By Kabiru Gambo PhD
This tribute is aimed at showing how excellent Professor Bawa was (and is) as a lecturer and mentor to students across all the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes taught by him. I first encountered Prof Bawa Gusau (aka Kawu) during my second year as an undergraduate at the Department of Political Science in Bayero University, Kano (BUK) in the 1991/1992 academic session. There was no break again up to the completion of the programme and award of BSc Degree in Political Science and, subsequently, in the MSc and PhD programmes respectively.
During my time at BUK, students called him “Senior PhD’’ (i.e. the exceptional one). He was exceptional right from the comprehensive course outline he gave to students and in the introductory lecture at the beginning of every course he took. Also, his lecturing qualities and capacity to build confidence in students is outstanding. He influenced my learning ability greatly.
I was among the students taught by him in the following courses: Nigerian Political Development, Comparative Politics, Theories of International Relations, Themes in Nigerian Politics and Comparative Political Development.
Malam Ibrahim Muazzam, another of BUK’s ‘senior PhDs’ who has bowed out
I could remember when Professor Bawa was assigned as my PhD supervisor and I went to his office to discuss the topic I intended to undertake the research on. My tentative title was “Comparative Study of Elections in Nigeria: A Study of 2007 and 2015 General Elections”. He smiled and asked, “Malam Kabiru, “How many of the literature have you laid your hands on elections in Nigeria and beyond?” I responded, “plenty, Professor”. Then he said, look, “I want to advise you to study an area that few studies have been conducted on. It will help you to come up with an excellent point of departure which will help your to make a contribution to knowledge and which you will appreciate throughout your life time and claim ownership of anywhere”. He asked me to think about democratic governance and local government performance in Nigeria as a possible issue area to study. He also suggested how I could even limit the study to Kano State. I started the work with keener interest. Subsequent advice and guidance received from the Professor was commendable and exceeded expectations. I finished the work before any colleagues from our set.
A typical student of Prof Bawa is permanently engaged in an oral defense of their work during a visit, either to his office or house. Therefore, before you know it, you are conversant with oral defense process as you answer his questions. Also, he is someone who appreciated his supervisee especially when they provided satisfactory answers to the question he posed.
Prof Attahiru Jega, another of the BUK Political Science family
Honestly, I have to say it, Professor Bawa was very considerate. If, for instance, he had instructed a student to meet him in the office on a particular day but could not keep the appointment, he would have called and asked Malam Baba Sadi who happened to be one of the oldest non-academic staff in the department and well-known to all the students to take the file to him. If I were still at home when he called, he would ask me to take my file to his at BUK Old Campus. In addition, whenever an issue that has to do with my work was aired on radio, Professor Bawa used to call me on phone to say I should check for and listen to the particular programme on the particular station because someone or some people participated in a discussion of importance to my PhD work.
It was worth appreciating Professor Habu Mohammed to whom I used to take my work for consultation and who enriched the work to meet the requirement. At one time, he reframed a certain portion and said I should tell Prof Bawa that he read my work and reframed a certain portion. But how could I deliver such message to Prof Bawa. I was scared but when I eventually did, Bawa said excellent. He meant it was no problem, that Prof Habu is also my lecturer. He argued that wider consultation would help enrich my work and enable me finish on time. He commended Professor Habu and appreciated my efforts in showing my work to other colleague of his for enrichment.
There was also my good friend and brother, Prof Abdulmalik Auwal whose role of informing Prof Bawa that I was making good progress in my work also played important roles in the speed of completion of my PhD work. I was lucky too that my internal supervisor, Prof Fatima O. Ibrahim was equally Prof Bawa’s former student and mentee. So, left or right or to the center, I never experienced the hostility many a PhD student encountered.
Above all, Prof Bawa encouraged postgraduate students to confidently defend their work be the ones to claim ownership of the work. There was a time he said, look Malam Kabiru, defend your work with confidence. I will be there to help you do that because only you and me know how long we took before you reached the level of formally defending the work. I did and eventually emerged successful.
I remain grateful to Prof Bawa Hassan Gusau. I admire his methods of imparting knowledge to students and his academic prowess on the subject matter. May Almighty Allah continue to enrich him with health, knowledge, wisdom and wealth. May Almighty continue to guard and bless his family.
The author is of the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State and is reachable via gambokabir2@gmail.com/ kabirgambo@fud.edu.com
