ThisDay Newspapers Lose Director, Danbaba; Sokoto, Kaduna, Mourn Influential Northerner

By Adesina Soyooye

He was in Lagos last week at a  meeting of a mix-marsh of high profile Nigerians, concerned about the situation in the country, and looking for a way to stop Nigeria’s fall. They are, also, allegedly, working on who best to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

But in the mid-morning of Saturday, February 12, he slumped in his hotel room in  Kaduna, and was pronounced dead some minutes later in a hospital.

Magajin Garin Sokoto, Alhaji Hassan Danbaba, was not only one of the most Influential Northerners, he was the Head of Sokoto Kingmakers.

He was in Kaduna to condole with another Influential Northerner, Lt General Aliyu Gusau, rtd, former NSA, former Minister for Defence, father of the embattled Deputy Governor of Zamfara State, Mahid Aliyu Gusai who, recently, lost his elder brother.

On arrival, and after the condolence visit, Danbaba checked into his hotel, Stonehedge, in Kaduna.

Just before he slumped in the Hotel room and died at about 11.30am, he had dressed up, preparatory to meeting General Gusau in his house for two of them to head back to Abuja. But he slumped. Panicky Aides swooped on him and  rushed him to the 44 Army Reference  hospital, Kaduna. He was declared dead on arrival.

A devasted Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, ordered that his body be evacuated to Government House, for an airlift to Sokoto for funeral.

He will be buried at a cemetery reserved – Hubbaren Shehu- reserved for Royal leaders.

A grandson of the late revered Premier of the defunct Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sarduana of Sokoto, his mother, A’ishatu, the eldest daughter of the late Premier, died in Dubai in 2021.

Danbaba was also one of those behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s Rice Revolution, and was very much involved in the Rice Pyramid fare in Abuja recently.