How my love for lions inspired Kano Zoo – Hajiya Ladi Audu Baƙo, late Kano First Lady
Interview with Hajiya Ladi baƙo
Hajiya, where existed you born and which school did you attend?
You may not get all that you want, because your memory is very weak. However,…
Hajiya, where were you born and which school did you attend?
You may not get all that you want, because my memory is very weak. However, my name is Ladi Audu Bako, and it is the name that I’m popular with worldwide.
I was born in Sabon Gari, Zaria about 95 years ago. During our time, there was no name for streets, but I can remember that our street was, at that time, referred to as Laying Magajiya. At that time, women were not as privileged educationally, as they are now.
However, in our days, classes were categorized as Standard 1, Standard 2, and so on, in that order. I attended missionary schools, I think up to Standard 2, before I was married off at the age of 14.
Are your parents also from Zaria?
No, my parents came to Zaria from the then-Midwest State and settled in Sabon Gari. That was why I grew up in Zaria.
How can you compare life during your days and now?
It is incomparable. The yesteryears were far better than what we have now. Everything then was very simple and easy. There were no such types of problems that we have today. Everyone was minding his or her own business.
You said you got married at the age of 14, was the late Audu Bako your first husband?
No, Audu Bako, may his soul rest in peace, was not my first husband.
My first husband was a different person.
Was your first husband also an indigene of Zaria?
No, he was a settler. He came to Zaria from a village known as Rahama under Soba Local Government now. He settled in Sabon Gari, Zaria, just like my parents. He was a businessman, exporting ginger. The Emir of Zazzau was the one that married me off to my first husband.
You mean, the present emir?
No, this present emir is a young man, as far as I am concerned. It was Sarki Aminu who was my Waliy (guardian).
I grew up in his house. Up to now, we maintain a good relationship with the family of the late Emir Aminu, like the present Wamban Zazzau. We also relate with the present Emir of Zazzau (Zaria) up to today.
How did you meet late Audu Bako?
He met me in Sabon Gari, Zaria. I was not his first wife. When I was with my first husband, I usually visit my parents in Zaria from Rahama village where I was living with my husband. Anytime I visited my family’s house, we usually sat with friends and relatives to chat. Friends like the late Hajiya Kaka of Tudun Wada and the late Hajiya Gambo Sawaba were very close to me, before their deaths.
Their deaths made me weak because I am the only one left now among my peers. I met Audu Bako in a very wonderful way. It was an amazing episode. At that time, he was a police officer. He was transferred to Zaria. And as I told you, anytime I visit Zaria, I usually meet with friends like Gambo Sawaba. Therefore, Gambo Sawaba’s family house became our meeting point anytime we were in Zaria.
For those of us who had no husbands, our boyfriends would come to give us some money, which we would use to buy chicken heads and legs. The day we would meet with Audu Bako, Gambo Sawaba’s elder sister sent me to a laundry. When I was crossing the road, Audu Bako emerged riding his bicycle and my sister was standing by the roadside to monitor how I was going to cross the road. When she saw that he was staring at me, she shouted ‘My brother stop looking at her, I would not give her to you.’
After that encounter, he kept on following me. The first time he came looking for me, I was told that a policeman was at the gate looking for me. I exclaimed, ‘What am I my going to do with a policeman?’ This was because we were not used to policemen in Zaria at that time; we only knew soldiers.
Gambo Sawaba was the one that asked me to go and meet him in order not to embarrass him. After we have discussed it, he gave me five shillings. With those five shillings, I became the richest among my peers.
We refused to allow him to know my house. Accidentally, he met me at the entrance of our house one day, and that was how he came to know our house and started visiting me frequently.
Gradually, I became seriously in love with him to the extent that I could do anything for him. The love I have for him has persisted up till today. It was for this reason that Emir Aminu approved my marriage to him.
Can you remember the year you tied the knot with him?
Wallahi (to God) I cannot remember it, except that I knew I was 19 when I married him, and he was 25.
How did you relocate to Kano?
You know the nature of police work. We had been to many states of the federation on postings and our coming to Kano was part of the routine of transfers.
Can you remember how your late husband became the governor of Kano State?
Yes, he was on his farm in Kaduna on that day when he received a message telling him to report to Kano in the next two days. I was sitting in our house at Swimming Pool Road in Kaduna when he just came in and asked me to gather my belongings that we were moving to Kano. That was all.
We moved to Kano and left most of our property behind. Can you believe that our property was conveyed to Kano on a train and they arrived about two weeks after we had relocated?
That was the kind of discipline and decency of leaders that I am talking about. As a governor, he could have used official vehicles to move our property, but he followed the official channel like any other police officer.
In those days, nobody would give you any notice before you were transferred. There was a time we were transferred to a certain town, and before our loads arrived, we had transferred again to another city. That was those days.
How did you feel when your late husband was criticized while he was in office as governor?
Well, at that time I was only encouraging him because I knew that criticism is part of human nature. Don’t forget the love I said he had for me. Therefore, whenever they criticized his works, I felt that I must stand by him. I was telling him to put it in his mind that people would not appreciate his work until he had left office and he was seriously motivated by that. I told him that the truth never fades, and that has come to be the reality because of the way and manner people are now celebrating Audu Bako.
You were known to be keeping wild animals in your house. Why did you choose that as a hobby and what happened to the animals?
It is true, but that has a history. One day, some villagers found two lion cubs that were swept into their farms by flood and they brought them to me. I gladly accepted them and started feeding them. Because the lions were a male and a female and were brought to me on a Friday, I named them Danjuma, (the Hausa name of a male child born on a Friday) and Jummai (for a female). Danjuma and Jummai grew up in our house and became very close to me. Unfortunately, Jummai died.
But the bond between me and Danjuma grew stronger to the point that he would come and sleep in between my daughter, Zainab when she was a baby. Whenever his nails grew long, Danjuma would come and place them on my lap to cut them for him. If I was going out of my house, I would call him to tell him that he shouldn’t go anywhere, and I would come back and meet him in the house. This is to tell how close we were to that lion.
READ ALSO: Pioneer First Lady of Kano, Hajiya Ladi Bako, dies at 93
However, lions have one attitude. If you ever maltreat them, they would not forget and they would target you for revenge. One day, I came back to the house and met Danjuma had pounced on one of my houseboys. Thanks to my return at the right time; it could have been a different story entirely. That houseboy is still alive. When I saw what Danjuma was trying to do, from a distance, I shouted: ‘Danjuma, Danjuma, please leave him’ and when he heard that, he roared back and embraced me with his front legs. That was how the boy was saved.
After that incident, Audu Bako cautioned me to be more careful, if not, Danjuma would put me in trouble. My late husband never had a passion for keeping wild animals. His hobby is being at the farm always.
So, that incident informed the decision of my late husband to build and open the present Kano Zoo, and I donated Danjuma as the first wild animal in the Zoo. I love wild animals so much.
Is Danjuma still alive?
I don’t think so. I think he’s died. After I donated him to the Zoo, I continued rearing other wild animals.
How did you feel when your late husband was removed from office by the late General Murtala?
I was here in Kano at that time, and there was nothing serious because we were not harmed. My late husband settled fully on his farm. My children were enrolled in schools. This house that I am living in was bought for me through contributions by the state’s commissioners.
Does that mean that your husband did not leave assets behind?
I can’t say that he has not left anything, but I know that we had to pay some of his debts after his death. These are leaders of those days, as I told you even the house to live in after his death was bought through contributions.
After your husband’s death, did you engage in any activities for a living?
I did not engage in anything. Since my prime days, I have been a full-time housewife. Therefore, I continued to live with my children.
You said you were not doing anything, who is responsible for your upkeep?
I don’t know why people are so concerned about that. I don’t want to insult anybody, but since these leaders have largely bought their way into office, they have no cause to look back, unlike the leaders of our days.
Both the police authorities and government at all levels don’t give us anything. Previous administrations in Kano used to remember us. For example, when Kabiru Gaya was the governor, he sponsored one of my sons for treatment abroad. I think other administrations used to send food to us, especially during festivities, but those things are now history.
For the police force, I told you, I don’t want to insult anybody, but I have never seen a profession like the police. It is only when you are in service that they would remember you. Once you leave, that is all.
Like the government, the police don’t remember us. I think the military is friendlier in terms of maintaining relationships than the police.
Are you not receiving anything based on your status as the family of a former governor of Kano State?
We are not receiving anything at all. The family of Audu Bako is not getting anything from the government. My preoccupation now is praying for the repose of his soul. We lived peacefully with him based on true love. It is these days that we experienced real love. This is why I can’t forget my late husband. What you have now is artificial love.
Hajiya, do you still have children?
Yes, I have three sons and three daughters. One out of them is dead. I now have two sons and three daughters. But my husband has other children, as I told you I was not his first wife.
Interview culled from Daily Trust, Sun, 28 Dec 2014 4:0. Hajiya Ladi Bako died on 5th April 2023. May Allah have mercy on her soul and forgive her mistakes.
