Till he breathed his last on Monday, July 3 at a Cairo, Egypt hospital, one of the few surviving dynamos of Nigerian politics, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, still brooded a major regret in his political career.
You were tempted to remember that he strangely lost the presidential primary of the then National Party of Nigeria to Alhaji Shehu Shagari who afterwards won the presidential race. No.
Quintessential Sule was always jaded upon a reflection on his inability to engage in a ball dance with Queen Elizabeth of England, when Her Royal Majesty visited Nigeria in 1956. Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa had picked him, then a cabinet minister, to represent the former in the ball dance. But the then powerful Minister of Finance, Festus Okotie-Eboh, opposed the idea as he believed it would amount to disrespect for the queen.
That experience could only portray Sule as a likeable fellow who was more of a diamond in the sun, as he shone at whichever capacity he served in Nigeria’s political hemisphere.
No doubt, this rare gem of a politician missed becoming the President of Nigeria by a whisker.
According to an account by Dahiru Yahaya, a professor of history who was the NPN scribe in Kano State on the eve of the military transition to civil rule in 1978, Sule lost out at the NPN convention as a result of a grand conspiracy by those who envied his ebullience, renown and power of oration. He recalled that the bulk of such traducers came from his Kano home-state, thus lending credence to the pristine proverb that ‘a prophet has no honour in his hometown.’
While he was loved by many party members, who considered him above Shagari for his innate qualities, others, though few in number, detested his guts and quietly plotted his fall through overnight lobbying and monetary inducement of party delegates.
The rest, they say, is history. This politician, highly reputed for being detribalised, was later made Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations by the Shehu Shagari presidency. The appointment, according to political observers, was intended to keep him out of circulation, as it was strongly believed that if he was in the country in 1983, Maitama Sule could have taken another shot at the Presidency.
But at the UN, the high-profile politician chaired the United Nations Committee Against Apartheid. At the period, the South African apartheid regime was like a leech on decency globally, as the majority black in South Africa were no more than hewers of wood and fetchers of water. They were denied virtually all rights by their minority white compatriots.
Sule mobilised the world body to engage the dreaded apartheid regime in a sustained struggle that eventually paid off in the dethronement of repressive laws and the release of jailed black leaders, including world renowned Nelson Mandela who, upon release from prison, was voted in as the first black President in that country.
Born on October I, 1929 in Kano, Maitama Sule rose from a humble beginning to impact on his immediate locale and then the Nigerian nation as a whole. He reportedly cut his teeth in public administration learning at the feet of his father who was serving under then powerful Kano kingmaker, Madaki Mahmudu.
He would recall that while still a teenager in Kano, education placed him on the same page with the Emir of Kano, who would rather see him as a friend and not the son of a servant.
Helped along by his father’s master, Madaki Mahmudu, young Sule was enrolled at Shahuci Elementary School in 1937. He later attended Kano Middle School and then, Kaduna College (now Barewa College).
From there, Sule taught at his alma mater, Kano Middle School, and played significant roles in social mobilisation; touring villages with then Emir Muhammadu Sanusi throughout the emirate. During such tours, his oratorical power would be brought to bear in the Emir’s public enlightenment on health, literacy and taxation.
An impressed Kano emir would later turban him as Danmasanin Kano, in acknowledgment of Sule’s knowledge, wisdom and plausible roles in public campaigns.
In 1954, Sule became Minister of Mines and Power at the age of 29, and while in office, he signed deals and contracts with Shell for oil prospecting and exploration in Nigeria.
Besides, he saw to the establishment of the Nigeria oil company and nominated Nigerian businessmen on the Nigeria/Shell joint board. Among his nominees on this elitist board were Louis Ojukwu, a prominent businessman and father of the late Biafran leader, Emeka Ojukwu, and Aliko Dangote’s maternal grandfather, Sanusi Dantata.
At the period, Balewa, the Prime Minister, was said to be fond of him as a young, utility player in his cabinet, which probably informed the PM’s resolve to make Sule dance with Queen Elizabeth.
In fond memories of this ebullient, hardworking and detribalised Nigerian elder statesman, also known by his traditional title, Danmasanin Kano, so many encomiums had
been showered.
But what would best make his legacy in Nigeria’s socio-economic and political hemisphere an enduring one is for the upcoming leaders to learn from his life and use qualities imbibed from him for national development.
Good night, Danmasanin Kano.
