By Patrick-Jude Oteh
It is the end of another era in Nigerian history. We will not discuss his politics because it was never an issue in our friendship rather I would describe Alhaji BOT as a writer and a fellow artiste.
Our paths connected in 2015 when in the heady days of our Abuja performances, one of our ardent follower and supporter, Alhaji Bilya Bala whom I had always known asked us to meet with Alhaji Bashir Tofa. It was an invitation of sorts.
Let me state for the records and for this tribute to a good and worthy friend that in the early days of our company’s history, we did a lot of work at the British Council, Kano, situated along Emir’s Palace Road. A lot of our earlier artistes loved Kano to a hilt including the award winning CNN African Travel Journalist, Pelu Awofeso. Emir’s Palace Road British Council was a performance and exhibition Mecca of sorts and we met a lot of very interesting people and we had a lot of creativity in there too. The Amphitheatre was a performance delight at all times especially through the creation of Our House, the performance run of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart as adapted for stage by Biyi Bandele, the initial creative exploration of the works of Adam Zameenzad’s novel, My Friend Matt and Hena the Whore and in later years the performance of Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman. It was also venues to performances by Benjamin Zephaniah the poet, writer, singer and rights activist who gave a thunderous performance with JRT in the audience as guests.
The invitation from Alhaji BOT was simple enough. The invitation came through Alhaji Bilya Bala who in reality was everything rolled into one with Alhaji BOT – a friend with whom Alhaji BOT formed many political discussions and advisory groups, did a lot of charity work and engaged in intellectual pursuits as well as a mutual love for arts and leisure! Alhaji BOT’s father was an influential and titled man. He was the Zannan Kano who ensured that his son was well read studying in Sudan, Egypt and United Kingdom. This made Alhaji BOT a very urbane, cosmopolitan and well-travelled man who was at home in any part of the world. It was Alhaji Bilya Bala who told me that Alhaji BOT was also an accomplished playwright and novelist. Now that ticked me off.
Alhaji Bashir Tofa, a novelist and a playwright? I found this odd.
The appointments were made and off to Kano we went. But before we made the trip, a drama occurred that opened a vista into the vast mind of Alhaji BOT. We discussed the forthcoming trip on phone and he was always very welcoming, friendly and good-natured and I always found this odd because he was always portrayed in the press as “taciturn and very difficult to reach”! He was always warm and very polite to us and our endeavors. On this particular day, there was a mix-up in dates and I got a call from him one evening that he was expecting us in Kano the following day. I was a bit confused and I said “Sir, we are not due in Kano until next week”. He said “No, my appointment diary tells me that you are due tomorrow”. I asked him to kindly re-check because all our plans had been made for the following week. I was not travelling alone, rather, I had a team on this first visit and we were six in number.
Early the following morning, I got another call from Alhaji BOT who asked if we had set off and I replied in the negative and the next I knew, he started apologizing profusely. He was sorry about the mix-up and he had a trip for the following week but he was going to wait until after our visit! I was taken aback at this kind of humility and being so forthright with someone you were yet to meet. The following week, we were off to Kano. We got to the expansive Ruqayya House and he was already seated. That was the meeting where I saw the very brilliant mind of a man who had been consigned to the role of a career politician.
It is interesting to note that in our clime when you are cast in the role of a politician and such a high profile one, you are almost in the mold of a “deal-man”, unlettered and ignorant of so many facts. In the case of Alhaji BOT, this was a wrong classification. We met a witty mind, a sharp intellect and one who laughed very easily. He was at home with us and proceeded to enlighten us on his writing styles, his vast knowledge of literature and a vast knowledge of the works of William Shakespeare. It was cross variance in what was out there in the open market of ideas.
We met an astute, sharp mind, a poet, a novelist and a playwright who could write in English and then translated his works into Hausa or who wrote out rightly in Hausa. In later years, I was to ask him about this and he was to explain that he decided very early on in his writing career that he wanted to write for the common man because he found out as a teacher that his people had little or no access to vast reading materials. Also, a lot of the materials that were available were inaccessible to millions of them and he wanted to rectify this. There was also the issue of language where he discussed with a lot of fluidity and enthusiasm the works of Ngugi wa Thiong’o and the possibility of using writing to decolonise the mind and attitudes.
In a tour of the vast Ruqayya House, he took us into the heart of what was the vast headquarters of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) from where he prosecuted his campaign against the MKO Abiola Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the run-up to the General Ibrahim Babangida’s annulled June 12 1993 election. Jokingly he asked me “Patrick, where were you in 1993?” And he started laughing and I said “Sir, interestingly, I was already in Jos rounding off my postgraduate studies”. He simply replied “Oh”. Then we entered the vast media space of his campaign headquarters. Or rather the remnants of it. He was very sad when he narrated the history of the media headquarters to us. He had commissioned, Peter Igho of then NTA to set it up and he was given clear instructions. Alhaji BOT requested that the media headquarters must be up to date with modern and state of the art facilities! They had the best in terms of sophistication and they had OB Vans. He told us that the idea then was to produce all that they could within the shortest possible time in terms of mass messaging. Unfortunately, after the elections and the aftermath of the annulment, a lot of the equipment were not returned. He said that he felt bad about this and eventually one of the OB Vans was located somewhere in the South. Then he burst out laughing again and he never told us why he was laughing.
Turning to me he then said that he later opened up the studios to the bludgeoning Kannywood film industry when they were starting out and they had a schedule. You book and you use any of the facilities at no cost but then again, according to him “human beings will always be human beings”. This was abused and some of the equipment were not returned so he closed up the media headquarters. He told us that he had not been there for about two years and what he wanted us to do was to strip the entire studio – take everything and jokingly said even if you can strip the walls along! We were in a dilemma and very confused. There were studio equipment, keyboards, editing suites, sound boards and it was simply inexhaustible. The look on my face was one of incomprehension – he repeated, take everything! That was how Alhaji BOT gifted our organization almost N10m worth of equipment in the twinkle of an eye! We came to Kano that day with one vehicle, we left with three vehicles and the following week, another truck went back to pick the remaining items.
At this point, he had left us and gone back to the office. By the time part of the team came back to the office, he had prepared a gift pack of almost all his writings for us. It was a calligraphy of all thoughts – stories on love, human personality, tales of the unexpected and even astrology and the effects of the stars on our destinies. In later years, the idea was to turn these stories into scripts that we would both agree on the performance logistics and the translation which was very dear to him especially Gajerun Labarai. Unfortunately, this did not happen until he passed on the 3rd of January 2022. He was only 74 years old. He gifted us eight books but as at the last count he had written twelve different books on different subjects! As he had proclaimed in one of our discussions, he wanted to utilize his retirement in a more worthy cause. I know that he found a lot of relief in writing and I commented in this as his personal office in Ruquayya House was a writing haven of sorts. He had converted a part of it to a rich library comparable only to the Nobles. There were books of all shades and hues and he discussed them fervently and eloquently. It was what has now become our last discussion that I recalled to him the fact that I felt that politics had done him a great disservice. Perhaps he needed to speak more or engage in literary activities. With all humility he simply replied “Patrick, I have done my bit. Your generation should take what is left up”
I always told him that he needed to change the narrative of being pigeon-holed as a politician who lost to MKO Abiola because I felt that he had a more interesting history and trajectory as a literary person but his reply was always a very simple – Patrick, what can I do? That is their opinion but it does not change who I am.
May your noble soul find rest with the Almighty. And may your family, friends and colleagues find comfort in the worthy, magnanimous legacy you left behind.
Oteh is the Artistic Director, Jos Repertory Theatre
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