A NEW NIGERIAN WRITING Where are my undergraduate fellas? Alumni, the Engineering guys & ladies? Ok, my very class mates-the circuit boys? I’m pretty sure you remember Analogue Electronics I & II (even if you’ve forgotten the synopsis and other contents there in)? What about Electromagnetic Field and Waves? Dining Hall lectures? The obj. questions for CA Test I & II? Del or Nabla…*winks*? Dot, divergence & curl functions……. A retired senior public servant who naturally derives pleasure in helping others had returned to the classroom with a view to helping the academic world and be involved in community development service. I first heard about him as one of the lecturers in ECE dept., later as the only lecturer who served students with free hand-outs (at a time his colleagues were buying cars and other fortunes with hand-out proceeds before it was outlawed), later as my course lecturer, H.O.D and later as Baba… …….Our own, our personal person, a man we all fondly and proudly called Baba in person of Engr Musa Daba Abdullahi (FIET, FNSE, FAEng, MFR). Upon my election as student leader, I remember with nostalgia how Baba was introduced as my Dad during my inauguration apparently because we share the same name MUSA – I tell u he is a father to me and of course to all of us, particularly ECE class 07. Lots of memorable moments of Baba: the most remarkable of all was the day they said one of our own was set to challenge Albert Einstein on his Theory of Relativity. “Omo, you go fear fear now”. New Lecture Hall was the venue. I guess we were in 100 Level then or so. Sadly, I was just at that time getting a hold on who Einstein was and his works, thus a grab on what Baba was discussing that day was really tough, difficult and at best impossible. I, however, still savour that scholarly moment. Baba encouraged me to take up academic appointment. He supported me both as a student, when I held sway as the face of NECESA, during my SUG reign and in fact in my postgraduate program outside the Nigeria shore. In sha Allah (By His Grace), when I finally write my sojourn memoir, Baba, no doubt, deserves a chapter. At a time when the ethnicity fabrics of our country has never been this threatened; a time when our tribal differences is further widened and our nationhood is almost at the brink of collapse, out of ingenuity and the love for our country, Baba evolves a writing for Nigeria and Nigerians. In one of my meetings with him, he briefed me on this laudable and nation unifying project-Tafi. Tafi is a new alphabetic writing created for the Nigerian languages, starting with Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Who says Baba is not an Engineer, a problem solver, a detribalised Nigerian, a nation builder and indeed, a BABA. God bless Baba and all his offspring (& of course thousands of his other children like me). If you believe in Baba, believe in an indivisible Nigeria, believe in the project Nigeria which’ll one day attain nationhood, please hit a like and or share this. God bless you too as you do.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 03:59:33 +0000
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