This month’s CITAD Inspiring Leadership Reflection Interactive Series (ILERIS), 27th February 2019, had one of the epitome of scholarship not only in Northern Nigeria but in the country at large. Professor Dahiru Yahaya is a true definition of what a scholar is. An academician who spent more than half of his life contributing to academia, Prof. Dahiru Yahaya is the first person honoured with festschrift in Bayero University, Kano.

Mallam Dahiru reads in more than ten languages. When he wanted to read German works he learnt Germain. To read french philosophers Prof. Dahiru went France and learnt French. He moved to Spain and learnt how to speak Spanish. He became curious of Turkey and Ottoman Empire so he learnt Turkish. Prof. Dahiru is multilingual who speaks many local Nigerian languages and reads in many foreign ones. He cultivated Arabic, English, Hausa, French, Spanish and Turkish as research languages.

When Professor Dahiru speaks his words are as carefully spoken as those of Socrates. He condemns with Nioetchez’s style and criticise in Aristotelian syllogism. Though not Marxist but Prof. Dahiru believes revolution must be done to push the progress of history. He doesn’t preach feminism but believes women are equal to men. He is polygamous from polygamous family with more than 20 children that excel in many fields of life.

The story of Prof. Dahiru Yahya is a story of poverty which for him is a great source of inspiration and motivation. He was born to a very poor family in Dawakin Kudu to a father who preferred to send him to conventional school despite pressures from outside not to do so, and a mother who was his teacher at home. He was born on 30th June 1947. He attended Dawakin Kudu Junior Primary School and Wudil Senior Primary School in 1960. He had School Certificate Education at Birnin Kudi Secondary School, Kano in 1965. He received Bachelor of Arts degree in History (Special Hons) at Abdullahi Bayero College, ABU in 1970. He had his PhD at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

Prof. Dahiru Yahya is a fountain that waters wisdom. His source of inspiration is Islam and the revolutionary progeny of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He contributed to teaching and research, and used many calligraphies and scripts from many parts of the world. His record of employment started from working as Social Welfare Assistant under the Northern Region Government Kaduna, Administrative Officer, Kano State Government and the joined University system from 1970 up to date.

He attended many International conferences and contributed to Higher Education, National constitution development and government policy. He earned many awards both from within and outside the country. He chairs Bala Usman’s position at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. Mallam Dahiru wrote many research papers, books, articles and pamphlets.

At the ILERIS, Professor Dahiru Yahya advised youth not to take poverty as stumbling block to aiming higher positions. He said poverty is an opportunity to sharpen your brain as hunger helps in living a spartan life and sharpening brain. He gave the story of his life to the youth in attendance as a life lived in penury but got opportunity to move to many levels of achievements. Many questions were asked and answers were given.

Before Prof. Dahiru Yahya took the microphone, the Executive Director of CITAD Mallam Yunusa Zakari Ya’u introduced the ILERIS attendants to the Prof. Yahya that include students of tertiary institutions, staff of different organisations, youth leaders, journalists and people with disabilities. The Head of Human Resource Department of CITAD Mallam Ado presented organisational publications to the Mallam Yahya and the ILERIS closed with prayer and general picture.

Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has again called on political actors to avoid inflammatory and dangerous comments.

It expressed disappointment at the recent comments reportedly made by the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, at the party’s rally in Asaba, Delta State.

In a statement made available to The Guardian yesterday, the centre lamented that while the country was vehemently clamouring for peace, the PDP national chairman was beating drums of war.

Secondus reportedly said, “There will be war if the 2019 general election is rigged.”

A statement, signed by Hamza Ibrahim, the coordinator, Curbing Hate and Dangerous Speech Project of CITAD, described such remarks as reckless.

However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed optimism that the coming general elections would be better than that of 2015, while urging security personnel to be non-partisan.

The commission’s director of security, Mr. Richard Awolola, urged all security personnel to be alive to their responsibilities and ensure credible elections.

He spoke at a training tagged ‘Election Security Personnel Training of Trainers for 2019 General Election’ organised the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES) at Ikeja, Lagos.

Project coordinator of ECES in Nigeria, Mr. Rudolf Elbling, said a peaceful environment devoid of threats to lives and property was needed to conduct a credible election.

He added that the training was necessary in view of reported cases of security breaches in some parts of the country in previous elections.

In a related vein, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has pledged support for the presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Kingsley Moghalu, ahead of the February 16 elections.

A statement yesterday by the spokesman of YPP presidential campaign council, Jide Akintunde, quoted the Ooni as commending Moghalu for his vision for a new Nigeria.

Moghalu was at the Ooni’s palace to pay homage, as part of his seven-day campaign tour of South West states, which kicked off in Lagos on January 26.

In his response, Moghalu described the monarch as “a great and enterprising leader”.

He promised to unite Nigerians if elected, while extolling the virtues of the Yoruba as “a people of great learning.”

In a related development, Nasiru llahi-l-Fathi Society of Nigeria (NASFAT) has enjoined Nigerian to exercise their franchise in the coming general elections by voting for credible candidates that can deliver quality life for the citizens.

National president of NASFAT, Alhaji Kamil Bolarinwa, made this call during a special prayer for peaceful elections, held in Lagos yesterday.

He urged Muslims and non-Muslims alike should troop out en masse to vote for a credible candidate and not be influenced by political gimmicks or vote-buying.

The monthly Inspiring Leadership Reflection Interactive Series organised by Centre for Information Technology and Development, was held, this month, at the CITAD premises on 29th January, 2019, with Mallam Isah Ahmed, a retired Permanent Secretary “who served at Projects Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport” and retired May 2011. 

Mallam Isah Ahmed was born on January 2, 1958 in Tudun Wadar Dankadai, Tudun Wada local government of Kano state. He attended primary school in 1972 and continued with secondary education where he had his West African School Certificate from GSS Rano, Kano state. He then attended Bayero University, Kano, where he had Bachelor of Science (Sociology) in 1982. 

Mallam Isa Ahmed obtained other qualifications from different institutions both within and outside Nigeria from 1986 till 2010. He also attended numerous workshops and symposia from 2004 to 2011. He traveled widely and takes reading as his primary hobby apart from his key skills in capacity building, data collection and evaluation, project implementation, public service reform and budget reform policy advocacy and implementation. 

At the CITAD ILERIS, Mallam Isa Ahmed, identified key challenges that are facing Nigerian youth in a paper he presented : “A Just Epigrammatic Narrative”. He explained that rapid population growth in Northern states versus the limited educational opportunities are among greatest threats to the development of of the North. He added that the falling down of the level of reading culture among the Northern Nigerian youth, as many of them are taken away by social media gossips, help in deteriorating of the intellectual efficiency of the university graduates. Mallam Isa said it is a greatest shame not only to the students but to the schools to see a university graduate that couldn’t write a simple composition without uncountable grammatical mistakes. 

Examination malpractice, according to the Mallam Isa Ahmed, added insult to the injury. The poor efficiency of working class today is due to the poor graduates university and colleges produce due to the high level of examination frauds and malpractices. He added that some of the threats that youth face today include limited public sector employment opportunities versus pauperised private sector, substance abuse by mainly the youth and the abuse of e-culture. 

To curb these menace Mallam Isa Ahmed advised that government, individuals and entrepreneurs should invest in education to instil reading culture among the next generations. Invention and innovation should be promoted especially in this digital era by skills acquisition, self actualisation and the feelings of existence so as to contribute to the national development. Optimism should be used over pessimism to overcome fear of political inclusion. Youth should remove bigotry and stereotyping from their hearts and ensure tolerance by throwing away primordial sentiments. 

Questions and answers session followed after Mallam Isa concluded his presentation by quoting Albert Einstein who said “Madness is doing one particular task or mistake repeatedly and expecting a different result.” By this he meant that youth and government have to change the way they do things if they want see different outcome. He recommended some texts to read for further readings including Michael G. Z’s Seizing the Future and the Oxfam’s Inequality in Nigeria : Exploring the Drivers. 

Earlier before the Mallam Isa Ahmed presented his speech, the Executive Director of the CITAD Mallam YZ Yau welcomed him and urged youth to copy from the elders like Mallam Isa who reached to the pinnacle of excellence by serving people and state religiously. He added that CITAD brings this interactive session so as to exchange ideas between elders and the youths. Among the people that attended the ILERIS were students of universities and colleges, staff and interns of CITAD, staff of NSITF, members of press and teachers from different schools and institutions, among others. CITAD publications were presented to the guest and general picture was taken after the event.