Malam Haruna Soba: 25 years just like yesterday

That surreal feeling still lingers on, that this man who is our protector, friend and guardian and so much more was gone and that we will never get to see him again. Anyone who knows us, knows what impact this great man had on our lives.
As we mark 25 years of his passing on, I feel there could not be a more right time to pay tribute to him. Born on   June 16, 1926, he grew up as an orphan, but despite all odds he excelled and became a seasonal educationist. He rose from the position of a class teacher to education officer within a short time due to his dedication to work. Anybody who had the opportunity of coming across Malam Haruna-Soba can testify to that.
His dedication and devotion was to the North in particular and Nigeria as a whole. For his loyalty and dedication to the North severally he was offered appointments in the Federal Government and severally he rejected such offers.
In February 1960 the government of Northern Nigeria recommended him to the Federal Government for appointment as Senior Assistant Secretary. After he had attended an interview in Lagos and was offered the post, the then Northern Nigeria Ministry of Education again recommended him for the post of Inspector of Education, and because of job satisfaction, interest and achievement and amount of education in the North, he decided to accept the offer of Inspector of Education and rejected the Federal Government’s offer. His concern for the North was more important to him than what he stood to get as a Federal Government staff. This is a virtue that is lacking in this generation.
I can still remember as a child during the regime of General Murtala Ramat Mohammed when several civil servants were retired – some were based on poor performance, negligent, corruption and other vices – the late Malam Haruna-Soba was, on the contrary, promoted to a higher position. A lot of civil servants didn’t want to work with him on the grounds that “bai ci ba, bare aci” roughly meaning ‘he did not eat and wouldn’t allow others to eat.’
His charity was a Muslim charity. Most times you get to know about it only when those concerned talked about it, because he would never mention it to anyone. He gave his skills, time and wealth to the less privileged in the family, invalids and complete strangers.
As an Education Inspector he visited a lot of schools, many of which had never been visited or inspected before. To visit or get to inspect these schools he had to ride a horse, use a canoe and bicycle.
It was he who in September 1963 forwarded some recommendations to the Northern Region Ministry of Education for consideration. Some of the things he recommended include establishment of nursery/infant schools; length of primary school course to be reduced from seven to six years; provision for universal free primary education; teacher education; teacher training; schools of agriculture;  establishment of trade institutes or technical schools etc.
He it was who in 1963-1965 as Deputy Chief Education Officer (Teacher Training) organised and introduced Teacher in-service education programme for improving the academic and professional qualifications of primary school teachers and their up-grading eventually. This programme was later taken over by the Institute of Education, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria. He was fully involved in what was then known as the Wisconsin Teacher Education Project aimed at the expansion of teacher education in the Northern region.
He was the first Northerner to become Chief Education Officer in charge of Teacher Training, according to available records. After the creation of new states, he was deployed to the North-Central and promoted Chief Inspector of Education in 1968.
He became a permanent secretary on the 27th August 1975 and was transferred to North Central State Water Board as executive chairman.
He put in 31 years of selfless service in education and contributed greatly towards development of education at the primary teacher training, secondary and post secondary levels in Northern Nigeria, Northern Region, North Central State and Kaduna state in particular and Nigeria in general.
As executive chairman of Water Board a lot of areas were supplied with water. He was able to improve and strengthen the staffing position of the board in order to make it more effective as an organisation.
He served as permanent secretary at the Governor’s officer in 1977 and Ministry of Establishment and Training in 1978.
He retired voluntarily on the 8th June 1979 after putting in 35 years of service. Interestingly, throughout his career, he was never issued with a single query either verbally or written. This goes a long way to show the kind of person he was, as well as his honesty, dedication and committed to duty.
On 9th June without losing even a day after his retirement, he was appointed permanent commissioner of Kaduna State Civil Service Commission.
No wonder he was honoured and awarded with the national honour of Order of Niger (OON) in 1981. He was honoured at the time when these awards were given to those who really deserved it. They are reserved for those who were identified to be honest, hardworking, dedicated and committed to work with all sense of responsibility without any form of bias and favour.
But in all these, his most important position and accolade was that of a loving and devoted husband and father, which he held and performed proudly, flawlessly and to the best of his ability till the end of his life.
He died on the 11th of October 1988 after a protracted illness. The pain of losing Baba cannot be expressed in words; the vacuum created can never be filled. However, as Muslims we took consolation that every soul must taste death and he lived a good life. May Almighty Allah forgive him his sins and reward him with befitting abode in Aljanah Firdaus.
Halima Mohammed wrote in from No. 1A Balarabe Musa Close, U/Rimi GRA Kaduna.