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The Story Of Abubakar Rimi’s Experiments With Truth By Khalid Imam
It is indeed true that life is an astonishing odyssey which every mortal experiences once in his/her life time. And the journey of a life time is, without qualms, not only transient, but so mysterious to be fully comprehended by human minds, unless one mystically submits oneself to the exalted Creator to guide his/her life. Many are lost or ended up squandering the rare opportunity of realising the true essence of life before death calls. Oh yes, life and death are like conjoined twins, because it is death that completes the true meaning of life. And since we all want to be inhabitants of paradise, death is inevitable to all living mortals. Having said that, I intend in this piece, to share with readers the story of late (Dr.) Alhaji Muhammad Abubakar Rimi’s experiments with truth from the point of view of a keen observer. My mind settled on the subject of this article, as a result of reading an inspiring autobiography of the great Indian leader and liberator, M K Gandhi The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Even though, I had earlier wanted to write on “In Search of Abubakar Rimi’s Heir”, I felt dwelling on today’s subject, which, as the legendary Gandhi would say, the experiments of seekers of truth who walked on the political field are done in the open, not in a closet. And happily, Abubakar Rimi too, like Gandhi devoted his entire life experimenting with truth in the open. As it was evident, Rimi’s demise struck the general public like a thunder bolt. His sudden exit, without doubt, created a big lacuna in the national political arena, because of the radical, but ideological political life he lived for many decades. During Rimi’s active political life, he was known as the most flamboyant political actor of his generation, whose acerbic tongue was as sharp as a cobra when it came to saying it as it was. Some of his most glaring traits, if you ask me, were his brutal frankness, uncompromising advocacy for change, which deservedly earned him the fondly nickname we called him as, Limamin Canji (literally, the priest of change). Moreover, Abubakar Rimi was such a person who was known for his serious commitment to whatever course of life he direly held in high esteem. No doubt the story of Abubakar Rimi’s numerous experiments with truth was such a fascinating one for a number of reasons. Yes, Abubakar Rimi lived a life full of personal tribulations and sacrifices. And as a result of his sincere conviction and genuine desire to discover the truth, Rimi lived only by its dictates; and willingly “die” for no any other cause, save that of the Absolute Truth. And the Absolute Truth is God! Abubakar Rimi had painstakingly made several frantic, but sincere attempts during his life, both in the open and secretly, to live a life of a devoted and faithful Muslim. It was such persistent search for God’s intervention in his life that made him, in spite of his deep seated and long romance with socialism, refused to jilt God by denouncing his faith or relegating it to mere personal thing, which sadly at that time, was in vogue amongst the muzzy socialist-Muslims adherents. Abubakar Rimi donated generously or sponsored religious programmes like “Darrul Hadith” on tv. He helped in building Islamic schools and mosques like the Juma’at mosques and Islamiyya schools in his home town Sumaila. Again, as the widow of late Mallam Aminu Kano once publically said Rimi was the one feeding them all these years of their breadwinner’s departure. It was not a public knowledge unless to those close to him that Rimi was a great supporter of orphans, as he took care of the children of his former political adviser, late Bala Mohammed and many others. Like Gandhi, the late frontline Kano politician was secretly experimenting with truth to attain a level of spirituality, which only those seekers of truth who are ready to sacrifice all and accept God as their only shield as exemplified by the likes of the aforementioned Rimi’s secret devotional life, attained. Many selfishly accused Rimi of stinginess, a claim which his first, but divorced wife publically debunked by saying Rimi was the generous river she knows, in spite of her decades of estrangement with him, he continued to take very good care of her, both in cash and kind, till he died. Buttressing Abubakar Rimi’s generosity, his elderly sisters said the late political icon was always fatherly to them since the death of their parent. But as a mortal and fallible being, Rimi’s conscious or unconscious spiritual experimentation with truth, led him to falter here and there, which, as it were, ended up in proving that after all Abubakar Rimi was a mere fallible mortal like all of us. Interestingly, since the search for truth was what pervaded the entire life of Rimi, the fearless Limamin Canji was spurred by the burning fire in him to always say the truth to the power, without any fear. For this priceless but risky choice, Abubakar Rimi was unjustly jailed by successive military regimes especially the dictatorial General Muhammadu Buhari’s junta and the demonic General Sani Abacha’s regime. And for the same resolve to fight for the truth in defence of the oppressed especially Alhaji Rimi was antagonized and sidelined by the dictatorial civilian government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo throughout his two hellish terms. Instead of Rimi to waver from his principled life, he was on the forefront of those patriotic Nigerians who fought and defeated Chief Obasanjo’s shameless and evil Third Term. It is important to note Rimi’s uncompromising stance to boldly face any one straight into the eyes and say the uncensored truth as he understood it as evidently seen, in the words of Yusuf Muhammed, when as the PRP- led governor of old Kano, Limamin Canji “led a political revolution against his own mentor, the late Mallam Aminu Kano,” because as Adamu Adamu would aptly put it the late Muhammad Abubakar Rimi and Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa( as PRP-led governors of Kano and Kaduna states in the Second Republic)were so radicalized by their mentor and teacher, the late Mallam Aminu Kano to such an extent where they obey only what they believed as the ultimate truth. And saying the truth, as we all know, is a divine and prophetic injunction, which all Muslims and all faithful believers in God must always uphold even if such a truth is against oneself. As a faithful experimenter with truth, Abubakar Rimi served this country without corruptly enriching himself from the public treasury even though, he held various public offices, that was why he was fond of calling our corrupt leaders and public officers thieves without apology. At the time Rimi he left Kano government house, because he was not corrupt, he had to take a bank loan to build his Kano residence, where he retired. Again, when the military government that incarcerated him demanded N600,000 from Rimi as bail fee, he had to resort to “begging” or good will of friends to raise such huge sum, because, as he often publically said, he had no N50,000 in his account anywhere in the world after leaving Kano State governor’s office. Besides, as a politician he denounced the criminal monetisation of politics by moneybags politicians. For his refusal to join the bandwagon of those who lure gullible voters with monetary inducement his political camp was nearly emptied, yet he remained unperturbed, because, to him, the electorates are not mere birds one needs to cajole with the grains of what in Kano we call “tsari” (monetary inducements) to genuinely win their support. As such, he continued with his principled politics of “aqida” till his last day, and like the true hero he was, he was vindicated by the Kanawa (the good people of Kano) when Kano State stood still as the people he laboured to serve for four good decades rushed to pay their last respect to him without offering a penny to any one of them by his living supporters or family members. As a progressive politician, Abubakar Rimi was a firm adherent of Mallam Aminu Kano’s ideology of “democratic humanism”, an ideology which puts the toiling peasant farmers, the oppressed poor and workers, as creators of wealth of the nation, first. In his unbiased article, Mr. Kayode Komolafe captures some of the major achievements of Abubakar Rimi, as a governor in Kano State, elected on the platform of the popular Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) in the Second Republic, thus: “Rimi left a footprint of progressive governance. His administration’s mass literacy programme attracted the acknowledgement of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) by way of award. It was more than symbolic when on the day of inauguration on October 1, 1979 Rimi announced the abolition of Jangali (cattle tax).The tax represented an instrument of oppression and exploitation of the poor peasant farmers and had been a basis of struggle. With a declaration, Rimi relieved the peasant cattle farmers of this age-long burden. His comrade in Kaduna, Abdukadir Balarabe Musa, did so too on that occasion. Both Rimi and Balarabe were also the first to declare May 1 as public holiday in solidarity with the working class. The federal government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was to take a cue from the PRP states the following year by declaring May 1 a national holiday. Similarly, Rimi and Balarabe were also the first to raise workers’ pay while the federal government followed with enactment of the minimum age act in 1981.” And it was on record that during the good old days of Rimi’s stewardship in Kano, the science students of Kano State conspicuously dominated the Faculties of Science and Medicine in many universities because Rimi had prioritised education in Kano. Still talking about Rimi’s experiment with truth as a politician, especially at the national level, the late flamboyant and handsome Rimi was a lion from Kano. Without sounding hyperbolic, when he roared the whole Nigeria’s political jungle quaked, and the rats and the tigers in the jungle not only heed his calls in obeisance, but took every word he said serious because the late Rimi always put the nation’s first. Abubakar Rimi fought vigorously to ensure that true democracy take firm root in Nigeria unlike most of the pseudo democrats parading the political landscape as nationalists without remorse or any iota of shame. It was this cabal that ganged up against Rimi in 1999 and 2003, when Rimi wanted to give our battered country the same purposeful leadership he transformed Kano with, in the 80s. Serving as federal minister of communication during Abacha’s regime, Rimi still experimented with truth when he made a mark as the first minister who publically insisted that all the “who is who” in this country that took delight in defaulting to settle their telephone bills were promptly disconnected. A singular measure that resulted in an astronomically increase in the revenue of the then NITEL. The emblematic Rimi’s reason for taking that patriotic act was simple: Nigerian elite should not be allowed to freely turn our country into George Orwell’s Animal Farm. No doubt, sooner or later, history will pass a verdict that the chief priest of change, Abubakar Rimi, who devoted his entire life experimenting with truth, had tried his best within the difficult circumstances he found himself to help in liberating Nigeria and Nigerians. But before then, I want to concur with the editor of the Daily Trust, Mahmoud Jega, who rightly says the demise of “Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi was for Nigerian politics something like the washing of a locally made Nigerian fabric that gives off 50 percent of its colour anytime it is soaked in detergent. With the departure of Rimi, after three decades of the serial loss of other colourful politicians, Nigerian politics now resembles a locally-made atampa fabric after several washings”. May Allah forgive all Rimi’s sins and shortcomings, amin. |