To most Nigerians born before the Nation’s Independence in 1960, as well as others interested in the political development of the country, the years and probably the months Nigeria lost five of its Heads of States are well known to them.
The day, Friday 27th December, 2018 is yet another one of the dark days of Nigeria as the citizens heard of the sad news of the passing away of the first Executive President of Nigeria, the late Alhaji Shehu Usmanu Aliyu Shagari, GCFR (Turakin Sokoto) in the National hospital,Abuja,the Nation’s capital at 93, after a brief illness.
Indeed the late President Shagari is the first of Nigeria’s fourteen (14) past and present Heads of State or Presidents to have died out of office, as all the other five died, or were killed while in office.
This tribute is about the late President Shagari as an old student of Barewa College, Zaria from the perspectives of the Barewa Old Boys Association (BOBA) that the late President had served as its first President.
The date, Friday, 2nd November 2018,would forever be an historic one to BOBA. It was on that day in Sokoto, at the residence of His Excellency, President Shehu Usmanu Aliyu Shagari, GCFR, an old student of Barewa College, Zaria, with admission number 394, that members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Barewa Old Boys Association (BOBA), and other distinguished members of the Association paid courtesy call on the former president. The visit was as part of the 2018 Annual Lecture, Dinner and Recognition Awards, which took place in Sokoto from 2nd to 3rd November 2018. Indeed, it was part of the carefully planned series of activities, which started in Katsina in 2017, to celebrate the one hundred years since the establishment of Barewa College. Less than sixty days after that historic visit which was led by the President of BOBA, Engr.Dahiru Ibrahim (B.1136), President Shagari was no more.
President Shagari deserved the courtesy visit for many other reasons as well. He was a member of the Board of Patrons of BOBA. He was among the five old students of Barewa College, Zaria who rose to rule Nigeria either as Prime Minister, as in the case of the late Rt. Hon Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa,GCFR (B.145)(1960 to 1966); or Military Heads of State in the case of Gen Yakubu Gowon, GCFR,Ph.D (B.783)(1966 to 1975)and the late Gen.Murtala Ramat Mohammed, GCFR (B.941)(1975 to 1976); and also as President in the case of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, GCFR (B.2465)(2007 to 2010).
President Shagari, until his passing away, was the most senior member of the BOBA as well as the only old student alive out of those admitted into the College in 1941, after the transfer of the College to Kaduna in 1938 and was renamed Kaduna College.
President Shagari, as a Senior Visiting Teacher in the former Zaria Middle School towards the end of the 1940s, was requested by the British Colonial masters to assist in the measurements for the foundation of the present site of Barewa College, Zaria, as preparations were underway to transfer the College from Kaduna to Zaria in 1949/1950.
The late President Shagari narrated this piece of history in his residence in Sokoto in August 2013 during a visit by this writer as the Secretary General of BOBA with some members of the National Secretariat of the Association.
When in May, 2010, the late Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua,GCFR (B.2465) died, the BOBA family, the nation and the international community grieved.
On Friday, 28th December 2018, BOBA lost its first President, the first elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a Patron of the Association. His Excellency, Alhaji Shehu Usmanu Aliyu Shagari, GCFR (B.394). The Association grieved, the nation was devastated.
The International Community knew the late President Shagari well, Nigerians loved and still love him, for he believed in one Nigeria!
“One Nation, One People, One Destiny “, he repeated in 1978/1979 and again in 1983 during the electioneering campaigns. He was a politician and he believed in those words and their meanings, for he was teacher, like no other.
He answered the name Shehu, spiritually given to him on that historic day of 25th February 1925,when he was born in Shagari. True to the meaning of the name given to him, after the famous Islamic Reformer, Shehu Usmanu Danfodio of blessed memory, he ruled Nigeria as the ‘Mujaddadi’ did from 1804 onwards; he taught, as the ‘Mujaddadi ‘ did and he wrote books as the Mujaddadi did.
Afterall, Shehu Usmanu Danfodio, his brother, Sheikh Abdullahi bin Fodio (Abdullahin Gwandu) and Caliph Muhammad Bello, referred often as a triumvirate, wrote and authored more books in the history of any reformationary movement.
The Late President Shagari wrote books from classroom, not as autobiography, but as textbooks for students to read, learn and research as did Shehu Usmanu Danfodio, whom he was named after.
Afterall, it was Sheikh Abdullahi bin Fodio who said: “Many a learned man or scholar came to us from the East, and I benefited immeasurably from him; many a learned scholar came to us from the West, and I benefited immeasurably from him. May God reward them all in His Kindness…”
The Late President Shagari wanted to be remembered as a teacher and BOBA is proud that a distinguished student of the College rose from being an ordinary classroom teacher to becoming the President of Nigeria, and humbly ruled the North, South, East and West as one country.
May Allah (SWT) reward his excellent works, forgive his mistakes and grant him a special place in Al-Jannah Firdausi, amin.
To Maigirma, Muhammad Bala Shagari (B.1771), Sarkin Mafaran Shagari, Sokoto State, the eldest son of President Shagari, and himself a distinguished old student of Barewa College, Zaria; his siblings, as well as the larger Shagari family, the Sokoto Sultanate Council, the National Council of State, the Sokoto State Government and the good people of Sokoto State, and indeed the entire Nigeria, kindly accept the sincere condolences of the President of BOBA, Engr. Dahiru Ibrahim (B.1136) on behalf of the National Executive Committee (NEC),the Board of Trustees (BoT), Patrons and the entire membership of the Association for this irreplaceable loss.
–Mora, the Secretary General of BOBA, writes from the National Secretariat of BOBA, Kaduna.
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