The Sardauna’s Last Admonition to Students

Fifty years ago this writer was a Form Two student in Government College, Keffi – via Gudi Station, the postal code the defunct Posts and Telegraphs Department assigned to the famous town and its illustrious institution. One day in October 1965 or thereabout, the Principal, Mr E.C.Patient announced at the morning assembly that the Premier […]

Fifty years ago this writer was a Form Two student in Government College, Keffi – via Gudi Station, the postal code the defunct Posts and Telegraphs Department assigned to the famous town and its illustrious institution. One day in October 1965 or thereabout, the Principal, Mr E.C.Patient announced at the morning assembly that the Premier of the Northern Region the late Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto would visit the school during his tour of Keffi Division.
Come the day, the school had been spruced up by the students and the school labourers, not that it was ever dirty, with nary a blade of grass out of alignment. The Premier’s convoy drove up to the Assembly Hall on Queen’s Park.
Once inside the Hall introductions were made and the first speaker was the Emir of Keffi, the Alhaji Ahmadu Maikwato. He was always beloved of the students who found his speeches historical. He told students how his search for the Golden Fleece saw him journeying to Zaria to attend Elementary School. Travelling on horseback to and fro, the District Heads of Zaria Emirate whose territories he traversed would be alerted and required to accommodate him and his entourage and provision his horses – standard protocol for a passing Prince. The message of the story was that our times represented great improvement and also opportunities.
The Premier in his speech demanded that students ignore politics outside their institutions and squarely face their studies. He assured them of continued government support and sponsorship for further studies to those who qualified. At the end of the proceedings the Principal announced that the Premier had donated a cow to the students: this was greeted by an almighty roar of appreciation!
Later in the afternoon that day it was announced – it must have come from the Principal – that the Premier would see students from Sokoto Province in the evening, at his lodging at the residence of the Divisional Officer (D.O.).
Incidentally, the Divisional Officer Keffi Division at that time Alhaji Attahiru Kamba, was also from Sokoto Province. Kamba went on to become a Permanent Secretary in the old Sokoto State and later the District Head of his hometown Kamba in Argungu Emirate  At eight o’clock that evening students from Sokoto, all sixteen of us, led by Ahmed (Zabarma) Gusau, an Upper Six former, walked the short distance from the school compound to the D. O.’s residence. At that time the College’s teachers’ quarters effectively constituted the GRA in Keffi. We entered the sitting room to find the Premier alone seated on big sofa, though we could hear low-tone Koranic reading in an adjoining room. We politely greeted him and sat on the red carpet in front of him. He asked us one by one our names and our hometowns and class of study.  He then talked to us about education in Nigeria, and in the North and how the region was far behind the South regions.  Analysing the situation in the Northern Region, the Premier told us that Sokoto province was the most backward educationally and therefore students from that province must study extremely hard wherever they found themselves. He informed us that a recently-concluded study had indicated that, in the best of circumstances, it would be ten years before the province produced its first doctor.
At the end of his jawabi, someone came in and the Premier instructed him to give us money which turned out to be £25. We thanked him profusely and returned to school. To the credit of the senior students the money was shared equally!
The theme of this excursion into the past is to draw attention to the commitment of former leaders to the development of this country, their visionary character and the thought and care they put into their endeavours. To illustrate all these, consider the Sardauna’s response to the educational woes of the Northern Region at the time he came into its leadership. In 1954 the introduction of regional government saw the Sardauna and his colleagues in the Eastern and Western Regions -Dr Azikiwe and Chief Awolowo – becoming Premiers. At that time there were only two full secondary schools in the entire Northern Region – the Government Colleges at Zaria and Keffi. Determination on the part of the Premier and action on the part of the government saw each of the region’s thirteen provinces having at least two secondary schools by 1965, his last full year in office. Missionary societies were allowed to set up secondary schools and provided capital grants. There were also many teacher training colleges. The region’s educational landscape in1965 was markedly different from that of thirteen years earlier. Steady progress was clearly possible and evident under a focused leadership.

We left our historic audience with the Premier truly awed by being in his presence and humbled by the fact that he would discuss his “worries” with us, mere teenagers. And we were benefiaries of his legendary generosity. Eight of us have since passed on, may God rest their souls. Amongst the students that day was a certain Umaru Abubakar; he was in Form Three. Umaru Abubakar went on to fulfil the Premier’s prediction when he graduated MB.BS from – where lse – Ahmadu Bello University in 1975, together with another student from Sokoto province, Shafik Suka. That is unless somebody somewhere comes forward with superior information to overturn this conclusion.
Dr Umaru Abubakar died in 2006 in the air-crash at the Abuja airport. He ran the Sokoto Clinic and was physician to the late Sultan Muhammadu Maccido.
Please note that the Northern Region in the First Republic was organised into provinces and the provinces into divisions. Four Divisions, Sokoto, Gwandu, Argungu and Yawuri comprised the Province.

MT Usman wrote from Kaduna.