Dr Nuruddeen Muhammad
My last encounter with Prof Haruna Wakili was on the new year’s eve at Sule Lamido ‘s residence in Kano. It was ironically not only the most remarkable, but also the most impactful too as it relates to my tortous personal journey to self growth and discovery.
He was part of a special team (five of them) all senior academics of History at Bayero University Kano. We had finally won a major battle. Sule Lamido had succumbed to our relentless pressures to document his very eventful life for posterity. I think that was their inaugural meeting (I can’t be too sure because I just crashed into it).
I was in my best elements; disruptive, self critical and aggressive. I had shredded the whole Hausa/Fulani/Kanuri muslims very romantic construction of ourselves.I was barely short of calling for a revolution or in the least far reaching sociocultural changes with revolutionary qualities. Everyone around, including our host and my ideological sounding board didn’t quite agree with some aspects of my very radical diagnosis and bitter prescriptions.
But there were some subtle admirations too. Dr Samaila Suleiman Yandaki, who was probably the youngest of the team was more agreeable. Prof Wakili was as engaging as his gentle self could allow. His professorial spectacles characteristically sitting on his ever smiling face. He calmly said that he sees a Dr Mahathir Mohamad in me and asked me to read his (Mahathir’s) seminal work; The Malay Dilemna. He said he came to the conclusion that the ‘Hausas’ are essentially Malays after reading the book himself. That was a remarkable ideological, sociocultural and political tutorial and turning point for me. Like the Hausa speaking people of northern Nigeria, the Malays too are overwhelmingly muslims, largely peasant and not very ambitious with an unusually deep fatalistic interpretations of the religion
Dr Mahathir Mohamad is the revolutionary medical doctor, politician, thinker, Prime Minister and founder of the new Malaysia. He was very critical of his people, the Malays of Malaysia, who he described in The Malay Dilemna as ‘…lacking all the necessary skills and education and had already succumbed to the culture of dependence… They avoided hardwork and always look for the easy way out. In a competitive situation against others who were more motivated and capable, that would now work against them. But it was not Malay peasants alone who deserved to be blamed, for the problems began at the TOP”
That day, Lamido too rebuked me about my utopian world view and cautioned that my passion and anger at what is wrong with our society can only impart my people if I moderate and pragmatise my expectations
As for the unhappy triad of farmer/herder clashes, kidnapping and banditry, Dr Nu’uman in the same team suggested that I should study the European gypsies vis-à-vis their nomadic characteristics with the Fulanis.
Too much for a day? Well, for over a decade, that has been what Dr Sule Lamido’s residences in both Kano, Bamaina and Abuja have been to most of us; ideological growth, mentorship opportunities and a sumptuous meal for everyone afterwards. It is sadly, one man less today. And that man (Prof Haruna Wakili) is irreplaceable.
He was a world class Professor of History, who specialized in History of Riots, Revolts, Conflicts, Peace studies, Democracy and Good Governance. He was also until his death the Deputy Vice Chancellor Administration of Bayero University Kano and a former Director of the University’s Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Research and Training (Mumbayya House). He was also the Commissioner of Education in Jigawa State during Sule Lamido’s administration.
My sincere condolences to his immediate family, the Bayero University community, the Sule Lamido political family, Jigawa State and the entire nation for this irreparable loss. May Allah SWT forgive his shortcomings and admit him into Jannatul Firdaus.
