Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu: A Biography

To write the biography of a leader, certain issues on political philosophy must be observed to necessitate the unique value upheld by the person whose biography is being written.  L Wright Mills said history is the biography of leaders.  Leaders are members of the society who connect with everyone through interpersonal communication, group interactions and […]

To write the biography of a leader, certain issues on political philosophy must be observed to necessitate the unique value upheld by the person whose biography is being written.  L Wright Mills said history is the biography of leaders.  Leaders are members of the society who connect with everyone through interpersonal communication, group interactions and communal efforts in mutually beneficial activities.

Politics and philosophy are disciplines that analyse values in the society as such, political scientists and philosophers have helped sustain progressive values in the human society from the ancient period till today.  They have reinforced good values upheld by good leaders and derived the excesses of tyrants and self serving rulers who use propaganda to sustain their tyrannical reign over their citizens.

The book, Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu: A Biography connects the philosophy of leadership imbibed by Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu in Nigeria ’s fourth republic.  The value of interpersonal communication imbibed by the young Mu’azu in his early years connected him to his peers who recalled in several anecdotes how he used to carry them along either in the classroom or the play ground.  His mother noticed this truth and said that he always loved two things so well from when he was just a little boy.  He loved education and reading and he was always moving around with lots of people even when he was little.  He loved associating with people, his younger ones, age-mates, friends in school, even after school hours, you always found him and many others playing.  He was a lover of people and people also loved him (P. 24).

From the testament above, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu has been an individual who has always connected with people.  According to John C. Maxwell (2010:3):

… good communication and leadership are all above connecting. If you can connect with others at every level one-on-one, in groups, and with an audience – your relationships are stronger, your sense of community improves, your ability to create teamwork increases, your influence increases and your productivity skyrockets.

The leadership traits in Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, the book points out, can be traced to his father.  His mother says:

He took this trait from his father who was also a lover of people. His father’s house was always filled with people who were there to relax, discuss eat or stay for a while before moving on (p. 24).

This made it natural for Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu to have a drive for service away from the pretence that public office holders exhibit in contemporary time.

The book chronicles his schooldays from Central Primary School, Kuta and Minna to College of Education, Sokoto, from Bayero University, Kano to University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. When in school, he exhibited leadership qualities that saw to his emergence as monitor at the elementary and secondary schools level, to being the principal officer in the students union at the College of Education. During his youth service, he interacted with the teachers’ union and came home to establish unionism among teachers in Niger State.

This biography also portrays Dr. Aliyu as a man with deep interest in education, an interest that transcends just searching for opportunities to better his lot. He embarked upon this in order to serve the people better. The dividend of his inquisitive nature now benefit the state, because at the executive council of the state or the nation, his contributions to the conception and operationalisation of ideas, give credence to leadership in Nigeria .

The book provides details of where and when Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu served the nation.  He started out as a classroom teacher, started a teacher’s union and later became a labour leader.  He had a stint as an elected member of the national assembly in 1983 before the military coup of 1983 dislodged the civilian government.  He went back to the civil service at the Federal level in 1990, from the rank of Assistant Chief Political Affairs Officer, he became a Permanent Secretary and retired at that peak in 2007.  He served in the constitutional conference committee of 1995 and was one of the organisers of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in Abuja in 2003.  He served his community through Minna Emirate Education Foundation.  With the numerous areas of intervention, interest shown and commitment to service, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, became the preferred candidate for governorship (p. 56).

The authors depict the overwhelming acceptance accorded Gov. Aliyu by citing the statistics of the votes that made him the “Chief Servant of Niger State”.   He pulled the crowd to claim the mandate of Nigerlites.  He got 52.54% of the electorates’ votes and the closest to him had 24.95% of the votes. (p. 58).

The book also noted his efforts at unifying the peoples in the state by abrogating the idea of dichotomy in school fees for indigenes and settlers. The authors also capture the reaction of the people to this policy, quoting one of them thus:

Mu’azu’s greatest achievement is his ability to communicate with people… , really I think he excels, and this is very important for leadership, for politics.  I think he has managed to stabilise the state politically.  He has given everybody the feeling that we are the same (p. 58)

The ethical consideration of Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu is a source of unity for not only Nigerlites who are natives of the state but also settlers.  Niger State is free of the turmoil engulfing places like Plateau, Bauchi and some states in Nigeria where indigenes and settlers always use daggers to settle scores.

The authors score Dr Mu’azu Aliyu high using the result of a survey conducted across social classes of the society in the state.

By the end of his first four years in office, researchers, who spoke to over one thousand respondents, indicated that more than 95% were glaringly in support of the return to office of the Chief Servant. Not that there were not a few lapses, but to most of the people, the transformation of Niger State in four years was almost magical (p.92).

In the light of the survey conducted, the writers explained the strata of the society that benefit from the administration of Dr Mu’azu Aliyu:

From the traders to the commercial motor cycle riders, the taxi drivers to the house wives, the pensioners to the civil servant, the teacher to the university lecturer, corporate executive to the entrepreneur, everyone has one or two positive ways that Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu’s administration has touched their lives within the short period of his first tenure of four years in office as the Chief Servant (p. 91).

Chapters four, to nine confirm the achievement of Gov. Aliyu drawing from education, agriculture, health, infrastructure and the development of human capital.  The history of Niger State during the first four years of his administration in his biography reflected in his dreams and aspiration for the citizens of the state.

The book is a testimony of the success achieved by the Chief Servant of Niger State and statements and records cited by the writers is a pointer to the fact that biography is history and if carefully analysed, the subject of the book can be categorised along with the philosopher kings of Plato.

The book is in hard cover and with good bold print, although there are few typographical errors that could be improved upon in further editions.