Professor Aminu Mohammed Dorayi’s news of undertaking a 24-day road trip from London to Nigeria went viral some weeks back. The chemist turned educationist, in this interview, shares some of his life experiences, thoughts on the education sector and politics.
Kindly take us through your educational journey from primary to university level
I attended Shahuci Primary School, which is the first primary school in Kano, and most probably in the North. It is the school which Aminu Kano, Ado Bayero and Tanko Yakasai all went to. It was established in 1919, so we celebrated our centenary in 2019. The pupils were not many then, and they were mainly children of royalties and the well-to-do.
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I entered the Junior Primary School, Shahuti around 1950 and finished in 1954. At that time, primary education was in two stages. You did four years in junior primary and went to the senior section. The teaching was qualitative.
I went to senior primary in 1955 and finished in December 1957. After that, I went to Technical Secondary School, Kano from January 1958 to December 1960. At that time, all the teachers were white and even those who interviewed us before we entered the school were British; and of course, you had to speak the Queen’s English before they would even look at you. The curriculum was very qualitative.
The education system, like I said, was very qualitative. I took an examination at the end of the five years, what you can now call the SSCE, but at that time, we were taking the Cambridge Certificate Examination and the London School Certificate. That was around June 1962. After that, you didn’t go directly to the university like that; you would go and do a higher school certificate or an advanced level. You didn’t go to university with a secondary school certificate in those days. You would enter with an A-level certificate. I did that in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Statistics for two years. I was very much into Mathematics.
I went to the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria in 1965, where I was admitted to read Mathematics, but I fell in love with Chemistry and Physics. I used Mathematics to understand Physics and Chemistry. That was how I became a Physical Chemistry scientist.
When I finished that in 1968, I was admitted directly to the University of Oregon in the United States for my PhD programme. I was even given a position to teach undergraduates.
I went there and I got a master’s degree and PhD in Physics and Chemistry. I was actually admitted for PhD in Physics and Chemistry, but when I was in my third year, I certified the conditions for master’s, so I just applied and they looked at my documents and gave them to me because I had gone beyond that level in my study. It was so liberal that you didn’t need to register specifically for the MSc. Once you attained the level and applied, they would give you. You only needed to pay some fees for the certificate. I got a PhD in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry in January 1973.
I came to Nigeria a month later, which was in February. I was back in ABU and started teaching Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. The late Ishaya Audu was the vice chancellor of the university and he had a very wonderful dream of producing very good science teachers for secondary schools, so that the students they produced could come to the ABU.
He requested me to train science teachers, especially in those subjects I mentioned. I didn’t study education, so I requested that I be sent to England to do a postgraduate diploma to add to my qualifications. I did that and was able to teach others.
You need to be a teacher before you can train others. I am a registered teacher in Nigeria now because I registered in England. I registered with the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN). A lot of my students became very important people in Nigeria. For example, the late former President Umar Musa Yar’adua was my student when he was doing his first degree. Even Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State was also in the same class as Yar’adua. Ganduje read Biology and Education while Yar’adua read Chemistry and Education. I also taught in the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) for three years. In one of my classes, there was a commissioner of police, Hafiz Ringim, who later became an inspector-general of police.
I served the Kano State Government as commissioner in the ministries of education, finance, trade and cooperatives during the Murtala/Obasanjo regime. My greatest happiness in that government was that I developed the Kano State Government’s science secondary schools. I supported the government of Sani Bello and we established government science secondary schools. But I had a lot of troubles because we were taking students from form 3 and the teachers were complaining that we were taking the best. But that was why we were getting the best results.
What informed your decision to go to the US for postgraduate studies instead of Britain, where most Nigerians were going to?
I had been involved in students’ politics right from my early days. I was a supporter of the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), right from age 8. I saw all the injustices that were being meted out to the people.
I was in primary school at that time and I was lashed because I climbed a stool and was making political speeches. That was in 1955. When I was preparing for the Higher School Certificate (HSC), I was president of the students’ union. Goni, a former governor of Borno State, was my vice president.
When I went to the ABU, I was the president of the students’ union. I raised a lot of problems in the school. The university had to be closed down at some point. As president of the students’ union in the ABU, the Americans were trying to come into Africa., I was sitting in my office when a white American official came in and said he wanted to speak with the students’ union president. I spoke with him and he told me the US government was arranging to take African youth leaders of the future to the US for a training programme.
It was a programme for people from African countries, such as Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, etc. So I went for the programme. It was during that visit that I presented myself for interviews at three universities in the US. I got admitted to all the three. The only thing they asked me to do was to bring myself to the US. The air ticket was not covered.
When I came back, I showed Ishaya Audu and he was very pleased. He asked them to pay for my air ticket, and that when I finish I should ask them to pay for my return ticket. They also gave me a warm clothing allowance. These were some of the reasons I went to the US. Also, the British education system was the same as what we had in the ABU and I wanted something different to enable me to be versatile.
As one of the founding fathers of government-owned science secondary schools in Kano, and looking at what most of such schools are today, in terms of lack of support from the government, do you think we are on the right path as a country?
Obviously, in order to get a good education, you need three things. Firstl, you need good science teachers. That is very fundamental. Secondly, the students must be very good. You can’t just put anybody’s son in the science schools because they are commissioners’ or emirs’ children. You must have very well-groomed students. The third is the curriculum, materials and laboratories. If any of these is missing, you can’t have a good science education.
From what is happening today, enough money is not being put into education or health, or whatever sector. You can’t expect to have the best under such circumstances. Graduates of today are not as good as those of the olden days. And the facilities are not good as they used to be. The students are also not as good as before and these things need to be taken care of if we are to have good scientists, engineers, doctors, etc. There are still good people but in small numbers. People will finish and go to the US, for instance, to do specialist training because they didn’t do much by way of experiment or what have you. Even those who finished from sciences and engineering here, it is just theories. Somebody will be a computer graduate without touching a computer. One of my children did Computer Science in Minna and I had to buy him a computer. If you are given the required facilities, you can rise. Education today is suffering because the basic factors needed to improve the sector are not provided.
Given your background as a unionist, what is your take on the incessant strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which has been going on for nearly 20 years now?
Going back a little bit, not only was I a unionist, I was also a left-winger. Malam Aminu Kano was my mentor. I attended his meetings and listened to his speeches at ages 8, 9 and 10. As you may know, he was a leftist. When I had the opportunity to read more books, I read the theory of communism by Marxists. But Marxism did not appeal to me throughout because it was against my religion. And coming from the tradition we maintained, you can’t be an atheist. But the material epistle is still valid and relevant, and this is the focus I am going to attend to you in terms of the ASUU and the strikes.
The world has become very materialistic. Karl Marx, the founder of communism in Das Kapital, the book he wrote, raised the issue of materialistic conception of world history. This materialistic conception, whether using Marxism or not, has entered into our body polity. Everything has become materialistic. Money is the answer. Power is the answer. Authority is the answer and people are not paying attention to hard work and the thoroughness and the integrity expected of them. So lecturers of universities consider the payment they receive compared to other people in other sectors with similar or much less academic burdens as too poor. But before, it wasn’t like that. When I was in the university between 1973 and 1975, the salary of a lecturer was like that of permanent secretaries or commissioners.
What I am saying is that part of the trouble is that the remuneration the lecturers receive is poor compared to those in the National Assembly when you compare the work they do. You cannot match them. This is a great concern.
Also, as I said earlier, the facilities for teaching and research are very poor. Number one, it creates idle hands among the lecturers because they have nothing to do. Also, they cannot do good works in their own areas. Some of them stray into other things. And so, jealousy and envy enter.
The conditions are not good. They look at what other people are getting and the people that are getting much also brag about it and show up in ostentatious living. There was a time when the government was trying to stop ostentatious living, but now, it is the government that is showing ostentatious living. I don’t want to quote any example, recent or past, otherwise, I may be in trouble.
If you have the opportunity now, which political party would you join?
The only party I joined in Nigeria was the NEPU and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP).
Will you join the PRP now?
No, it is now a different PRP. I will not join any Nigerian party because none has a manifesto that appeals to me.
What do you think of politics today compared to what you were used to?
People have become materialistic, so whether they are in the PRP, All Progressives Congress (APC) or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it is the materialistic conception that is in their minds. This is a departure from the kind of politics Malam Aminu Kano, Awolowo and Sardauna practised. They didn’t enrich themselves or their families. Even when Tafawa Balewa left government, his house was a mud building. The government had to help rebuild the house because people were coming from all over the world to visit the place and what they were seeing was not good enough. Sardauna had daughters and they were just married as any other woman; there was no celebration. Everything is now materialistic. The difference between today and yesterday is materialistic conception.
I thank God that I don’t have to beg anybody for a living because through the training I had, I have learned to be contented. Look at the chairs you are sitting on, they were made about 25 years ago. The slippers I wore today are about 10 years old and I still used them to the mosque today. I bought a Toyota Camry I used for 10 to 11 years and I was quite satisfied. But my children pooled resources and bought another car for me. They wanted to buy me a Jeep but I told them that I don’t belong to that kind of sentiment. They had to give my wife (their mother) the keys to beg me in order to accept because they knew I could reject it. I don’t live a flamboyant life. Despite the calibre of people I trained at various levels, I don’t look up to them for anything.
Coming back to your book, the Chronicles of an Adventurous Chemist, what informed this title and the book itself?
I have been adventurous all my life. For example, when I was in secondary school, I walked from Kano to Wudil. Some people thought I was mad. I like to do extraordinary things. Secondly, during my primary school days I read about adventurers such as Mungo Park, Ibn Batuta and got impressed with their adventures. These continue to impress adventurous thoughts in my mind. Another thing was that when I was a student in the US, I bought a beetle car, I think at N600. I drove across the Sahara desert in the 1970s and enjoyed it.
When I went to do my postgraduate in education in the United Kingdom (UK), I bought a brand new Peugeot 504 for a thousand pounds. Instead of sending it by sea, I decided to venture across the Sahara desert for about 24 days, travelling from London to Kano by road. I have been mechanically inclined since my secondary school days. I used to service my car when I was in the university. That also encouraged me to embark on the adventure in case I ran into trouble.
There was nothing like Google maps at that time, how were you able to make the trip all the way through the Sahara desert to Kano?
When I went to the Automobile Association in the UK, they trained me on the dos and don’ts. Really, there was no Google map. What we were using was a compass to show us direction. And we studied it to know which direction it was going because there was no road. Everything was just plain.
During your 24-day trip, was there a point you nursed thoughts of regret?
That kind of thought never crossed my mind because if you were weak-minded you could collapse and die. There was one Algerian soldier I met in Tamarese, which is near the border between Niger and Algeria. When he saw me, he said, “You are making a mistake, you are too important to your country to be doing this.”
I asked him to lead me and we continued. There were many challenges, and up till now, when I think of the challenges, I quiver. But now, there are more dangers crossing the Sahara desert. Then, you would hardly see anybody as you journeyed. Nowadays, when people do this kind of thing there are maps and trackers they use. It is safer now, but it is still not safe because of insecurity problems.
You used Peugeot for the trip, which the company also used to attest to the durability of their brand. Did they in any way compensate you?
No. At that time, we were not materialistic. The Automobile Association was charitable enough by guiding and showing me direction and how to navigate safely. So, I wasn’t sponsored by anybody. When I wrote, they used it for something else. We are not materialistic.
In Islam, a marriage ceremony is conducted by the imam, with two or three witnesses. This is the law, everything else is just flowery. All my daughters were married out this way. My washmen and my driver are always my witnesses. All my daughters were married without any gathering, no crowd. But I allow them to go ahead and do whatever they organise in terms of reception after the marriage ceremony. I go by the orthodox way. The money I would spend in slaughtering cows, I put in their house furniture and whatever wedding present I want to give them.
Let’s confirm your age again.
During the time I was born, there were two birth records. One was the traditional one using the Lunar calendar, the other one was the Gregorian calendar using January to December. Going by the Gregorian calendar, I will be 79 by November 16. But on the lunar calendar, I am already 83. My people back home in Kano don’t care about the Gregorian calendar; they only know their own. For them, I am already 83.
Either Gregorian or Lunar age, you have indeed seen it all, but you still look agile; what’s the secret?
I have been a sportsman. I was very good in football. In 1960, I played for Nigeria to celebrate the country’s independence anniversary. We were selected across secondary schools to play the match. African leaders, such as Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Sardauana, Awolowo and Azikiwe, were all at the National Stadium in Lagos to watch us play. I was very active in sports, even when I was in the US.
I am also very careful about what I eat. I eat just one meal a day. That’s enough for me.
Do you exercise?
Yes. I am used to walking a lot. I am still fit and strong in all the parameters. I am diabetic, but it is under control. I am on treatment. My blood sugar has not changed. My blood pressure is also okay with the treatment. I have never experienced what they call high blood pressure; it is within the range of my age
Because of my work background, I make sure I wake up early. I wake up at 4am to observe my prayers. I take my bath around 5.15am every day, even if I have nowhere to go. I also make sure I go to bed by 8.15pm latest.
I also have the routine of shaving my beards every morning. Anyway, I shave every day; this comes from British training. The time we were at Sitcom College when small beards were coming out, they (British) insisted we must shave every morning. You had to be clean when they came for inspection.
Thereafter, I take my breakfast. I take tea without sugar. I have not taken sugar in my tea for at least 20 years. I would also go down to see my driver and give them instructions on what to do for the day, and all that. Then I come back and go on my laptop to read newspapers online. I don’t buy Nigerian newspapers. I read my stories on the internet and I choose what to read. What I don’t want, I leave it. I do that for about two hours.
I also keep family times. I have nine grandchildren here in Abuja from two sons and two daughters. Usually, during the weekends, they and my grandchildren come around and we spend time together. I enjoy family life. As I said, I have one wife only, and I used to joke with her that if it was possible for someone to have half a wife, I would have opted for it.
That brings us to the next question: People from Kano would be surprised that you have one wife; were there no pressures on you to take more?
Pressure from where?
From the society and culture sometimes.
I thank God that he has given me a very good wife. Whatever I needed from a wife, I got it. We have six boys and two girls. That’s plenty enough. Why I am asking you of pressure from where is that my father had four wives. He died in 1954. My mother was very clever and had very good knowledge of the Qur’an. When I was a commissioner in Kano, each time she came to the house she would find it too quiet and lonely. She felt that more people were needed in my home. But I had to let her know that it was the lifestyle I had chosen. In reality, why do I need four wives? Even if you have four wives, you will still see another woman you would want to take. So you have to discipline yourself; you can’t take everything you want. You must be able to know what your wants are and your needs. If you go by what you need, you will be alright. If you go by what you want, you will be foolish.
In recent times, education has taken a nosedive, with ridiculous prizes given for related competitions when compared to entertainment; how would you react to that?
In my secondary school I won prizes in Mathematics. I also won prizes at A-level in Mathematics and Physics. For Physics, they gave me a book called, Modern Physics and for Mathematics, they gave me University Mathematics. I was satisfied with the prizes. Even the recognition that I was a prize winner was enough for me.
Again, it boils down to the fact that people have become highly materialistic. They look at it in terms of big prize money. I knew somebody who had a nine-bedroom house; when the children grew up and left the house, he and his wife were lonely in that big house.
To have a sustainable society, we need to go back to the basis. We must look after one another. We must not be greedy and selfish. They are plenty of opportunities in this country and we can all share in it. But if few people corner it, there will be nothing for everybody.
What is your advice for those who want to succeed in life?
In summary, to succeed in life, whoever you are and whatever you want to be, you must be adequately prepared through schooling and training; get qualified. Two, you must work very hard and focus your attention and dedication on duties. Number three is honesty and integrity; you can’t be dishonest and succeed. People will be running away from you. Number four is obedience; you must be obedient to your parents, teachers and bosses in the office. You must also have humility; and lastly, punctuality.
By Yusuf Zango, Amina Alhassan & Itodo Daniel Sule
