Senator Lado’s shot from obscurity

Born in Danmarke village to the family of prominent business tycoon and politician, Alhaji Lado Danmarke in 1961, Senator Yakubu’s national prominence began during the tenure of the late Umaru Musa Yar’adua. It was during a crisis between him and Governor Ibrahim Shema at the party’s convention where his supporters held the convention to a […]

Born in Danmarke village to the family of prominent business tycoon and politician, Alhaji Lado Danmarke in 1961, Senator Yakubu’s national prominence began during the tenure of the late Umaru Musa Yar’adua. It was during a crisis between him and Governor Ibrahim Shema at the party’s convention where his supporters held the convention to a standstill.

The development led to serious crisis within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), resulting from the purported suspension of the Senator from the party. The suspension was reversed by the state executives, thereby climaxing the fight between the Abuja group and the Governor Shema-led faction.

Last week’s arrest and detention of the Senator raised his political profile and garnered sympathy for him. This is after  the fight for the gubernatorial ticket of the opposition Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)ended in favour of Lado and his group. Former Speaker House of Representatives, Aminu Bello Masari lost out.

These and his seeming control of the party raised his rising political profile.

Sunday Trust’s mission to trace his background in his native Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State revealed that while the Senator might have possessed some qualities which make him distinct from other politicians of his standing, much of his political success is attributable to that of his father, Alhaji Lado Danmarke, who was a household name in Katsina politics. Alhaji Danmarke has been a grassroots politician since the First Republic and till date stands as a leading politician in the entire Funtua Senatorial District.

His father, a known farmer was a prominent power-broker, was  in the then National Party of Nigeria (NPN), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the United Nigeria  Congress Party (UNCP) and lately the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), along with the likes of Alhaji Lawal Kaita, Alhaji Ahmadu Kurfi,Alhaji Aminu Makera, the late Alhaji Iro Danmusa and Alhaji Halliru Kafur as well as late Shehu Musa Yar’adua. They were of the inner caucus and elders of their time and they determined where the pendulum swung.

Of all those bigwigs, Lado Danmarke was more of a grassroots politician whose connection with people was predicated on his history as big farmers and strong merchants, who buy grains, koalin and cotton directly from local people to sell in larger quantities to companies and establishments. This is in spite of the fact that he had no formal western education.

Checks revealed that till date the senator’s father wields a lot of influence among the elderly elite, including Aminu Bello Masari who was his one-time political protégé. He is, indeed, a factor in the state, the senatorial district and, in particular, his native Kankara LGA and environs, being a very rich person who still throws his wealth around.

Our correspondent gathered that most of those who followed Yakubu Lado till date do so because of the influence of his father, who must have influenced their emergence into political or appointive positions in the state.

Our correspondent also gathered that the shrewd Yakubu, who, for a period remained one of the political footsoldiers of the late President, must have equally learnt a lot from his father and political mentor. This informs his ability to carve a niche for himself in the ensuing political evolution of the state.

This was most demonstrated by his recent political escapades in the opposition Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) which saw him defeating candidates sponsored by the former speaker Aminu Bello Masari during the recently conducted party congresses, to take control of the party in spite of allegations that he used money to pave his way.

Senator Lado was born on October 15, 1961. He attended  Danmarke Primary School from 1977 to 1983, Government Pecondary School Burdigau from 1984 to 1987, then Government College, Katsina from 1987 to 1990 and then Kaduna State Polytechnic to obtain a National Diploma in Public Accounting and Auditing from 1999 to 2001, from where he also obtained an Advanced Diploma in Accounting and Finance from 2002 to 2004.

Although he never worked in the civil service, his experiences show that Lado started his political career as an appointed supervisory councilor on finance and administration in his native Kankara LGA from 1991 to 1993. Later, he became Special Assistant to the chairman in 1994 and later became a council chairman from 1999 to 2003, before going to National Assembly as a House of Representatives member from 2003 to 2007. Then to the Senate. He has in the interim worked as the managing director of their family’s own Danmarke Trading Company.

He currently holds forth as Senate Committee Chairman on Land Transport and a member of the Senate Committees on Ethics, Water Resources and Sports. He served on the House of Representatives Committee on the Nigeria Maritime Authority, as well as member of various committees, including Niger Delta, Works, Sports, Water Resources, Marine Transport as well as Cooperation and Integration. His hobbies, according to his official CV, are reading and travelling.

Bello Dan-Maidaki Kankara, who says he has known Yakubu since childhood, attributes his political prowess to that of his father, which he copied. He adds that Lado has also directly taken to his father’s business shrewdness, and that, like his father, he is humble, courageous and committed to whatever goal he sets for himself.

Another political ally of his, Attahiru Bala Usman, attributes Lado’s emerging political clout to a local network and interconnection with people in their businesses and political activities, which show them as experienced grassroots politicians that know what it takes to win elections.

He says that on close observation, he understands him to be a down-to-earth person who has no Oga mentality of the elite. He understands people and always comes to their level to see what could be done to assist.

He further attributed it to the fact that many of the elite and intellectuals have failed the people politically in previous dispensations. For this, people prefer a visible politician they could sit and dine with.

Although when he declared for the governorship, many people saw him as too young, uneducated and unexposed to govern a state like Katsina, the recent Gestapo type of his arrest and detention has raised his popularity. Many people see him now as someone who can create an upset in the forthcoming 2011 elections, should he finally be declared as the accepted gubernatorial flag-bearer of the opposition CPC in the state.

Sunday Trust gathered that Lado has the capacity of springing suprises. When he declared for House of Representatives and later for Senate, nobody gave him the slightest opportunity. In most cases he was being laughed at and despised.

Many people feared that with his antecedents he is gradually becoming the most feared candidate, partly also due to his resources. He is said to be in possession of billions of naira.It is also believed that many Malams are praying for him.

Should he emerge as candidate of the CPC after the determination of the appeal filed by Masari and his group, Lado will certainly need their support for victory in the forthcoming 2011 elections, in spite of the enmity that existed between the duo.

While most of the saga remains an allegations, Lado appears to be the richest member who funds most of the party’s activities. It is on record that during the last Eid-el-Kabir celebrations he doled outhuge sums of money to the executives of the party in all the thirty-four local government areas.

So far, the only executive position he has held is that of the local government chairman, from 1999 to 2003. He is still believed to be the richest in the family today. He has abandoned their inherited farming business and now engage in contracts, oil and international businesses, where he might have been making a lot of money.

So far, he has succeeded in carving a niche for himself as the leader of the group of 43 contestants who fought the group of the former Speaker Masari. With the added public sympathy over the Gestapo-like fashion in which the authorities in Katsina arrested and detained him and the choice of Yar’adua’s brother as running mate, he will be the man to beat in the political equation in the state.