Alh Tukur is one of the sons of the late Wazirin Hunkuyi Mal Usman, son of Mamuda, son of Malam Abubakar Bafillatanin Musawan Katsina. As a result of his illness at the time of writing this book, he could not recall many things about his life, so the author of this book talked to some of his siblings and children about his life. The writer also conducted research in some of the places where Alh Tukur studied and worked, and here is what we could find about his biography:
Alh Tukur was born on the 29th of December 1939. Like his other brothers of his generation, he grew up under the care of his father, the late Wazirin Hunkuyi Malam Usman. When he reached school age, he was then placed in Makarantar Allo (an open Islamic School where students learn to read and write the letters of the Holy Quran) in Hunkuyi town.
At that time, people in northern Nigeria were very apprehensive of sending their wards to Boko (schools where western education is taught), fearing that they may be converted to Christianity. Even those who were open to sending their children to Boko were not too comfortable, hence they made sure their children learnt the Holy Quran widely before they were enrolled in western schools.
In some areas, children were forcefully sent to school (Boko) because once the traditional ruler of the community (Sarkin Gari) forwarded the name of your ward, it was inevitable that he/she would be taken and enrolled in school. At that time, the children that escaped being enrolled would be mocking their Boko-going counterparts saying ‘Yan Makarantar Bokoko, Ba Karatu Ba Sallah (meaning Boko pupils, who neither studied the Quran nor observed prayers).
In addition to the hostility against western form of education in northern Nigeria at the time, there were very few formal schools in the region. In the 1940s there were only three elementary schools in the city of Zaria, the headquarters of Zazzau province. Apart from these three (elementary) schools located in the town of Zaria, there were also other schools in other neighbouring villages. Hunkuyi was one of the towns that had an elementary school since 1942. When Alh Tukur completed his Quran studies, his father enrolled him in school (elementary) in Hunkuyi town in 1947. At that time, Alh Tukur went to the elementary school in the morning, and in the evening he went to study Islamic books under the tutelage of the late Imam of Hunkuyi Mal. Umaru Dikko.
Also at that time, Alh Tukur learnt the art of tye and dye (bugu da rini), as well as farming, which were the trade he inherited from his fore parents.
When Alh Tukur was in elementary school, he was the most brilliant of his classmates, which made him the favourite of his teachers. In the year 1950, Alh Tukur finished the elementary school in Hunkuyi town. The dream of those who finished elementary school at the time was that of going to Middle School. For his brilliance, Alh Tukur’s teachers convinced his father to let him proceed to the Middle School in Zaria. As Allah would have it, the Wazirin Hunkuyi Malam Usman agreed to send Alh Tukur to the Middle School, now known as Alhudahuda College, in Zaria.
Alh Tukur started the Zaria Middle School in 1950, where he met classmates who came from Zaria and other towns in the Zazzau province. Among his classmates at the Middle School were the late Emir of Zazzau Alh Shehu Idris, Bello Aliyu, the late Tsoho Abdullahi, the late Malam Abubakar Ladan Zaria and Yusufu Muhammadu Makarfi.
Those who taught Alh Tukur in this school in Zaria included the head of school, the late Dr. Abdurrahman Mora, the late Mal Haruna Soba, the late Walin Zazzau, Mal Lawal Sambo, Mal Sani Galadima, Mal Muhammad Lukman and others. Alh Tukur studied in this school for five years where he graduated with good results in November 1955. After finishing Zaria Middle School, a few months later, Alh Tukur went to Barewa College in Zaria. Barewa College in Zaria is a school with a lot of history because it was established during the British colonial era on March 5, 1922. It was first established as Katsina Teachers College, specifically for the training of teachers.
In the year 1935, the school was taken from Katsina and relocated to Kaduna and renamed Kaduna College now in Zaria. The name of the school was changed again to Barewa College Zaria. Almost all the leaders who ruled northern Nigeria 1960–1966 such as Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardaunan Sokoto, Sir Kashim Ibrahim, Alh Aliyu Makaman Bidda, Alh Aliyu Turakin Zazzau, Alh Nuhu Bamalli Magajin Garin Zazzau, Late Alh Shehu Shagari, Alh Umaru Dikko, Alh Amadu Fatika Sarkin Fadan Zazzau, and the likes were all former students Barewa College.
Alh Tukur arrived as a student at Barewa College on the 22nd of January 1955, his student number was 1123. Among those in the same class as Alh Tukur in this school were Dr. Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, Alh Umaru Shinkafi, Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi, Aminu Baba Ahmed and others.
As Alh Tukur proved to be a brilliant student in Barewa College, same way he was back at Middle School. It was his brilliance that made him stand out during his time in this school.
Alh Tukur studied in Barewa College for four years and graduated with good results in 1959. Since Alh Tukur was in school, there is nothing more interesting to him than becoming a journalist. Anytime students were asked what they wanted to be after finishing school, Alh Tukur’s only answer was Journalist! Most of his teachers and classmates knew his goal.
At that time, as soon as a student finished school, he didn’t have to apply for job because the school teachers would send the names of students who have finished to the government of the northern state and give advice on the type of work that each student can do. When their names were sent, the college authorities suggested that Alh Tukur be given a job as a journalist. This was done because when Alh Tukur went to check his name, he saw that he had been offered job in the then Ministry of Information, Northern Nigeria.
Few months after Alh Tukur had commenced work, Nigeria gained independence from the British colonialists on October 1, 1960. After the independence of Nigeria, the northern government under the leadership of the late Premier Sir Ahmadu Bello tried to educate the people of northern Nigeria about the importance of modern and religious education. The Ministry of Information, where Alh Tukur was working at the time as the Assistant Information Officer, created programmes through the radio stations and newspapers to sensitise the northern community especially on the need to support the government in the area of development.
On February 8, 1963, the Northern Nigeria Ministry of Information redeployed him to the office of the Premier Sir Ahmadu Bello as information officer. His job was to provide information on the activities of the premier’s office to the public.
As he himself said, “When I was the information officer in the officer of Premier Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardauna of Sokoto, there was virtually no region in the North that we have not traversed, including other parts of the country and even abroad, because my job at the time was to write reports on the activities at the premier’s office and send same to news organisations.”
In January 1965, Alh Tukur resigned his appointment with the government and joined the Reuters News Agency, which had its headquarters in the United Kingdom. Reuters had offices around the world. They made Alh Tukur a manager at the office in Lagos, which was the capital of Nigeria at the time. He was also their reporter in Nigeria. The main job of Reuters was to source for exclusive and breaking news which they sold to news organisations around the world.
When Alh Tukur started working with Reuters, he left Kaduna for Lagos, but he used to come home to Kaduna and his hometown Hunkuyi from time to time.
In 1973, Reuters sent Alh Tukur to do a special course in journalism in London. One year after he returned from this course, he left the company (Reuters News Agency) and returned home to Kaduna. He also returned to the Ministry of Information in Kaduna in the year 1974. After his return, he was given the position of Principal Information Officer. In 1975, Alh Tukur was sent to the Kaduna State Radio Station as a News Editor. After one year as news editor, he was given the position of General Manager of the radio station. He held the position of the head of Kaduna State Radio for a few months, and then he was transferred to a newspaper publishing company of New Nigerian Newspaper (NNN) which was owned by the governments of the northern states at that time.
Alh Tukur went to New Nigerian in September 1976 as a Manager in charge of their office in Lagos, which was newly opened. The newspaper (New Nigerian) in Kaduna and Lagos all published the same news at the same time. Alh Tukur worked as the manager of the company, Lagos region, for four years. On the 14th of January 1980, Alh Tukur was given the position of Managing Director of the New Nigerian, so he left Lagos and returned to Kaduna. He was given a house and a car, including a driver and guards day and night.
During the time Alh Tukur held this position in NNN, he really made progress, starting from the staff to the people who read the newspaper in Nigeria. Alh Tukur was one of the five people who represented Kaduna State, during a special meeting that was organized to give advice about government agencies and ministries to the President of Nigeria, Alh Shehu Shagari in October of 1981.
On December 1, 1983, the military staged a coup d’état, and as a result of General Muhammadu Buhari became the Head of State. A year after taking over, the Buhari regime announced the removal of heads of government departments including New Nigerian. After his removal as the Managing Director of the NNN, Alh Tukur returned to continue his business and educating his family at home until Buhari was overthrown by the General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida junta on August 27, 1985.
On January 18, 1990, General Babangida dissolved the board of directors of the NNN Company, and Alh Tukur was appointed as the sole administrator. After a few months he was made the Managing Director with full power in the New Nigerian, he held this position again until the time when General Babangida stepped down from the government of Nigeria on August 26, 1993.
Alh Tukur left the government job completely and returned home to continue his business activities. But following his success at NNN and knowledge as well as success in the field of journalism, the late MKO Abiola asked him to work for him in his newspaper company Concord Newspaper. Alh Tukur started working in this in Concord as the director of the northern Nigeria branch on March 25, 1995. Although the newspaper Concord was not owned by the government it still covered all the states of Nigeria at the time. It had offices in almost all major cities of the country. Their office in Kaduna was on Ahmadu Bello Way. That was where Alh Tukur worked for two years, before he later resigned to join politics.
In 1996, the Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of the late General Sani Abacha announced its intention to increase the number of local governments in Nigeria. Alh Tukur was among the people that facilitated the creation of Kudan Local Government with its headquarters in Hunkuyi.
After the creation of new local governments, General Sani Abacha announced his intention to hand over power to civilians and new political parties were formed. These political parties started looking for people who will run for different positions from the federal to the state levels, Alh Tukur was asked to run for the Federal House of Representatives (Makarfi and Kudan constituency), which he did under the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP). Elections were held and he emerged victorious, but before they were sworn in, General Abacha died on the 8th of June 1998.
After the death of General Sani Abacha, his successor General Abdulsalami Abubakar canceled the election in which Alh Tukur and many others had emerged winners. The political parties were also dissolved. Thus, General Abdulsalami Abubakar once again confirmed to the Nigerian people that he would hand over power to civilians in the 1999. Alh Tukur ran again for the Makarfi and Kudan seat under the leadership of the PDP. But since there were other aspirants eying the seat, he withdrew from the race even before the primary election was held. He also resigned from politics since then
After quitting politics Alh Tukur returned to his business activities and didn’t take up any employment up to the time of writing this book. He lived in his house on Ja Abdulkadir road in Unguwar Rimi Kaduna with his family.
Alh Tukur is survived by two wives and sixteen children (six sons and ten daughters). The sons are: Alh. Munir, Alh. Adam, Musa, Jibrin, Abdurrahman, and Abbas. The daughters are: Hajiya Maryam (Mairo), Hajiya Fatima (Binta), Hajiya Amina, Hauwa’u, Aisha, Hadiza, Raliya, Hafsat, Sa’adatu and Halima.
The author of this book asked Hajiya Fatima (Binta), one of the children of Alh Tukur, how she would describe him, looking at the kind of education given to them by their father and how he managed his time away from his family, she said: “Well, in fact, Baba took good care of us and gave us sound religious and modern education. When we were young, almost every member of the elite in the north of Nigeria had their children in Capital School Kaduna. That was the school we attended. When we finished, we the girls went to the girls’ high school in Bakori. During visiting time, Baba always tried to visit us by himself as long as he was in town. He also maintained kinship ties with his relations. He used to set aside a special time to pick us up and take us to Hunkuyi town to spend the day and sometimes even the night there
“I can tell you that Baba showed us all the true love and privileges that children should enjoy. Any time he travelled, especially to another country, he had gift boxes for each of us. Nevertheless, Baba showed us the importance of honesty and trustworthiness, and he also taught us to respect elders.
When the writer asked Hajiya Binta what prayer she would make for their father, she said: My everyday prayer is that Almighty Allah will grant him the best of health and a useful life. May Almighty Allah reward him with paradise for all the sacrifices he made for us.”
Also, one of Alh Tukur’s brothers Malam Mu’azu, son of Malam Umaru Nakaka narrated how Alh Tukur took kinship ties with true commitment. He said: “When Alh Tukur was working as a journalist, he took good care of his family members, because apart from the kindness she showed us from time to time, every month of fasting (Ramadan), he used to send us food items and Eid (Sallla) clothing, all of us including younger and older relatives. Indeed, there is virtually none among his younger brothers of the same father that did not live under him.
Even when their father Baba Waziri was alive, Alh Tukur took care of the need of almost all his younger siblings. In conclusion, the author of this book prays to Almighty Allah to continue to bless Alh Tukur him with health, AMEEN!
Postscript: Malam Tukur Othman, a former Managing Director of the New Nigerian Newspapers (NNN), died on Friday, August 26, 2022. In a condolence message, President Muhammadu Buhari described the late Malam Tukur Othman as “a consummate media professional under whom the NNN had achieved remarkable credibility as a reliable source of news and had a solid reputation for critical analysis of issues.” This piece is reproduced as a tribute.
