| Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa | |
| Office1: | Governor of Sokoto State |
| Term Start1: | 29 May 1999 |
| Term End1: | 29 May 2007 |
| Predecessor1: | Rufai Garba |
| Successor1: | Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko |
| Birth Date: | 4 November 1954 |
Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa (born 4 November 1954) is a Nigerian politician who was the executive governor of Sokoto State in Nigeria from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007.[1]
He was a one-time local government councillor in charge of education. In 1979, he ran unsuccessfully for election to the House of Representatives on the platform of the Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP). He was a member of the National Constitutional Conference of 1994–1995, during the military rule of Sani Abacha. He was a founding member of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP – 1997) and the All People's Party (APP – 1998).
In 1999, Bafarawa was elected governor of Sokoto State on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and was re-elected for the ANPP in 2003. In March 2002, a Sharia court in Sokoto State freed a 35-year-old woman Safiya Hussaini, who had been sentenced to death[2] by stoning after being found guilty of adultery. Nigeria's justice minister declared Sharia as unconstitutional. Attahiru Bafarawa, however, said the Sharia states would not adhere to this declaration.[3]
Under the Bafarawa administration the state made significant improvements in the quality of roads. Schools were upgraded, and enrolment greatly improved due to assurances that all pupils would be taught morals and Islamic religion.[4]
Attahiru Bafarawa founded the Democratic People's Party (DPP) and became its presidential candidate at the 2007 presidential elections in Nigeria.[5] As presidential candidate, while meeting with officials of the US State Department in Washington, D.C., he promised to scrap the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) if elected, describing the commission as "a conduit of corruption and waste."[6] On 30 April 2024, Bafarawa while meeting with journalists in his home state of Sokoto, said he would neither contest for elective positions or accept any political appointments in the future, stressing that he had been in active politics for 40 years and it was time to leave the stage for younger people.[7]