A tribute to Magaji Mu’azu, patriot, civil servant, mentoring father

My son was curt. “Dad, I have got to give it to you as it is. Your uncle just died.” That uncle was Alhaji Magaji Mu’azu, Ubandoman Gombe, a patriot, a seasoned technocrat, an auditor general of the North East regional government and in every sense of the word, an uncle to all young persons […]

My son was curt. “Dad, I have got to give it to you as it is. Your uncle just died.” That uncle was Alhaji Magaji Mu’azu, Ubandoman Gombe, a patriot, a seasoned technocrat, an auditor general of the North East regional government and in every sense of the word, an uncle to all young persons who strive to attain diligence and hard work and shared time with him, however brief. Those two of many traits of virtue defined him. Alhaji Magaji Mu’azu was diligence, modesty, and hard work personified. He was a patriotic go getter, soft spoken but brutally frank in his views particularly as pertained to probity and accountability of the civil service. He was a mentoring father to many in the whole of Northern Nigeria. It was the end of the earthly journey for the patriarch at age 80 as it pleased his creator.

As I reflected on the shocking news of his demise, some of his words played back in my mind. “My best friend hated me and we did not get on well, but best friends we remained”, he once told me in his modest home in Gombe. “My best friend was Commissioner for Finance, and I was the Auditor General. He spent the money. I scrutinised the expenditure to find causes in the skeletons.” He told me this chuckling and laughing, yet dead serious when I enquired after the friend.

“In public office, no power is absolute.” It was a repeat of the admonition of another of his friends, the late Abdullahi Abubakar Baban Larai. “Take no action until you can quote the authority by which you are taking the action. On expenditure particularly, do you have the powers? Have you followed due process?” These were words that have served to guide my path to this day for which I have eternal gratitude.

Our paths first crossed when I was a young Manager News and Current Affairs Nigerian Television Authority Yola in 1979, and he had reported to Yola as the Presidential Liaison Officer in charge of then, Gongola State. This was President Shagari’s answer to the loss of some States of the Federation to opposition GNPP and UPN. Magaji Mu’azu’s task in the then Gongola State, as was the task of all Presidential Liaison Officers to President Shagari, was to instil confidence in party supporters and allay their fears of being trampled upon by the State ruling party.

State Governments that were not led by the National Party of Nigeria were struggling for supremacy over the Federal Government as if it was not one country. Every issue was contentious, including acquisition of seats in the Nigeria Airways aircraft. As a Manager in a Federal Media Organization as powerful as the NTA, serving was like walking a tight rope – a little pandering to the State Government and its functionaries, you got knackered by the Federal Might, personified by Alhaji Magaji Mu’azu and a horde of very powerful politicians.

His first primary task was to acquire the site for the Shagari Housing Estate Yola, for it was in Yola that President Shagari had determined to turn the sod in order to declare the Housing Project launched. The Gongola State Government under Governor Abubakar Barde refused to grant the land, insisting that if the project was to be executed at all, the State Government should be allocated federal funds to deliver the houses. Of course the NPN refused. It took negotiation in all finesse from Alhaji Magaji Mu’azu to agree with Barde’s GNPP Government, pulling at every strand of his past relationship with members of the Barde team in Maiduguri where he was North East Auditor General and Barde was Inspector of Education. Does anyone in Shagari Lowcost Yola today remember or even notice that they are beneficiaries of the sweat and labour of Alhaji  Magaji Mu’azu now of blessed memory.

I was his first allottee of the houses. Governor Abubakar Barde had appointed me Director of Information of his government and I had taken leave from NTA to serve in that office. First, NTA suddenly unfurnished my house while I was at work. Then a few weeks later, I decided that serving in that capacity was not what I was cut out for and overnight, quit and reported to my Director General Malam Mohammed Ibrahim who immediately absorbed me into the NTA Network News. Then it was the turn of the State Government to without notice, eject me from the allocated Government Quarters at Yola TC GRA. My family stranded, I went before Magaji Mu’azu as Presidential Liaison Officer for help and got allocated a Shagari Low Cost House and he did it briskly. For several owners of Shagarin Low Cost houses, their stories may be similar to mine.

As Presidential Liaison Officer for Gongola State, all Federal Departments and their heads were brought under his supervision. He saw to the prompt completion of the Federal Secretariat Yola and Federal Officers now comfortably quartered, began to hold regular meetings in the conference hall of the Secretariat.

It was a pleasant honour to recently visit Ubandoma Magaji Mu’azu, well advanced in age and frail, yet very alert. With help from his wife, I gladly served him his warm tea as we spoke, his memory of his service to humanity still very fresh. For his modesty, it was hard to believe that here was a man who served as Auditor General of the North Eastern Nigeria, a Zonal Chairman of the defunct National Party of Nigeria NPN, Presidential Liaison Officer in charge of the defunct Gongola State, and Federal Minister for Establishment and Training. He more than all these, will be remembered as the all-powerful Ubandoma of Gombe, a prominent functionary of the Gombe Emirate Council. May God have mercy on his soul.