He was a 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).[2]
In 1999 he 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.[2] In March 2002, a Sharia court in Sokoto State freed a 35-year-old woman Safiya Hussaini, who had been sentenced to death by stoning after being found guilty of adultery. Nigeria's justice minister declared Sharia unconstitutional. Attahiru Bafarawa, however, said the Sharia states would not adhere to this declaration.[3]
Under the Bufarawa 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. The government built over 70 mosques. The water supply was improved through construction of boreholes.[4]
Attahiru Bafarawa founded the Democratic People's Party (DPP) and became its presidential candidate at the 2007 presidential elections in Nigeria.[2] 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."[5]
