The academic/research, administration and political circles around the Kano-Jigawa axis in Nigeria will gather January 8th, 2023, to launch a book in honour of the late Prof Haruna Wakili. The late Haruna Wakili was Commissioner for Education between 2011 and 2015 under Alhaji Sule Lamido governorship of Jigawa State.
But, before then, he had attained the rank of a Professor of History at Bayero University, Kano where he also ran the Mambayya House, the home of late Mallam Aminu Kano, the symbol of the foremost left-wing populism in Nigeria. His residence was subsequently turned into a research centre run by Bayero University, Kano, (BUK) in the Northwest of Nigeria.
According to the invitation circulated for the event, the book entitled The Historian as Administrator: Celebrating the Life and Legacies of Professor Haruna Wakili “is a collection of tributes, obituaries, press releases written by colleagues, associates and friends, family members, traditional and political leaders, students and organisations to celebrate the scholarly and administrative accomplishments of the late don”.
The ceremony which is billed to take place at the Sa’aad Zungur Auditorium of the Mambayya House in Kano will be chaired by Alhaji Sule Lamido whose government the late don served as a key intellectual and/or ideologue.
The event which appears to mark the first major outing of the new Director of Mambayya House, Prof Habu Mohammed, is taking place against a major currents: the lumping of all populist politics as right wing politics typified by Donald Trump, Viktor Orban and the likes. In the Western world, populism is seen as anti-pluralism and right wing extremism. But is that the case with Nigeria and/or Africa? It will be interesting to hear a legatee of the foremost populist platform in Nigeria – the Northern Elements Progressive Union, (NEPU) and its later version, the People’s Redemption Party, (PRP) speak on some of these issues.
