Muhammadu Inuwa Wada []1917-2015]

The ranks of our eminent elder statesmen were further depleted on Wednesday last week of Magaji Garin Kano and First Republic Defence Minister Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa Wada, who died at the age of 98. He died at Durumin Iya Quarters, inside Kano city, after what family sources described as “protracted illness.” Muhammadu Inuwa Wada, a […]

The ranks of our eminent elder statesmen were further depleted on Wednesday last week of Magaji Garin Kano and First Republic Defence Minister Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa Wada, who died at the age of 98. He died at Durumin Iya Quarters, inside Kano city, after what family sources described as “protracted illness.”
Muhammadu Inuwa Wada, a product of the legendary Katsina federal parliamentarian in the 1950s and 1960s and was Minister of Works and Survey in Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s administration. He held several key positions at both federal and local levels in the country’s public service.
Inuwa Wada was a very influential member of the ruling Northern People’s Congress (NPC), a veteran parliamentarian in Nigeria’s first republic. He was given the Defense portfolio in 1965 after the death of the first Defence Minister, Muhammadu Ribadu. Inuwa Wada was first elected into the Northern House of Assembly in 1951.  He was subsequently elected to the Federal House of Representatives and was a member and later minister from 1951-1966. Inuwa Wada was known by many as a quiet figure in contrast to the hectic demands of his ministerial portfolio in the Works Department which was going through a period of increased focus on major developmental projects as part of a six-year plan during the early 1960s.
Born in 1917 to a respected family in Kano, Inuwa Wada’s grandfather was Chief Alkali of Kano during the early twentieth century. His father worked as a surveyor for the Kano Native Authority before his death in 1924. Inuwa Wada attended Shahuci Elementary School and he graduated from Kano Middle School in 1938. He then went on to train as a teacher at the Katsina Higher College from 1933-1938. He later became a teacher in Kano where he taught History, English and Geography. He also edited a paper, ‘Yadda Yake Yau. After teaching for nine years, he left the profession for the offices of the Kano Native Authority and worked there as a clerk, Chief Scribe and Information Officer.
Inuwa Wada began in politics in 1945 and was a founding member of the Northern People’s Congress. While in the NPC, he was the party’s secretary and national organizer. In the 1950s he served on the board of the Nigeria College of Arts, Science and Technology, the Nigeria Coal Corporation and the Nigeria Groundnut Marketing Board. In the 1964 election, Inuwa Wada defeated a young firebrand NEPU candidate Mohammed Abubakar Rimi, who later became the governor of Kano State. Inuwa Wada was an uncle to the late head of State General Murtala Mohammed. After the overthrow of the First Republic in 1966, he returned to Kano and ran a fairly successful transport business. He also remained an influential political figure in the North.
Alhaji Inuwa Wada secured a loan from the Nigeria Industrial Development Bank to start his first manufacturing venture, a match making company. He later owned interests in five other business ventures including a transport company. His breakthrough in the transport sector occurred when he bought 50 lorries for a small deposit. His other ventures included the Nigeria Spanish Engineering Company, Kano Paints, Arewa Industries, Standard Industrial Industries and Nigerian Enamelware Company. In politics and in business, he was a man of dignity whose hope found expression in his life with democracy as his cherished legacy. Hundreds of people including the Deputy Governor of Kano State Prof. Hafiz Abubakar attended his funeral prayer which was personally led by the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II at the Emir’s palace.
With his death last week, Nigeria has yet again lost one of its most eminent founding fathers, one of the grand old men of the First Republic who laid the foundation for dignity and selflessness in the public service. Subsequent generations have found this worthy example very hard to copy, but the life of Muhammadu Inuwa Wada and other patriots of his generation will forever serve as reference points for this country’s youths and future leaders. We join family members in prayers to Almighty Allah (SWT) to reward him for his selfless services and to grant him eternal rest in Aljannat.