BBC Hausa Service Celebrates 50th Anniversary

BBC Hausa Service Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Babandi Gumel

The BBC Hausa Service marks the fiftieth Anniversary of its broadcast with series of programmes transmitted by the Service since its formation fifty years ago. Among the archives programmes included the first broadcast made on Wednesday the 13^th March 1957 at 0930 GMT by Late Aminu Abdullahi Malumfashi exactly fifty years ago. The Late Aminu Malumfashi was known to be the first ever broadcaster of the BBC Hausa Service.

He made the opening announcement during the 15 minute short broadcast which was followed by a talk written in English “West Africa in the News” translated and read by Abubakar Tunau who became the second broadcaster of the Service. The opening of the Service was preceded yet by the Ghana’s Independence which it gained a week earlier read by Zakari Muhammed another pioneer of the Service. So these three broadcasters who were studying here in London automatically laid the foundation of the Hausa Service Broadcast which also became the first among the African Service which included Somali and Swahili that would also be celebrating their fiftieth Anniversary sometimes in the Middle of the year. Anyhow in those days the two 15-minute Hausa programmes were only broadcast on Wednesdays and Fridays. The daily 15 minute broadcast was only introduced on June 1^st 1958 employing full time staff including the former Transport Minister in the Second Republic Alhaji Umaru Dikko.

Towards the end of 1958 a daily two fifteen minute programmes afternoon and evening transmissions were introduced in the Service. After Independence detailed plans for the expansion of the service were drawn and in May 1962 the first dawn transmission was also introduced and the afternoon transmission was in addition extended by 15 minutes. The transmissions in the Hausa language have remained virtually unchanged since 1966 with the opening of the Ascension Island Transmitter which was used to transmit the Hausa broadcast. As the audience of the Hausa Service increases by day it is becoming more popular than any of the foreign language services apart from the English World Service which broadcast 24 hours. The Hausa Service audience has now hit record of more than twenty two million listeners which is among the highest. Since December last year the Service has added or introduced the Hantsi Programme an additional Hausa Dawn broadcast after the usual first 0530 GMT Dawn Transmission. The Service now broadcasts all its dawn and Hantsi transmissions from the Abuja studios in Nigeria.

The fiftieth Anniversary celebrations due exactly on Tuesday 13th March this year was postponed to enable the Somali and Swahili Sections of the African Service also marking their fiftieth Anniversary come together in joint Anniversary celebrations sometimes in the middle of the year. Although only archives programmes were transmitted as part of the 50^th Anniversary yet an informal get together was organised in the Hausa Service on that very Tuesday 13^th March 2007. This informal get together brought the two former heads of section Dr Graham Mytton and Barry Burgess popularly known as Barau Chedi. Like Graham Mytton and Barry Burgess I also had the privilege of attending both the 25^th Anniversary Silver Jubilee of the Service in 1983 and the latest 50^th Anniversary on that Tuesday afternoon. The informal occasion which started around 1 p.m brought together about 20 people both ex staff and the current members of the BBC Hausa Service. As nobody expected such number of people turning up for the sudden cancellation yet our presence boosted the occasion as we did not see one another for years. Jamila Tangaza the Hausa Head who took over from Isa Abba Adamu on behalf of the Hausa Service welcomed the distinguished guests including the two former heads and some guests from SOAS Dr Graham Furness and Dr Phil Jaeger. Both the two men Professors of Hausa at the famous London School for African and Oriental Studies SOAS are not new to the Hausa Service and also to the listeners. Similarly Jean Boyd a writer was another popular figure well known to Hausa listeners. She initiated a programme called Nana Asmau presented by Yusuf Muhammed Kankiya on the life of the daughter of the famous Muslim Reformer Usman Dan Fodio was also present during the informal occasion. While introducing the guests Jamila Tangaza invited Barry Burgess as a courtesy to speak before first during this memorable occasion. Barry in turn requested Graham Mytton as his superior and predecessor to speak first on this day which could not be forgotten. After Dr Mytton had spoken in English it was the turn of Barau Chedi who spoke in his usual fluent Hausa Accent for almost ten minutes like any other Bahaushe. In fact it was Barry who even suggested that the occasion should all be conducted in Hausa but for the BBC Camera Crew. When Barry spoke then Jamila requested me to say few words at the occassion during which I recalled the famous programme that I produced and presented in the early 80s popularly known as Duniya Ina Muka Dosa.

Coincidently Graham Furness who later spoke, was the producer of this 200-week long programmes that took me nearly four years to compile and presented. The programme presented between 1980-1984 dealt with all the historical, geographical and political aspects of each and every Country of the World in the early 1980s.Graham Furness and Phil all spoke in Hausa during this informal session which lasted for almost three hours with most of the Hausa Service staff present including Abubakar Kabir Matazu, Hindu Waziri both Senior producers and Sulaiman Ibrahim who was coordinating the occasion. .During the informal session Idris Muhammad Amin who presented a popular educational Programme Ilmi also spoke on the occasion. The BBC Hausa Service is well known for its distinguished broadcasters who used to work for the Service either on full time or part time basis. We will begin the roll call with some famous politicians and other prominent people that used to work in the BBC Hausa Service.They included prominent politicians such as the former Kano State Governor Abubakar Rimi, the former Minister in Shagari’s Government Dr Ibrahim Tahir, Alhaji Musa Musawa ,Malam Umaru Mutallab were also among the few distinguished Nigerians broadcasters that worked for the Hausa Service. Other famous broadcasters that could not be forgotten included Halilu Ahmed Getso, Saleh Aliyun Hadejia Sanusi Imam Kankiya, Ahmed Aminu,Late Yunusa Dayyabu Ibrahim Late Bagudu Bida the former General Manager of the NBC now Radio Kano .Late Mahmud Aminu and late Yusuf Ibrahim Bauchi and late Shehu Yusuf Karaye were among the veteran broadcasters that served in the Hausa Service. No doubt the listeners could never forget another veteran broadcaster Malam Usman Muhammed who was the longest serving staff who served the Hausa Service for nearly 27 .He retired at the end of last year along with Umar Yusuf Karaye another well known figure. Bilkisu Labaran who is now in the African Service and ,Delu Abubakar were among the women broadcasters that served in the nineties. They were among the thousands of influential broadcasters mainly Nigerians with some from Ghana such as Muhammed Abu and Niger such as Late Siraj Kane . Kouli Baley and Aisha Musa also from Niger are among the few people presently working with the Hausa Service of the BBC. Among the other influential people that used to work with the Hausa service included Ali Ahmed former Audu Bakos Chief of Protocol, Saleh Chiroma ,Musa Maaji, Kabiru Yusuf of the Daily Trust also used to report for the BBC from Southern Africa, Ahmed Yarima was another famous Hausa Service correspondent based in Moscow. Equally Dr Abba Abdullahi the former Managing Director Triumph Newspapers used to report for the BBC Hausa Service from Paris. Similarly Nasiru Zahradeen the former National President of the NUJ served the BBC so also Umar Uba Muhammed all colleagues both in the BBC and the NTA used to work with the Hausa Section. Adamu Aliyu Kiyawa a veteran broadcaster and, Bala Muhammed Director General A Daidaita Sahu in Kano both also used to serve in the BBC Hausa Service. Garba Gumel and Ladi Madawaki also served in the section. Mustapha Maisikeli, Lawal Sallau Jibia, Yahya Musa, Magaji Sanin Sada, Dr Akilu Sani Indabawa,Muhammed Sani Gwarzo,Yusuf Nagi, all served with the BBC. Dr Shamsuddin Usman of the Central Bank with his wife Aisha whom I met briefly along with Dr Alhasan Bichi in the early 80s used to work for the Service. Saleh Halliru and. Murtala Sule of Niger Republic served with the BBC.Adamu Yusuf,Abubakar Sadiq ‘Yar Adua were among the reporters that used to send dispatches for the Hausa Service. Ibrahim Musa Gwangwazo, Ibrahim Balarabe Late Kabiru Gote,Ahmed Tijjani Gana Lamido Bello, Abdulkarim Abubakar and Musa Nahannu Danjuma all worked with us together in the Hausa Service ,Bala Ibrahim and Ado Saleh Kankiya are among the many well known voices that are still sending reports to the Hausa Service. Majority of the people mentioned either we worked together or were colleagues some as my elders were known to me personally .It is very difficult to mention each and every person by name they all helped build the reputation of the BBC which it maintains.

During the occasion the BBC broadcast special archives programmes specially selected to commemorate the 50^th Anniversary in the years gone by. Among the famous archives voices included that of David Warren nicknamed by the listeners as Alhaji Dauda. Others included The State visit to Britain in the 70s by the Nigerian Military Leader General Yakubu Gowon and official visit also by the President of Niger Late Hammani Diori with his Wife Aisha Diori. In addition the Service also broadcast interviews from the old archives with famous personalities including the Late Premier of the North Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardaunan Sokoto with Umaru Dikko nearly 48 years ago and an Interview which I conducted with the Late PRP Leader Malam Aminu Kano almost twenty seven years back. The famous Dan Arewa A London a comedy programme was among the archives broadcast. The Service would continue broadcasting these special programmes from time to time marking the 50th Anniversary celebrations. All the programmes broadcast would be left on the Website for at least nine months for the benefit of the listeners interested to browse the Website. The BBC Hausa Section is increasingly becoming more popular by day with listeners increasing as usual not getting tired of tuning to the famous “London Ta Ke Kira” which heralds the beginning of the Hausa Service broadcast which now celebrates its fiftieth Anniversary drawing more and more listeners.

Wa Akhiri Dawana Anil Hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen.