’ll go there. I said for you to be a leader, you must know your people and you must have firsthand information. See things for yourself. I said I don’t want to be a leader that will go to Abuja and somebody will be telling me about something for the first time and lying to me. They thought I was joking. We would leave home at about 10am, we’ll not return until 5pm every day for nine months. We were doing this for nine months. We were going from villages, to towns. We did that in Patigi, we did that in Lafiagi, we did that in Moro, we did that in Baruten, we did that in Kaiama. There’s no village you mention today, or town, in Baruten and Kaiama that we have not visited.
I saw things for myself. One thing I did was to plan how to come up with a booklet, I was interacting with the people and the secretary will be writing. What are the problems? What are they facing? He’ll be writing. Do you know why I was doing that? So, that by the time I get there, I’ll be able to know that when we got to town A, these are the things they need. They need water, their health facility is bad. Even we cannot do all, at least. Even wherever we get to and what they have asked for is what we can afford, we will take immediate action on it. And we are still working on some because I have a lot of my followers that have actually said ‘let us stop it’. But I said ‘we promised them now, why do we have to stop? When we were making the promise, even if no one was watching us, Allah was watching us, I said no I can’t stop. Let’s do it’, he said.
Alhaji AbdulKadir Manko also recalled how he met the late actor, Alhaji Usman Pategi (Samanja) in Kaduna.
‘Baba Samanja was a popular actor, we call him ‘Baba Samanja’. I grew up in Kaduna, we were just discussing him before your arrival. I attended the same school with some of his children and when I went to Kaduna, some of his children happened to be in my school which is Nurudeen College. I was happy to see him because I watched him on TV when I was growing up; he’s somebody that you’ll love to meet which we did along the line I introduced myself and I started going to their house because their house is not far away from the college. He was a very good man; he doesn’t have controversies, he was well loved by the northerners because everybody wanted to watch Samanja on TV in those days. He promoted the military, he promoted Mami market and so many other things. He was well known and he doesn’t have controversies’, he said
Where do we hope to see the young politician popularly called ‘emancipator’ in 2027?
‘Well, like I said earlier, Allah is the one that gives power and He gives it to whoever he wants to give it to. People are always calling me and saying ‘Distinguished, what is happening now? Are you going to still contest senate election? I will say ‘Wallahu alam, I don’t know about that, anything can happen’ like I said from the beginning there’s every possibility that what you’re looking for is not what Allah has put in place for you’, he submitted.
Is he still a member of Kwara State SDP or he has quietly left the party like others had done after the 2023 general election?
‘I’m still consulting because one thing about politics is that it is about people.
Like when we were having that tsunami and people were moving from PDP to APC, SDP to APC, NNPP to APC even the party that doesn’t have status of a party they were just moving and I think as at today I’m the last man standing. And do you know why? I have my reasons; do you know why I did that? SDP is an existing party, the man sitting beside me here became a member of House of Assembly under SDP years ago, we had promoted SDP left and right during electioneering. We have followers left and right for God’s sake. If I should just jump ship after building confidence in people and going round to beg them to support our party, then all of a sudden, he’s gone to PDP, they will say we said it. Recall that people were caught on tape saying, it’s Saraki that was sponsoring me because they said it can never happen, nobody can come from Kwara north and be doing such a thing without the support of Kwara central or without the support of the gladiators, people were caught on tape saying it’s Saraki that was sponsoring me and that they will see what will eventually happen.
Even some others were caught on tape saying it’s Governor AbdulRahman that was giving me money; that it was not possible for anybody from Kwara north to contest against the system that people will ultimately discover the true picture of things.
So, if I had joined PDP at that time what would they say, that I have collected money. Then if I come out next election, they will say ‘this one that got us together and then used us to negotiate and collect money from Saraki, they’ll say he has gone back to them.
When people were going to Ilorin to take pictures, they’ll say we said it, he has collected money from AbdulRahman and there’s no amount of explanation I give, they’ll say this man is a very dangerous person, he has collected money. Somebody would just come up with one figure that they gave him 100 million naira which will now become a problem for me again. So, by the time you now come out again that you want to do this, they’ll say you this man, that after he has suffered us up and down, he left, so my brother, we’re still consulting. Whatever happens, prayer is number one, when you pray that almighty Allah should show you the light there are so many positions in Kwara State as a whole and that’s why from the beginning I said Kwara belongs to all of us, so anything that happens, we’re still consulting. Our doors are open and we’re still praying’, he said. Alhaji Manko also said he will never say any negative thing about Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq or any other public office holder but rather pray that God will guide them in the right direction.
‘You know I keep telling people that care to listen that governance is always a very difficult thing and that’s why sometimes if you talk too much then you’ll find yourself there, you’ll not be able to see even what the blind can see. Whoever is there as governor today, my prayer for the person is to succeed. I’m not to castigate him because if you keep castigating people, this God that you’re seeing, whatever you open your mouth to say may be sanctioned at times and as a Muslim they said if you have a leader you should pray for him, don’t be saying he’s this, he’s that because if you keep insulting him that he didn’t do this, he didn’t do that, it will all affect us. If I should start insulting Governor AbdulRahman today, tomorrow he may likely see me in APC and he will say ‘Ah, this man! But rather what I have for him as a citizen of Kwara is to pray for him to succeed.
Whatever he has not done let God show him the way to do it and whatever he has done let almighty Allah put more blessings, baraqas in it. Of course, we all know that we’re suffering in Kwara north but all what we need to do is just to pray and not castigate whoever is there because as followers they say you should always pray for our leaders to succeed because if you don’t pray for your leader and you keep insulting them, you keep castigating them, nothing will come out of it. So, all we have to do is to pray for him, whatever he has done, let him do more so that almighty Allah will guide him but the moment we keep castigating our leaders, it will all come back to us because it’s God that has chosen him, it’s God that has put him in that position’, he submitted.
What factors would he consider in choosing outfits for occasions?
‘Well, it depends on the kind of occasion I’m being invited to. It can be casual, and it can be English wear and you know that we are Lagosians, and once you’re in Lagos, we have a lot of stylists, we have a lot of people that are actually into fashion and one thing about Lagos style of dressing is that you can’t restrict yourself to a particular style. That’s why I said it depends on the function one has been invited to. Unlike in the North, it’s either you go on your ‘Baba Riga’ or you go on your ‘Caftan’ but as a Lagosian, it’s not like that, we have different styles of dressing. So, once you’re being invited to a particular event, at times, they can even tell you what to wear, maybe a colour would be chosen but you are allowed to choose your style. So, in Lagos, we have different ways of dressing that would suit a particular event that you’re being invited to, that’s just it’, he said.
Which one does Alhaji Manko love the most? Is it car, shoe or wristwatch? ‘I’m not a wristwatch person like that but if it’s about cars, I love cars a lot, despite the fact that I’ve been in Lagos for almost like 34 years now, I like being in a caftan, understandably because I attended ABU Zaria, all my life was in Kaduna, so I like being in a caftan every time but you can hardly see me in anything that has to do with Baba Riga in Lagos. In Lagos, you have to dress smart and it will surprise you that I have a lot of cars but you can hardly see me drive one, I love cars. If you see me drive one, it means it is a place that I wouldn’t want to have a second party. It can be like a private business meeting that from the beginning the person had said, ‘okay, this meeting is going to be at night and it is going to be very late’. I wouldn’t want my driver to stay late because he has to go back to his family.
Because he can’t be working for me from morning till night and then I will now deprive him the opportunity to go back home to see his family. I know he has to be back to work early in the morning to take my kids to school. So, I consider these factors a lot. If not, you can hardly see me drive any of my cars because I love cars. I love cars a lot. Like I said, because I was brought up in the north, I’m a northerner, I like being in a caftan. But once in a while, of course, I travel a lot, so, I have a lot of English wears. I can just wake up one day and then that week, apart from Friday, Monday to Thursday, I can be on suit. Sometimes, I can be on sneakers and jeans if I don’t have any meeting to go for. At times, even if you have meetings to go for, it depends on who you are meeting. Your outfits will speak for you’, he submitted.
Being a widely travelled person, which country has he visited that he always looks forward to travel to again? ‘You know, I go to the US a lot and I go to the UK a lot. I’ve been to Paris. The place I love most so far is Miami. That’s Florida. That’s a good place to be. Just the fact that if you go to Florida, if you don’t take time or if you are not careful, you tend to forget your God. Because all the worldly things you can think of are in Florida. If you are not careful, as a Muslim, you won’t know when it’s time for you to pray and when it’s time for you to serve your God because everything is available for them. You know one thing, they don’t care about religion. I remember there was a time I went there, I was asking one guy, if it was possible for me to find a mosque that I can pray from time to time? He looked at me and said, ‘no’.
In Florida, if you want to practise religion, they look at it as if having churches and mosques in the town would mean that you will be infringing on other people’s rights. So, most of their churches and mosques are in the outskirts of town. If you want to go to church, you have to drive a long distance. If you want to go to the mosque, you have to drive a long distance.
Another place I would love to be, that I have visited recently is Panama in South America,’ he added.
