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Sardauna Foundation, NGF And NNN By Abdull-Azeez Ahmed Kadir
Were Sir Ahmadu Bello to be alive today, he would have been one hundred years old. Considering the live expectancy or span in our clime, that would have been a rare feat. It is rare today to have those within the age group of the late sage still alive. Those that are alive, where they are relevant, had little or no legacies to show for it. Where they are celebrated, is not because of what they have done but more because of the long life and what their offspring have achieved.
Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, the first and only Premier of the Northern region was not the first northern leader but is up to date the foremost and about the best. He had no male child but contrary to the African belief that the male child immortalizes the father and keeps the family name alive after the first bearer was long dead, he immortalized himself and left legacies that up till today are unequalled.
Among the physical legacies of the late sage include the famous Ahmadu Bello Universities (ABU), Zaria. Kaduna Polythechnic, Kaduna. Hamdala Hotel, Kaduna. Arewa Textiles, Kaduna. New Nigerian Newspapers, Kaduna among several others..
But of all these, two are outstanding not because they are the most important but because they are the most visible and impactful. They are the two that could today be found in the nook and crannies of not just Nigeria but almost any part of the globe; the New Nigerian Newspapers (NNN) and Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.
Today ABU remains one of the most ‘federal’ tertiary institutions in the country. The only university that admits candidates from all part of the country and beyond irrespective of tribe, race and faith.
ABU remains a mini Nigeria with representation from all 779 local governments and gives who ever go through her a sense of nationalism as a Nigerian. It is the first unifying factor for many young Nigerians before the compulsory one year National Youth Service corps (NYSC). ABU; the first university to give Nigeria her first Graduate democratically elected civilian President..
At a point, this great university would have been dead and forgotten due to the negligence and unfocused attitudes of some of the successors of the late sage. But thanks to late General Sani Abacha who drafted general Mamman Tsoho Kontogora (Rtd) to go clean up his Alma Mata. Though with a lot of opposition and clandestine rhetoric against his action, Kontagora was able to restore the glory of Sardaunas’ brain child.
The taken over and the eventual conversion of Sardauna’s residence by ABU to Arewa House, and today rated to be about the best historical centre for documentation and library in Africa, shows the kind of legacy a man who died leaving behind so little in terms of material possession could muster.
Today the graduates of ABU are not just holding forth in their various fields of Endeavour but are found in the nooks and crannies of the world, thereby reminding all and sundry that not only does the name Ahmadu Bello once exist but still flourish in the heart of millions of people on daily basis.
Sadly, most of those who became what they are today because they were privileged to attend such an ivory tower did not only abandoned the institution to its faith but today prefer to send their children to schools in the foreign land leaving the legacy of the great Sardauna to decay.
Globally, the alumni of an institution raise fund to sustain the institution with little or no government support. In the case of ABU, the same policy has kept the University going. But surprisingly, the best, most vibrant and the highest contributor to ABU is the South-South branch of the alumni association with some northern states without an existing alumni association.
To show how great Sir Ahmadu Bello is, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a handful of Ministers, Governors, legislators, head of parastatals and several others in Nigeria are all alumni of ABU about five decades after he established the institution and about four decades after his demise.
New Nigerian Newspapers is about the oldest print media outfit in the country today apart from the Tribune. The NNN has played major roles in seeing to the unity of the country. When the late Sardauna established the paper he was said to have said the NNN would be training ground for many a journalist.
Today it has not only fulfilled that prophesy, those who started as cubs in this organizations have not only risen to the peak of their careers but hold theirs in the field of journalism and other related base. But to recount the plus recorded by NNN for the Northern part of this great nation and the country at large, would be like trying to x-ray the tear and wear the womb of an old woman with 45 children have gone through after a strenuous labour, loosing a lot of blood without comensurating recompense.
In most part of Nigeria and beyond, the NNN and her sister vernacular one Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo from the same stable are visible for the loyal readers who keep faith with the company.
To say the New Nigerian has been abandoned as on of the most visible legacies of Sardauna is an understatement.
Former Governor of Benue State and now Senator of the Federal Republic, George Akume, speaking at the last Arewa Media Forum at Arewa House described the New Nigerian as the shadow of its former self. The fact that the company still publishes on daily basis today remains a miracle a lot of people could not decipher.
It goes without doubt that the NNN remains about the only national print media that still believes in the old wisdom of development journalism. If today the outfit goes under, the greatest looser are not the “owners” but majority of Northerners who everyday see it on the news stand and say God bless the Sardauna and forgives him his short comings. In fact some would definitely go spiritual in avenging the demise of the legacies of the late great sage as they do on daily basis on his killers.
Other great losers would be the teeming tertiary institution under graduates who almost the year round chose the NNN as their place of Industrial Attachment (IT) or Student Industrial Working Experience Scheme (SIWES). As of the time of this writing, they are students from far away institution from the South East and South West doing such programme in this organization. Undergraduates who have never been to the Northern part of Nigeria, except for the sake of NNN.
Another great loser would be the politicians from the northern part of the country who would have little or no mouth piece and would be pummeled left and right without a corresponding medium to respond or protect their interest especially when the political blood gets hotter. Lest we forget, the FRCN and the NTA are today ‘federal’.
But above all, and the greatest looser would be the average northerner who right under his nose would watch the name, the legacies and the good things Sardauna stood for being drag to the shregs and could do little or nothing.
If in Lagos, Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) could be outstanding, if a Lagosian would struggle to reclaim Ahmadu Bello way from the jaws of the ‘beach’, what stops Dan Arewa from ensuring the legacies of his ‘father’ is not only sustained but made an outstanding one for all to imitate..
Today the staff of NNN are living from hand to mouth, even with better offers coming their ways they refused to let go. For some, it would be a sacrilege to watch the labour of Sardauna collapse; they would rather the legacies collapse under their weight. And some like their counterparts in the textile industries died like the great Sardauna in the service of this great region uncelebrated.
But unlike many of Sardauna’s legacies, all the NNN needs is a little patronage from those who care about the legacies of Sir Ahmadu Bello. A regular adverts placement not on credit from them would go a long way in sustaining the company without the owners allowing the management to go cap in hand begging to offset staff stipends.
Up till today, any body from the South West especially the politician would first place an advert in the Tribune before any other medium as a mark of honour and loyalty to late Pa Obafemi Awolowo but the reverse is the case with the New Nigerian and God-knows-who except for a very few in the North.
A content analysis of the 49th Nigerian independent anniversary messages to President Umoru Yar’dua especially by northerners in the print media showed that for any one advert NNN got even from its back yard, a paper based in Lagos got twenty or more. So how do you expect NNN to survive?
This is sure not how to sustain the legacies of Sir Ahmadu Bello. As the Northern Governors meet today to launch the Sardauna Foundation, they would sure not allow his legacies to rot away as we are sure they would make the NNN a top priority.
As the Chairman of Northern Governors Forum (NGF) and Niger State Governor, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu proudly said at the last Arewa Media Forum in Kaduna, when people of his generations from other regions were boasting of getting free education during their schooling days, he always tell them that the late Sardauna did not only give them free education but paid them to be educated. Today how many people remember that or even attempt to replicate such. Few you may say if at there is any.
Forty three years after the demise of Sir Ahmadu Bello, no one thought of sustaining his legacies until this crop of leaders (Governors) emerged. May God that gave them the wisdom to conceive this foundation give them the foresight not only to give the New Nigerian Newspapers its pride of place, but may he strengthen and unite their divergent interest to resurrect all the late Sir Ahmadu Bello Stood for physically, morally, economically, politically and in the service of the people of the North and Nigeria as a whole.
ABU, Kaduna Polytechnic, New Nigerian Development Company (NNDC), Kaduna Textiles, Ahmadu Bello Stadium (ABS) and several others, some barely surviving, others collapsed are the legacies of the Sir Ahmadu Bello apart from many industries that came to the North due to his influence.
NGF, with the Sardauna foundation have taken the part of pride to restore the North’s lost glory, may the NNN be party of that revival as well as others in coma. May it not be as late Pa Sunday Awoniyi said “an yi taru yau an waste”.
Abdull-Azeez is the Kaduna Government House correspondent for New Nigerian Newspapers.
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