My dad has a sweet tooth – Zainab Maitama Sule

Daily Trust: In what ways would you describe your dad?
Zainaba Maitama Sule: He is a loving, jovial person and he is very understanding. He would come down to any level to understand you even if you have a problem with him. His number one attribute is generousity. In fact, my father is like a friend to us his kids. You know usually in a family the children are closer to their mother than they are to their father. Our mother was the strict disciplinarian. My father brought us close to him, so much so that we could discuss absolutely everything with him.
I remember while I was in secondary school, I didn’t know my dad had read through one of my letters. We were chatting one day and he used a line from the letter. So I looked at him and he didn’t laugh. I was wondering ‘where did this man get this information?’ I kept quiet. Not long after, he quoted something else from the letter, and I said ‘Ah, Yaya, you read my letter.’ (We call him ‘Yaya’ which means big brother, because he raised his younger ones) He said ‘Where would I get your letter from?’ And we both laughed. This kind of closeness makes me feel free to discuss anything with him.
DT: You’ve described him as an understanding person. Were there times you disagreed with him?
Sule: Not really disagree, but one time when he was really angry with me. I was once suspended from school. I came back home and had never seen him that angry. He told me, ‘I was once a teacher. If you could disobey your teacher, then you can do the same to me. I want you to regard your teachers as your father. That was the only time he was so angry with me.
There are times when you don’t see his jovial attitude in him. When you ask people outside, all they’ll tell you is how jovial he is. In Hausa society generally, when a father comes in, everybody is alerted and they disappear. But for him, everybody is eager for him to return home because they have several things to tell him. Even our friends related with him this way.
DT: What were phrases he used constantly?
Sule: He always said, Allah ya yi maki albarka (‘God bless you’). Even his grandchildren tease us with the words. Even if you were making a request of him and his was response was going to be ‘no,’ he would first say ‘God bless you’ and then say no.
DT: What is it about childhood you miss the most?
Sule: That would be breakfast with him. Every morning, I was the one to carry his breakfast to him upstairs when I was a teenager. I was second to the last in the family but the youngest at the time because the last lived in a different house. Breakfast was ‘gisting’ time with him. We barged into his room at any time. It didn’t matter if he was asleep, I would keep calling out ‘Yaya, Yaya’ until he answered and wouldn’t be upset. Once my husband complained our children did the same to him and I took responsibility, saying it’s my fault. I did it to my father.
DT: What traits did you inherit from him?
Sule: He is a people person, as I am. He always has people around him, regardless their origin, religion or social status. Like on Fridays before mosque you’ll see people all around him.  It is the same with me. I have friends from all over and relate with them without problems. Many say I inherited this from him.
DT: When he became blind, how did it affect him?
Sule: You are going to make me cry now. He took it in a way that was absolutely unbelievable to us, yet commendable. When he started noticing he was losing his sight just after my brother’s wedding, we were all at home when he was about to be taken to hospital.  Some of us were crying. He got furious and asked why we were crying. Next he said was ‘Alhamdulillah, I thank God for what has happened to me. I am not angry. I have accepted it and thank Him the way He made me and I’m going to take it.’ He doesn’t complain of an ailment most people his age would complain of. Even if there is, it is recent. He used to be a healthy man. He still does everything he loves to do. We drew strength from his response to it.
DT: How has being his child influenced you?
Sule: Not to be judgmental and to be more tolerant of people. This was evident when, sometime ago, there was a rumour that he was dead. He decided to trace the source of the rumour and found the person. My father stopped them from doing anything to him saying that the man did it in good faith even though he couldn’t remember the person he claimed told him. He asked that we reason with the guy because the man said he did because he loved my father and wanted him to have more prayers by posting the message on social media.
His sincerity is one, too. He would say ‘throughout my time as petroleum minister, I didn’t have an account. Be honest in all you do.’
DT: What were his guilty pleasures?
Sule: He loved perfumes so much that if he sprayed on his clothes, he would spray all over his body on his bed sheets and curtains. It didn’t matter the price. Also, Yaya has a sweet tooth. I have never seen anyone eat Kosai dipped in honey, but that is my father. He loves junk food. When we tell him that he’s old and has to watch his diet, he would say ‘It is better for sweetness to kill a king than for a king to die of hunger.’ He eats anything he wants to.
DT: What is it that age doesn’t allow him do any more that you miss?
Sule: Visiting me! I miss that so much because now due to age he travels more by air. I live in Kaduna. There’s no time he is driving through here that he wouldn’t drop by to see me.