(52): Chinua Achebe’s literary legacy

On December 10, 2012 the Foreign Policy Centre in the United Kingdom organised a debate at the House of Commons to discuss the memoirs of the literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe. The debate was both fierce and cordial. Little did we know that the man at the centre of the debate had just few months to live. Achebe introduced himself to the world with the power of the pen through his book Things Fall Apart, and he departed when the debate he created by publishing There Was A Country is still relevant, especially with the 100th anniversary of the amalgamation of Nigeria approaching.

Just like his writings, his death became international news, from CNN to BBC, Guardian to Telegraph, from Nelson Mandela to Jacob Zuma, messages of condolence have kept pouring from around the world, to the extent that his death became more of a celebration of his contribution to world literature than mourning the demise of an intellectual giant. You do not have to agree with Achebe, as many of us, young and old, disagreed with him, especially on his latest book, but one thing you cannot deny the Professor is the literary juggernaut that he was, the real winner of the Nobel Prize in African literature in the court of public opinion.

As the world mourns his departure, what are the lessons to be learnt from the life of Chinua Achebe? What would be his legacy? The answers are quite obvious. But two of these legacies stand out. First was his contribution to African literature through his novels, from Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, A Man of the People, No Longer At Ease, Anthills of the Savannah, The Trouble with Nigeria, down to the most recent, There Was A Country, and also the most controversial of his books. This contribution would for life remain an enduring legacy that would put him at par with other literary icons like William Shakespeare, George Orwell, Charles Dickens and Earnest Hemingway, at least on African literature written in English language. Such contribution showcases the quality of education received in Nigeria during the colonial days and few years after political independence.

His generation has produced classic writers of international standard such as Achebe himself, Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo and Abubakar Imam, of course the latter did not enjoy much international exposure because he chose to write in Hausa language, but he was certainly an exceptional writer of the same caliber, particularly with his trilogy, Magana Jari Ce (Speech is an Asset). A common feature among this generation of writers is that they are not intellectuals who compiled degrees yet those pursuing degrees in literature up to PhD level have to study their work. This is the difference between core education and paper qualification, which is today erroneously represented in contemporary society as substitute for knowledge.

The second key contribution of Achebe is pioneering the formation of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). ANA is one of the most important institutions I believe today in Nigeria. It is so because it is one institution that is almost run voluntarily, yet supporting young Nigerians to develop their talents, produce literary works in poetry, short stories and novels in native Nigerian languages and English. With active branches in Lagos, Abuja, Port Hacourt, Niger and Kano, ANA has produced, and is continuing to produce, a pool of young writers who have the potential to compete at any level of literary endeavour, yet constrained by the Nigerian factor, particularly lack of reputable publishing houses, and the deteriorating nature of our educational institutions.

For instance in the Kano branch of ANA, through the Creative Writers’ Forum, a lot of university students, yours sincerely included, have benefited immensely in producing literary works. It was so beautiful that every last Wednesday of the month, students and teachers would meet to discuss their new output. It became a culture that every single thing members of ANA-Kano experienced, they will put it in writing, either as poem or short story. The likes of Professor Mustapha Ahmad Isa, Professor Ibrahim Bello-Kano, Dr Aliyu Jibia, Professor Yusuf Adamu and the late Malama Binta Salma Muhammad would be there to provide an assessment of the work and suggest ways for improvement. Within a short time, literary minds like Ismail Bala Garba, Faruk Sarkin Fada, Sulaiman Zailani, Aliyu Barau, Nura Ahmad, Aisha Zakari, Umma Aliyu, Shakir Balogun, Aliyu Abubakar, Hadiza Hanga, and many more whose name I cannot mention due to lack of space, were developed, and some of them, without doubt, have the potential to follow the path of Achebe. Similar effort is replicated in many chapters of ANA around the country.

No human being is perfect, and certainly Professor Achebe was not an exception, particularly with the bashing he received for his latest contribution, There Was A Country, but that is the price you pay for being a writer. As the saying goes, a single tree cannot make a forest. Without exaggeration, Chinua Achebe was a tree that made a forest in African literature.

12:51

13.05.1434

25.03.2013

(50): Wisal TV and Satellite Broadcasting in Hausa

Perhaps one area in which the Hausa language remained active is in international broadcasting. From the days of the empire service which was transmitting programmes to the former British colonies, to the establishment of international broadcasting units such as the British Broadcasting Corporation, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle etc; the Hausa language always has an active section in these international broadcasting centres. In fact in some of those media outfits, the Hausa service has the largest share of audiences compared to other languages.

Beyond the Western capitals, many developing countries have invested heavily in transmitting programmes in the Hausa Language. China, Egypt, Iran, Russia all have Hausa sections or programme slots dedicated to the Hausa language. In the last fifty years, veteran international broadcasters like Alhaji Magaji Dambatta, Dr Ibrahim Tahir, Alhaji Musa Musawa, Alhaji Halilu Ahmad Getso, Alhaji Ado Gwadabe, Malam Usman Muhammad, Dr Saleh Halliru, Malam Bala Muhammad, Alhaji Isa Abba Adamu, have greeted the airwaves.

Many more are still active in the field, and working very hard to inform us about international affairs, some of them with the dexterity and exceptional oratory that keeps you glued to your radio station. Space will not allow me to mention them now; perhaps one day there might be a chance to conduct a rigorous research on the contribution of these exceptional talents who work hard to make even the most illiterate Hausa speaker into a semi-professor of international affairs.

One area that the Hausa language remains behind is in satellite broadcasting. This is an area that many nationalities with cross border presence have embraced in order to educate their people, entertain their youth, acquire soft power, and remain visible in the international arena. Examples of such Satellite stations include Zee TV targeting Indian speakers at home and in diaspora, Telesur focusing on Latin America, as well as other Geo-cultural stations like Channel S, Islam Channel, Peace TV, Ben TV, OBE etc targeting large communities and serving their cultural, educational and religious needs.

The Hausa Language, which is widely spoken in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and with a growing number of students in England, Malaysia, United States and Cyprus; having an international satellite station is long overdue. That is why it is pleasing when some interested individuals and stations started investing in this important area. The coming of Africa TV which has a Hausa section and Sunnah TV which transmits in Hausa language will hopefully initiate the Hausa language and make it have a meaningful presence in the world of Satellite broadcasting.

Interestingly another effort being made to transmit in Hausa language to global audiences is through Wisal TV, which at the moment will start transmission from the city of Jeddah. I had the opportunity to visit the studio of the new station which according to the programme coordinator, Malam Aminu Saad, transmission will start in the next few weeks via Nilesat. Wisal will be transmitting various educational programmes and gradually move into current affairs.

The effort to have these channels is commendable, but for them to succeed, especially with the limited resources some of them operate, they need the goodwill of the audiences. This brings me back to the role of the veteran journalists, some of whom I have mentioned earlier. To run a successful TV station, you need professional hands to come up with quality programmes, ensure accuracy and fairness in presentation, provide in-depth analysis of news and current affairs, and above all respect and promote the values of the audiences.

Satellite broadcasting in the 21^st century provides an essential tool for economic, educational and social transformation. It brings the world to your table, and if handled by competent hands, it can address the key issues bedeviling the society, and come up with practical solutions for the good of all.

11:58

06.05.1434

18.03.2013

(49): Using smartphones to enhance the quality of teaching

Smartphones have today become part and parcel of our lives, particularly among young people. It enhances communication, provides access to business, and serves as a pool for the retrieval of information without the restriction of borders or monopoly by a section of the media.

But the smartphones can also be distractive, and more distracting perhaps if you are a teacher. Last year while teaching a course on global media to first year undergraduates at Northumbria University, one of the challenges I faced, and I am sure other lecturers do face as well, is that the students divide their attention between the lecture and playing with their smartphones. They spend time chatting with their friends on Facebook and twitter. This continued till the end of the lecture. If you draw the attention of the students, they might stop for a while, but once you turn around to go through the next slide in your presentation, or walk around the class, the students will continue to play with these smartphones. And it was clear that these generations of students have grown with their smartphones; they are their virtual twins, so what can you do?

The best is to utilize it as a resource for teaching, and many teachers are experimenting that. For the first time in my teaching career I asked the students to use their smartphones to search for information regarding the course, and that solved the problem immediately. Rather than wasting time during class twitting and facebooking, the smartphone can be useful in teaching.

The next thing that came to my mind is how to utilize this technology by teachers in higher institutions in countries where there is poor communication infrastructure, particularly due to poor electricity, but ironically, where there is meteoric rise in the ownership of smartphones. Despite the lack of constant electricity, people device ways to make sure that their batteries are fully charged. So are you a teacher at a higher institution? Here are five suggestions for you to consider in utilizing the smartphones that your students carry to the class, without having to worry about interruptions by your electricity supplier. 

Firstly, gone are the days when a lecturer will come to the class and be talking to students or dictate notes to them for one or two hours, in some cases even three. Teaching requires variety of approaches, with smartphones you can ask students to search through YouTube and look for video materials relevant to your course. I am aware that not all the students have a smartphone and many cannot even afford it.  But if in a class of  fifty you have five students with smartphones, you can group them into five, and they can watch it together and have discussion afterwards. That way you can avail your students with lectures presented by some of the best professors in your field.

Secondly, smartphones come with a Google search application. This is in fact the easiest tool to use in class room teaching. You can save yourself and the students the burden of printing papers, such tools in Google like Google Scholar which brings access to academic publications and conference papers can be used to access important literature, without having to go through the trash that comes with normal Google search. When explaining terms that are too technical or require the use of a dictionary, never ignore the smartphones that your students carry in their pocket, if you don’t use it for teaching they will use it for socializing.

Thirdly, is developing a specialized application for teaching purpose and then be made available on Apple Stores and Android. This is something that universities can do whether in Nigeria, Ghana or India. A smartphone application can be produced sometimes between one thousand to ten thousand dollars depending on the level of sophistication. Such app can have facilities for sending alerts to students in case of shifting a lecture, announcing exam timetable, organizing group work etc.

Fourthly, in such courses like media and communications, smartphones can be used to assign students to produce multimedia work. This is because smartphones come with a voice recorder and video apps that can be used to record audio and video materials, get it edited and uploaded on YouTube or other video platforms. CNN correspondents have of recent produced reports using smartphones, so it is doable.  I have seen radio stations recording interviews with smartphones, and the quality is better than that of some of the recording machines that are used in radio production.

Fifthly, using a smartphone, a teacher can organize a virtual class room using different applications including Skype. Students can join the teacher if for certain valid reasons he cannot come to the class. He can hold the lecture virtually while the students log on and participate.  

I am not unmindful of the challenges that might come with this, especially where the network providers are notorious for providing poor service, or the possibility of taking advantage of these facilities to avoid holding classes physically.  But it is worth trying, you can invent additional approaches as well. Most importantly, further research can help in improving the quality of teaching by using smartphones.

11:25

22^nd Rabi al Thani 1434

4^th March 2013

(48): Feedback from the readers

As the series in this column approach one year, it will be good to publish some selected comments from the readers on some of the articles published on this page. Here you are!!! –Jameel

On attitudinal poverty in Northern Nigeria

“Regarding your piece, it is an excellent write-up and spot on. I had a similar discussion with a brother last month insisting that the poverty of the north is psychological/attitudinal, and we could do a lot even without waiting for the government but just by changing our attitude”. Abubakar Muhammad

On Chinua Achebe’s book

"Well articulated indeed! Been following this article with keen attention and it made a good reading. I was particularly impressed by the paragraph "... The British did not bring a new civilisation to Northern Nigeria. They met a society that already has a political structure, with clear leadership, courts of law, security system and all the requirements of a modern state." The North has for a very long time a well established system of Government with well documented constitution, well civilized. The North have a complete mode of dressing, unlike some that adopt others dressing just recently - perhaps clothings are not an integral part of their history...."

Isa Dutse

“Thanks for your philanthropic and altruistic contribution in critically reviewing the unpopular Memoirs of Achebe. I was and still very happy with your stand and presentation on the Debate- talk at the British Parliament House, in London. I foresee a Country within a near future devoid of sentiments and corruption, not like Achebe who is very pessimistic about the future of Nigeria.

Honestly, the literature depicts the personality of Achebe and what he truly stands for. In the work '' There was a Country'', he articulated his position on how he looks at the other regions in Nigeria, emphatically, the Northerners(which he descscribes as ''Hausa/ Fulani'' and having a ''wary religion'') and the Western bloc( the Yoruba which he also portray as being ''unhampered'' with ''traditional hierarchies'').

By his provocative narration in this work Achebe only succeeded in inciting hatred  against the two major tribes by his own kinsmen. He systematically, praised his own people by calling them warriors and the rest as enemies and murderers. This work really foretells how Achebe has been considering Nigeria since the aftermath of the Biafran secession, or  rebellion.

This also calls for reassessments of his other works which are widely read not only in Igbo land but, across the North of the Hausa/Fulani and West of the Yoruba. One often, wonders why Achebe always in his works praises the Igbos as being strong and uncorrupt, and others the opposite. Examples of these can clearly be seen in works like '''Things Fall Apart'', The Man of People'', in which he satirically condemn the politicians and especially, the ruling party which of course, at that time it was in the hands of the Northerners. We see in that book  ''Odili'' as an honest academic who is pushed by the corrupt practices of the politicians of the time to contest for position.

In summary, I want to say that works like this should be avoided as they only portray, like  in a mirror, the egocentricity of the writer. The developments of the historical events as shown in the piece are one-sided. Achebe ought to come out publicly and apologise for his misrepresentation of the whole information contained in his Memoir. Luckily, as can be seen in yesternight’s debate at the British Parliament, this work of Achebe is strongly rejected even by the Igbo themselves and considered fatally erroneous.

I also recommend that interested readers in this Debate can also read other works written by some intellectual Igbo writers who consider it a duty to convey the Biafan message to the younger generation. These are ''The Visions of a Nationhood'' by G.N Unzigwe, first published 2011 and is available, and The Brothers of War'' by St. de Jorre…”

Mustapha Tafarki

25^th February 2013

9:17

(47): Dual Professorship, borderless scholarship (III)

Thus, by 2010 he had become one of the world’s leading authorities on Hausa media popular culture, evidenced in the dozens of books, journal articles and book chapters he has published in the area (see, for instance, his website, Foundation for Hausa Performing Arts).This, in addition to over 50 conferences in Nigeria, Niger and countries like US, UK, Germany, Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, Ethiopia, Turkey, Switzerland, Cameroon and South Africa.

In March 2012, he took up appointment as the European Union Visiting Professor of Media and Cultural Communication at the University of Warsaw, Poland, where he taught a course on African popular culture, as well as another one on global dimensions of folktales. His visit in Poland culminated in a guest lecture he delivered at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, the Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw in June 2012.

On his return to Nigeria, and taking into consideration his considerable contributions to the area of media and cultural communication, he was encouraged by the Bayero University authorities to submit his papers for possible promotion to the Chair of Media and Cultural Communication In the Department of Mass Communication where he had been teaching since 2006 (and supervising MSc and PhD students) in order to boost the development of the field in the university, and also add to the manpower strength of a proposed Department of Theater Arts and Film Studies in the University.

On Wednesday 30th January 2013, the Council of the Bayero University Kano approved the recommendation of his assessors that he should be promoted to the position of Professor of Media and Cultural Communication, and be transferred to the Department of Mass Communication. Prof. Adamu, to the best of my knowledge, is the first person from northern Nigeria to have double professorship and in two different disciplines (Education, and Media Studies).

The journey was not easy for him, for it took 15 years to establish his intellectual credibility in mass communications (from 1997 when he was first promoted to professor of Science Education, to 2012 when he was promoted to professor of media and cultural communication). Along the line, though, he had pioneered a radical approach to the study of media and its impact on traditional cultures. His works,    ranging from critical analyses of media censorship to rap vocal wars among Hausa musicians, and most significantly, his intertextual analyses of translocation of literary and visual cultures from other parts of the world to Hausa societies, including studies of posters, artworks, have opened up new vistas of research for other researchers who were unsure of the dividing line between mainstream mass communication, with its focus on print and broadcast journalism, and a more redefined media studies.

His pioneering use of digital technologies to record local performances and share them on content sites such as YouTube also created a community pool of what he refers to as ‘citizen anthropologists’ who can now digitally record ordinary, but significant lives, and share them to the world to provide a more balanced picture of traditional communities.

Again, as far as I know, he might probably be the only professor of media and cultural communication in Nigeria. If not, then his addition to the surely small pool would greatly help to open up mass communication and bring it to the current age where the boundaries are blurred, and SNSs have enabled the creation of new virtual avatars that are often doppelgängers of their creators – drawing new attention to social identity theory, where the society is no longer what we know, but is made up of digits and buttons in the virtual matrix.

In conclusion, I congratulate Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu, and the Bayero University community for this achievement. I couldn’t think of a better way to conclude this series, than with the words of one of Professor Abdalla’s students, and equally another intellectual in his own right, Dr Salisu Shehu, who stated that “our teacher is also a man of candor, never given to kumbiya-kumbiya or gossips. How would he have time for these vanities when he always has one paper to write or one conference to make lead presentations or globe trotting across the continents to distinctively make spectacular outings and presentations in academic and intellectual fora?. Allah Ya ja Kwana, Ya Kara lafiyar Farfesa. Allah ya  kara basira. Allah sanya tsoron Allah a cikin ilimin. Allah sa ya zama hanyar tsira duniya da lahira [Long live the Professor. May Allah bless him with a sound health, increase him in wisdom, inculcate God’s consciousness in his knowledge, and may He make it a source of salvation in this world and the hereafter]. The Aminu Ala's of this world must be rehearsing some bakandamiya to celebrate the double Professorship”.

10:41

17^th February, 2013

(46): Dual professorship, borderless scholarship (II)

Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu was  born in Daneji, the city of Kano, northern Nigeria, and he was employed as a Graduate Assistant in Science Education in the Department of Education, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria, in 1980. By October 1997 he had become Professor of Science Education and Curriculum Studies – the youngest professor from Kano at the time at 41 years. His undergraduate training was in in Biology and Plant Physiology Education (at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1979), and his postgraduate specialization at the Masters level was in History and Philosophy of Science (University of London, 1983), while for his D.Phil. (at the University of Sussex, England, 1988), he specialized in Human Resource Development.

His intellectual internationalization started in 1991 when he was appointed Visiting Associate, Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley, United States as Fulbright African Senior Research Scholar. He was the first person from the north of Nigeria to become a Senior Fulbrighter, even though at that time he was only 35 years! His residency in Berkeley led to a book, Reform and Adaptation in Nigerian University Curricula, 1960-1992: Living on a Credit Line published in 1994 in New York by The Edwin Mellen Press. In 1993 he set another record as the first academic from northern Nigeria to be invited  by the Rockefeller Foundation as Visiting Resident Scholar, Bellagio Conference and Study Center, Italy where he developed ideas for a book on higher education.

In 1999, in the wake of the public furor that trailed the popularity of Hausa contemporary fiction,  he changed the focus of his research to media and cultural communication, starting with observations about the then burgeoning Hausa popular literature – an engagement that led to many lively debates in the pages of newspapers in northern Nigeria, especially the New Nigerian Weekly under the guidance of Ibrahim Sheme who actually facilitated and mediated all the discussions on Hausa popular literature. Prof. Adamu’s deep interest in computing and literary expression led to his developing Hausa hooked characters (Ɗ, ƙ, ɗ, ɓ, Ƙ, and Ɓ) as font sets to facilitate Hausa wordprocessing in 1996. His engagement with the Hausa literati soon merged with similar interest in Hausa video films in 2001 and by 2003 he had facilated the convocation of the first conference on Hausa video film industry in Kano – a first, not only for the Hausa film industry, but also for any African video film industry; an endeveaor which led to a book, Hausa Video Films: Economy, Technology and Society, co-edited by Prof. Yusuf Adamu and Prof. Umar Faruk Jibril (Kano, Center for Hausa Cultural Studies, 2004).

When Internet became available in Kano sometime in 2000 he quickly seized its social networking potentials long before Facebook became a reality in 2004 by creating online communities on Yahoo! Groups channel to discuss Hausa music, literature and film in 2001. This not only brought the attention of the larger networked world to Hausa popular culture, but also provide an opportunity for others to develop similar virtual communities aimed at discussing all aspects of contemporary life of the Hausa, both at home and in Diaspora.

His cultural activist engagement in the communicative aspects of Hausa popular culture within the context of what he always refers to as ‘transglobal media flows’ made the Department of Mass Communication to employ him as a Part-Time Lecturer in 2006, where he was given courses to teach that eventually included Online Journalism, Advanced Media Research Methods, Critical Writing and Review, Aesthetics and Film Criticism, and Media Studies at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. 

In 2008, Prof. Adamu was appointed country partner by the Volkswagen Foundation, Germany, in its project, Passages of Culture, which networks African (Bayero University, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon and the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) and European Universities (University of Basel, Switzerland and Freiburg University, Germany). The project seeks to determine, through extensive research involving some 10 PhD students, how culture moves intertextually between one literary passage to another. Prof. Adamu was also appointed advisory to the proposed board for the Center for Study of Music in the World of Islam, Abu Dhabi (which had its origins in a conference in Morocco), and which engaged him in a project on visual preservation of Hausa children’s songs.

Prof. Adamu is also one of the few, that can be called ‘practitioner-scholars’. Not only does he teach media theories and popular culture, he actualizes it. By 2012 he had recorded ethnomusical and religious performances in both video and audio which ranged from re-recording of Aliyu Namangi’s nine-volume Wakokin Imfiraji [Songs of Salvation], to beggar minstrel music, and female Fulani children’s camp songs; as well as Sufi religious performances by bothQadiriyyah and Tijjaniyyah Sufi adherents in Kano.

As a Music Director, Prof. Adamu recorded what he called ‘Hausa Classical Music’ – a performance of four musical pieces (without any vocals) by three traditional Hausa musicians playing gurmi (sort of shortened lute), duman girke (bongos) and sarewa (flute) in 2006. He called the band, ‘Alfijir’, [dawn], to indicate the new direction he hopes to forge for Hausa music. Three of the instrumental compositions last for over 15 minutes, with the fourth closing the performances at 4 minutes. In 2008 he obtained private funding to produce a documentary on the Kano Horse Pageantry festival, Hawan Sallah, which takes places after Ramadan and during Eid-al-Hudha. He called the film, ‘Equestrian Elegance’. The film was directed by Bala Anas Babinlata, and was reviewed by Carmen McCain. In addition he had organized seven musical concerts for the British Council when it was in Kano, always introducing elements of fusion – for instance, creating what he called. ‘Kukuma Rap’; rap lyrics with Hausa kukuma beat. He has established a YouTube Channel to share his ethnomusicological recordings.

01 Rabi al Thani 1434

11/02/13

(45): Dual professorship, borderless scholarship

This piece is a personal tribute to my teacher, mentor and intellectual associate, on his appointment as a professor of media and cultural communication at Bayero University, Kano, the first person to achieve that position after acquiring a professorial chair in science education back in 1997.

I knew Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu, first on the pages of newspapers through his writings that cut across media, cultural studies, education and identity representation. My first contact with him was between late 1998 and 1999 as a young undergraduate student of Mass Communications at Bayero University, Kano.

The word internet was quite new in Nigeria then, and I wanted to know about it, our elder brother Professor Yusuf Adamu took me to his office, but the Prof was not around, Professor Yusuf Adamu asked whether I have ever used the internet, the answer was a capital NO, he quickly on the computer in Prof Abdalla’s office and opened the Google search engine, what would you like to search? Asked Alhajin Koko, the name we call Professor Yusuf Adamu at home. Anything, I replied, he searched the words “Kano Wall”, and there came pages on the history of Ganuwar Kano. We left the office after waiting for a while, but then for me, knowing his office was the first step in establishing contact with Professor Abdallah. Almost every week I will branch at his office and greet him, until sometime around 2000 when I was appointed the editor of Kano State Student’s Journal. I went to Professor Abdalla to request for contribution into the Journal.

That very week I wrote a short piece in the Weekly Trust newspaper very critical of a former military governor from Northern Nigeria. Professor Abdallah turned to me and said, “so you were the one who wrote about the former military governor, be careful, he is a mafia”, but the smile on his face told me that he wasn’t threatening me, but it is the way teachers test the resolve of their students. “come back next week for the article”, on arrival the following week, the article, on Professor Abdalla’s contribution to the creation of Hausa fonts was there on the desk of his secretary Malam Kiyawa. That was the turning point, my visits became regular, and he would always call me in case he has any work that requires the input of a student.

In the same year, I started a programme in radio Kano II, FM station called Islam in Focus and Muamalat, previously run by Sheikh Muhammad ibn Uthman and Dr Salisu Shehu. I regularly invited lecturers from Bayero University, Kano, and that was how I came in contact with our teachers like Professor Aliyu Dauda, Professor Bashir Galadanchi, Professor Aliyu Baffa Umar, my great friend and senior colleague Dr Farouk Sarkin Fada and many more. One day I invited Professor Abdalla as a guest to discuss the role of the internet in Islam, and we recorded it in three series. After the recording on our way back, after a brief stop for lunch in Mr Biggs, while driving around Gidan Murtala round-about, he asked me a question, what is your plan, what would you like to be? I told him everything about myself, my thirst for knowledge and desire to be a university teacher.

From that point, Professor Abdalla made it a project to advise me, provide me with books, and engage my service in the different projects that he handles whether at Bayero University, for non-governmental organisations, state institutions etc. When I was writing my undergraduate project on the “historical development of the internet and its utilization in Africa with reference to Nigeria” he provided me with at least 90 percent of the materials for the project.

It was through him that I met several individuals at the intellectual, political and even international level. These include the likes of Dan Masanin Kano, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, Malam Ibrahim Ado Kurawa, Malam Ibrahim Sheme, Professor Abubakar Rasheed, Professor Hamman Yola, Professor Abdurrashid Garba, Professor Saidu Babura, Professor Gidado Tahir, Professor Ibrahim Suleiman of ABU Zaria, Governor Attahiru Bafarawa, the late Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido, the Emir of Zazzau, the late Talban Bauchi Dr Ibrahim Tahir, Wazirin Katsina Dr Sani Abubakar Lugga, Miss Gillian Belben, Merryl Wyn Davies, the author of Why do people hate America? (Along with Ziauddin Sardar), Professor Ziauddin Sardar, another accomplished author; Professor Graham Furniss, Prince Phillips and Queen Elizabeth during the Commonwealth summit in Abuja in December 2003 etc.

Sometimes he gave me assignments that I felt, were by far beyond my capacity to handle, when I hesitated, he would say “you can do it”. I can’t forget when in 2003, as a Youth Corp member, he asked me to travel alone from Kano, to go and convince a governor about a programme on Islam and the media to be held in his State. On another occasion, as a Graduate Assistant, he gave me the near impossible task of producing a conference paper on the contribution of Nana Asma’u, the daughter of Sheikh Usman Danfodio within three days, an area completely different from Mass Communication. Professor Abdallah was doing this to develop my capacity when I was between the ages of 23 and 25.

Throughout my studies in the United Kingdom, from masters to PhD, he supplied materials, worked to get assistance from the Kano State Scholarship Board for me, or called to advice on what I need to do to succeed. So when I heard about his appointment as a professor of media and cultural communication by Bayero University, Kano, on 30^th January, 2013, it was a welcome development, first because I am aware of his contribution in this field, secondly, it is an area that require high caliber professors to develop, and nurture younger academics for the development of the field. But who is Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu? Join me next week for an update insha Allah.

22^nd Rabi al Awwal, 1434

2^nd February 2013