By Hon. Sadiq Ibrahim Dasin (Hospital Paupers Fund Yola, advocate)
I didn’t have the opportunity of meeting Prof. Jibril Aminu when he was professor of Cardiology and a PhD holder in Medicine from the Royal Post-Graduate Medical School, London.
Even as a law student at University of Maiduguri (UniMaid) where I was between 1982 and 1986 when he was the Vice Chancellor (1980–1985) and Professor of Medicine there, I only saw him once, from a distance.
That distance from where I saw him was during a seminar on LAW AND INSURANCE organised by Prof. Olusegun Yerokun who taught me Insurance Law at the University.
Dr. Ahmed Baita Yusuf (the late Sardaunan Ringim) one time Nigeria’s Ambassador to Japan, who was a lecturer at ABU, Zaria was the Guest Speaker. Prof. Aminu chaired the occasion.
Prof. Jibril Aminu and Dr. Baita disagreed on the legality of insurance in Islam. I can still recollect the points they marshalled against each other’s views as Dr. Baita justified the legality of insurance in Islam to which Prof. Aminu disagreed. This will be a subject I will discuss another day.
Later in 1992 when I grew up and started working as a staff of Habib Bank in Kano, I met Dr.Baita Yusuf who was our customer. I reminded him of his argument with Prof. Aminu on the legality of Insurance in Islam. He laughed and told me that he was sure Prof. Aminu must have since changed his mind.
Dr. Baita lived at Hotoro GRA, Kano in a very big house on an expanse land near the Central Bank quarters. I was his guest on a number of occasions when I was in Kano. He liked me so much. He has died a couple of years ago.
For Prof. Jibril Aminu, I didn’t have the opportunity of meeting him in person even when he became Minister of Education (1985-1989) and later Minister of Petroleum (1989-1992). Nor did I have the opportunity of meeting him when he was elected delegate to the National Constitutional Conference 1994/1995, from my constituency.
By the time I resigned from Habib Bank in Lagos in 2001 after Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Malam Adamu Bello, CFR (Dan Iya Adamawa), appointed me as his Personal Assistant, I relocated to Abuja. But Prof. Jibril Aminu was then Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States of America (1999 – 2003).
Uptil 2003, I was not opportune to have come close to Prof. Aminu. But I read a lot about his achievements. I have also collected a lot of his speeches which I still have in my library in some of which he mixed his speeches with the four languages he spoke fluently – Fulfulde, Hausa, Arabic and English.
I first came close to Prof. Aminu in 2003, the year he was elected senator Adamawa Central. That was the year I first contested for state Assembly election but lost to Hon. Jika Bapetal at the primaries.
Prof. Aminu was re-elected in 2007 which was the same year I was first elected as member House of Assembly for Fufore/Gurin state constituency. So many things happened before the 2007 elections.
Suffice it to say, that was when I started meeting him, often in his house at Asokoro, Abuja; just to greet him and get an update on how he and others were planning to take over the leadership of the PDP from Vice President Atiku Abubakar, in Adamawa state.
From the day I started meeting him physically in his house, our chemistry met. He took an instant liking in me while I savour wisdom from his reservoir of knowledge.
In most general discussions in his living room, he would ask me, ‘ko noi Sadiq’? As if he was looking for confirmation from a small me. I always answer “non non” though undoubtedly I was sure he knew better.
By 2007 I had come of age and I was opportune to have had direct contact with him. I was a young politician, who later became a candidate for the state House of Assembly election under the PDP that year.
As a senatorial candidate for reelection to his senatorial seat, and I, a candidate for House Assembly together with Yerima Aminu Hamma Tukur Ribadu as House of Reps candidate for Fufore/Song Federal Constituency in the same senatorial district, we campaigned together.
I have learnt a lot from him. Till date, the memories of three things he said during our campaign trail, and one other thing he told me long after the elections, remain indelible in my memory.
To be continued…