Tribute to Professor Sa’ad Abubakar (1943-2019)

Government Comprehensive Day Secondary School Bakari Dukku, in Bauchi, venue of some of the illegal colleges of education where they hold classes in Bauchi.

It was my friend Alhaji Bashiru Tukur who broke the news of Professor Sa’ad Abubakar’s ‘sudden collapse’ to me. We rushed to the Hassan’s Hospital in Maitama but were unable to see him. Thereafter, we followed the update of his condition in and out of hospital in Nigeria and finally to Britain, with trepidation.

Our anxiety turned to mourning when it ﬁltered through that ‘Prof’ had ﬁnally succumbed to the inevitable on the 7th of September 2019. His interment at the Gudu Muslim Cemetery in Abuja and later the 7th day Fida’u prayers at his residence at Wuse ll, Abuja, was a period of demonstration of utter grief and acquiescence to Innalillahi wa inna Ilaihim raji’un’ (From God we come and to Him we return).

The outpour of grief from a near-tumultuous crowd, across not only the members of his immediate family and associates but also the academic family, especially that of the University of Abuja, with no discrepancy between members of both religious faiths, demonstrated Professor Sa’ad Abubakar’s acceptance across the many strata of society.

Professor Sa’ad accomplished many ﬁrsts: The first to be awarded doctorate degree by the ABU; the first to be awarded doctorate degree in History by the university; and, as we shall mention further, the first whose title was published (in 1977) by the newly established Ahmadu Bello University Publishing House. Certainly, Professor Sa’ad Abubakar has remained the trailblazer for most of us scholars in the Arts and Social Sciences in this part of country.

I first met Professor Sa’ad in 1955 at the then Yola Middle School (now General Murtala College) which I joined at Senior Primary 5 (we called it ‘Remove’ class) at a time when he moved to Primary 7. That seniority, which was one of the hallmarks of character training at the then Middle School, was the basis of my ever deference to him. That respect based on school seniority was reinforced when Prof became a mentor in my built-up career as a historian.

I consulted him severally and benefitted tremendously before and during the research for both my BA and PhD dissertations. My deference to him, however, was reciprocated. One event which I still vividly remember was when he consulted me on whether he should take the post of Ambassadorship being offered to him. That was coming on the heels of the race for the Vice Chancellorship of the University of Maiduguri, which he was ultimately denied after seeming credible assurances. Even though he baulked the foreign service offer, he was still encouraged to positively reﬂect on the proposition. I intensely reasoned with him to take the offer. I cannot claim that it was my encouragement that made him accept to serve but I felt ﬂattered that he asked for my opinion; more especially when his service as Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation from 1987 to 1992 turned out to be an extremely successful one. One of his achievements was the recovery for Nigeria of a Benin bronze head worth $3 million.

In subsequent years, though coming from our multifaceted sojourns, we constantly met at conferences and other scholarly events, association meetings as well as numerous social functions. It was only from 2006 when I joined him at the Department of History and Diplomatic Studies, University of Abuja, that we came to stay together for about a decade.

When I was surprisingly offered the headship of the Department in 2010 and was somehow reluctant to accept, he was one of the very ﬁrst individuals that I consulted. He not only seriously nudged me to accept to serve but also promised to give me his unflinching support, which he tremendously did throughout my five-year tenure for which I ever remain grateful. The younger members of the department could hardly fathom the unalloyed differential respect which I paid him and insisted on all the others to do same.

Prof Sa’ad had varied and rich experiences as an academic, an administrator, a public servant, diplomat, and politician.

He was a Commissioner for Education and member of State Executive Council, first, in the North-East, and later, in Gongola State, from 1975 to 1978. In addition to teaching and supervision in the university spanning over 40 years, with experience gathered at Ahmadu Bello University, University of Maiduguri and University of Abuja, and covering all levels of students—from pre degree to PhD—, Sa’ad was also a university administrator. Between 1980 and 1987, he was successively a Head of Department of History, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Deputy Vice Chancellor as well as Acting Vice Chancellor at the University of Maiduguri. From 1987 to 1992, he had, as we have shown above, served as Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation.

Immediately after coming back from his foreign assignment, he served another term (1993-1995) as Dean of Faculty of Arts, before he was invited out again in 1995 — this time to serve in the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON) as a Commissioner during General Sani Abacha’s transition programme. With the end of the NECON assignment following the sudden death of Gen Abacha, Prof Sa’ad joined the services of the University of Abuja, where he was ﬁrst appointed in February 2000 to serve as Director of Distance Learning as well as that of School of Pre-Degree Studies—combining them with his teaching at the Department of History.

In addition to teaching, research and publication as well as several aspects of university administration, Professor Sa’ad was still actively involved in extra-curricular activities outside the University. For example, he was, at one time or the other, on the Governing Boards of Yaba College of Technology (in 1983) and National Commission for Museums and Monuments (1972-1976) both in Lagos as well as that of the well- respected International African Institute in London (1975 – 1978).

Professor Sa’ad was a dyed-in-the-wool academician who cannot be called a very sociable person. Due, however, to intense pressures from friends and associates, who perceived his qualities for leadership, he offered himself severally at one time or the other as candidate of the Vice Chancellorship of the universities of Maiduguri and Abuja as well as that of Taraba State University, Wukari. Whenever he lost a bid or completed an assignment, he dusted himself, so to speak, and without much ado resumed his primary profession, which is lecturing, research, educational conferencing, publications and mentoring.

In fact, so much did Professor Sa’ad make all else secondary to his academic career that not many a college knew that he had always been a member of one political party or the other since 1978. In fact, he was a State Secretary of one in 1978-80, a gubernatorial aspirant in one in 2002 and an actual gubernatorial candidate in another in 2003.

He was never short of honours from an appreciative community, association, or nation. In 1978, the Muri Traditional Council invested him with the title of Ubundoma Muri. He was also a Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria (FHSN) as well as a recipient of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) in 2005 from a very appreciative nation, to mention few of the important ones.

Professor Sa’ad Abubakar ranked amongst the most esteemed historians in the country. His publications that put him in the revered academic class started from 1971 when he published his monumental book, The Lamibe of Fombina: The History of Pre-Colonial Adamawa, perhaps the most extensive emirate of Sokoto Caliphate, which consisted of areas in present Adamawa and Taraba states as well as Northern Cameroon. He has never looked back since then.

Professor Sa’ad was the quintessential gentleman-scholar: Always ready to give, share and contribute but very unassuming; always being there when and where exactly he was wanted (he was a strict observer of time; he arrived at least 10 minutes to the appointed time or sent an apology in case of unforeseen circumstance). He never over-exerted his presence or pushed his very deep and varied knowledge and experience; but he never hesitated to state his views very clearly and unambiguously in his God-given calm and captivating voice. He never scolded or shouted but took time to explain to a student, a colleague, a subordinate, or applicant on what was right and why. In short, Sa’ad was the characteristic team principal whose mode of leading by example was just second nature to him. Since I knew him, Professor Sa’ad drove himself most often to even Jalingo his hometown from Abuja.

In fact, when the three of us Professors were “sent forth” by colleagues of the Department of History, University Abuja on April 26, 2018, Professor Sa’ad Abubakar who drove himself to the venue, was there before all of us, including the organisers—and that was the last most of us saw him alive.

During the whole period of Professor Sa’ad’s illness, which eventually led to his death, his wife, Ambassador Fati Balla, stood out as the pillar of support. She took the whole incident with courage, being always by his side; insisting he got the best medical attention, including taking him to Britain, despite being informed that it was a near-hopeless case.

We pray that the Almighty Allah, the Most Merciful, forgive Professor Sa’ad Abubakar and admit him into Aljanna Firdausi and give Ambassador Fati, the children and other relations the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

Bawuro M. Barkindo is a retired professor of History