Nigerian broadcaster, Umar Tudunwada, dies in auto crash

A veteran broadcast journalist, Umar Tudunwada, died Sunday afternoon from a road accident outside Kano city.

Mr Tudunwada was returning to the city from an engagement in Abuja when the crash happened around Kura town, about 25 kilometres from Kano.

In a career that spanned close to 40 years, Mr Tudunwada worked in television and radio both locally and with international broadcasters.

He started his journalism career as a News Assistant with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in 1980. He left in 1983 to join the then City Television (CTV) owned by the Kano State Government.

Mr Tudunwada was in the team that pioneered the first private broadcaster in the northern part of Nigeria, Freedom Radio in early 2000s.

He worked with the Hausa services of the Radio Deutsche-Welle (Voice of Germany) and Voice of America (VOA).

Mr Tudunwada ended his sojourn at VOA, which he joined in 2006, in 2009 to take up the position as the General Manager of Freedom Radio.

He later transferred his services to the Radio Dandal Kura in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, before he was appointed as the managing director of Radio Kano by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.

He left the position on June 4.

Mr Tudunwad also served as media aide at various times to governors Ibrahim Shekarau and Rabiu Kwankwaso, in Kano State.

In May, he was returned as the elected deputy president (North) of the Nigerian Guild of Editors.

Ganduje mourns

In a statement Sunday evening, Governor Ganduje eulogised the late journalist.

Mr Tudunwada’s death according to the governor is a great loss that leaves a wide vacuum in the media practice in the state and the country as a whole.

He said, “…not only his families, the state and the media profession would forever remember him as an Icon who left when we all needed him the most.”

The statement by Mr Ganduje’s Chef Press Secretary, Abba Anwar, described Mr Tudunwada as “a complete gentleman whose clean character shaped many promising media men an women in the state and beyond.”

“With Umar Sa’id Tudunwada, media ethics were carefully adhered to and other practitioners copied character and characteristics of a rare gem,” the governor said.

He urged other practising journalists to copy “from the exceptional professional life of Tudunwada for meaningful development of the profession.”