Call of the Last Imam

I learnt of the death of Dr. Tahir from a mutual friend of ours, Mallam Musa Bukar Sani. I was inconsolable. I had, in that my moment of shock and grief thought of his place (though largely unappreciated by his less intellectually endowed contemporaries) in the socio-political life of our nation, his position in his […]

I learnt of the death of Dr. Tahir from a mutual friend of ours, Mallam Musa Bukar Sani. I was inconsolable. I had, in that my moment of shock and grief thought of his place (though largely unappreciated by his less intellectually endowed contemporaries) in the socio-political life of our nation, his position in his family and the Bauchi axis of the Northern divide, and even of his critical role as bridge builder between the North and South, and the academia and the real world of politics. Then, for me, there was a situation of a personal nature as well. I had at the time returned to active journalism, as publisher of Great Republic newspaper after my difficult junket into the treacherous waters of Nigerian politics. I had therefore not only lost a friend and senior brother, but also a major source of breaking news as well.  He had been my editorial magic wand from the early days of the IBB era till his death. When the big stories break, Tahir was the man to see.
During our last telephone interview we had discussed so many national issues, beside the mega party topic, my initial area of interest. Previously during our happenchance meeting in the country residence of Ciroman Keffi, I had asked after his health. His steadfastness, giant frame and courage couldn’t allow him to admit the seriousness of his ailment.
In his days in the academia at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Tahir was an intellectual colossus who towered over and above his peers. Though a progressive/modernist, whose intellectual and social roots were deeply grounded in Northern Nigerian and European conservatism, Tahir as a sociologist never denied the role of the society in shaping the psychological character of the individual. He thus was the last line of defence for Islamo-African values, even as he sought to reform them. At a time when every intelligent scholar in the Nigerian ivory tower was afflicted or cowed by the epidemic of socialism, Tahir’s understanding of human sociology became his antidote against its symptoms. He saw through the facade of its infections allure a deadly and addictive social opium.
There were no idle intellectual moments in Zaria in his days there. He was at the time one of the few intellectuals who could counter the infectious logic of communism with an equally eloquent and compelling treatise on the values of tradition and culture. He matched Dr Bala Usman, his ideological foe, logic for logic; statistics for statistics. For the students of the university, such encounters were rare intellectual treats, a gladiator-type bipolar duel fought by their lecturers in the lecture halls of their campuses.
While the arguments of Dr Usman reflected the intellectual mood of the post-industrial western society, Tahir’s arguments were usually grounded on reality and some of the aspects of development within the society that com-munist ideology to deliberately overlooked. He stood by the time-tested traditional values and institutions of our forefathers and became their last line of defence against communism’s alien value system. To him, religion and tradition are not opium of the masses but the essence of humanity itself.
The collapse of commu-nism globally, especially in Russia, a society where its future seemed assured in the 60s, was a victory of a sort for Dr Tahir’s superior argument.
Tahir’s intellectual superio-rity was only matched by his boundless philanthropy and humanism. A friend of Dr Tahir once told me that if you give Dr Tahir N10millon and ask him about it in a day or two, you may not find a kobo in his possession, “He would share out to family, friends and associates. He could buy horses, slaughter rams and send gifts to even far away family members. He could also take from what he had given you to give to a less privileged visitor.”
The crisis of confidence and legitimacy confronting politics in Nigeria today could in part be linked to the demise of intellectual inputs into its conduct. Though intellectuals have been engaged in Nigerian Politics since the advent of modern governance, it was Dr Tahir’s celebrated plunge that opened the flood gate for intellectuals to join partisan politics. He was undoubtedly one of the most intelligent and politically endowed in eloquence, aura, persona class, swagger and pedigree of Nigerian politicians of the time. He was feared as much as he was liked. The “conquest” of Anambra and Oyo states by the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), was largely a by-product of his rare political ingenuity.
Dr Tahir had his faults-all mortals do have them. But avarice was never one of them. He was raised in a family and society where the first to make it, is the natural guardian of all; where personal fortune as well as misfortune are shared by all in the family and society; where those who have, must share with those who don’t, because the essence of traditional society is to manage poverty not necessarily to glorify riches, as is the case today.
Dr Tahir’s death, though untimely did not come to me as a surprise. The intellectual guru had been intermittently ill, though his love for life and faith in his creator couldn’t allow him to admit the seriousness of his ailment. Diabetes, the disease that took his life, might be a silent killer, but in Dr Tahir’s case, it didn’t kill him silently. The dietary discipline required for the management of the ailment just couldn’t fit his traditionalist perception of a leader and a Talban Bauchi. Once there was a roasted lamb, Kilishi or Dambu to be had, no doctor’s order could stop him from having a feast. Obeying the doctor’s prohibition from eating all that which to him made us human, just to merely prolong life (which in any case is itself pre-destined), would have been unfitting of his status.
The Nigerian political space today remembers Dr Tahir with a sense of pristine nostalgia. His was a time when leaders led with courage, conviction and sense propriety. The led and those who led them shared a common vision and destiny. Leaders respected those they led and public trust was the maxim of public service. No leader was above the law and a public officer who compromises public trust must be eased out because in politics, perception of wrong doing in public life is equated with guilt. That was why a serving minister during the Shagari administration was dropped as soon as it became public that he was bribed by the Russians over Ajaokuta contracts.

Yelwa, a publisher, wrote from Abuja