He served as the Chairman, Central Mobilization Committee of PAN-African Student Organization and President African Democratic Youth Congress.
[5] His father had a well-stocked library where Sani advanced his studies through literary knowledge and was especially influenced on books propounding the ideals of socialism and politics of the left; this being a period of massive inflow of literature from Eastern Europe.
The exposure to books helped shaped his thoughts and leftist perception of life, as well as exposing him to the reality and decadence brought to the society by military dictatorship.
Sani was equally influenced by his mother, who was a community women's leader; and the likes of Aminu Kano and the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) and PRP (Peoples Redemption party) radical politics.
His offences then was that he advocated for the revalidation of the result of 12 June 1993 Presidential election polls won by the Late Chief M. K. O. Abiola.
During General Sani Abacha's regime, he was implicated in the 1995 phantom coup and subsequently jailed for life in prison and later commuted to 15 years by the Patrick Aziza Special Military Tribunal that convicted the likes of General Olusegun Obasanjo (later President), Col. Lawan Gwadabe (rtd) and Chris Anyanwu and other journalists; his charges were: "Accessory to the fact of treason and managing an unlawful society (the Campaign for Democracy)".
Sani is renowned for providing human rights campaign support to the poor and the disadvantage and in the process had clashed with security agents and other state power-wielders.
During the riot in Kaduna, he pioneered the distribution of relief materials and initiated the visit to the "war zone" at the time when it was the most suicidal thing to contemplate.