Professor Jibril Aminu and the purposeful life: A testimony, By Ahmadu Shehu

My brother, a medical doctor, and I, alongside many others in my family, distinguishing ourselves in various human endeavours, were born nomads in small, semi-nomadic hamlets, preoccupied only by herding and animal husbandry. I am writing today as a professor, having climbed to the top of the globally respected intellectual ladder at an age below 40, all thanks to Jibril Aminu’s vision and a purposeful life.

“Congratulations! I hope you will lead a purposeful life to inspire others.” – Jibril. 

The above quote was a reply to the message I sent to Professor Jibril Aminu, notifying him of the completion of my Master’s degree at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, where I graduated once again with distinction. Today, that father figure, a role model – like others before him, a la Professor Gidado Tahir – is no more. Innaa lilLaahi wa innaa ilaihi raaji’uun.

Indeed, Nigeria has once again lost one of its most brilliant minds and impactful, accomplished public servants in its history as a nation. The loss of Aminu is beyond the loss of a single soul, itself a great tragedy. It signifies the sad end of an era of true intellectuals shaping public service and politics in a country that has regressed in most aspects of its public life.

There is no doubt that Nigeria has lost one of its finest, most distinguished citizens whose career traversed various sectors and endeavours, at a time when the nation is more endangered and in need of emergency care that only men and women of Aminu’s calibre can provide.

The tributes and eulogies coming from all walks of life, nooks and crannies of this country, are enough testimony to the kind of life and service this great man lived and rendered to humanity. It suffices here to summarise some of the eulogies that have overtaken the media, viz:

Jibril was a trailblazer, a memoriser of the Qur’an, the best medical student in the history of Nigeria, a globally renowned cardiologist, the pioneer and best executive secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Nigeria’s best minister of Education and Petroleum, the initiator and founder of several public and private organisations, the best Vice-Chancellor ever, a respected diplomat and a senator and politician of unparalleled consequence.

That is for the average Nigerian whose interaction and experience with the life of Jibril Aminu is limited to his monumental national and global accomplishments.

But for me and millions of my kind, Jibril was more than a professor, a scholar, a politician or a diplomat. The purpose and impact of his life were beyond just another famous, influential Nigerian making waves around the globe. He was not just a builder of institutions, a perfect surgeon or an author.

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For us, he was simply the other half of that which made up our lives, the first half being the biological genes that made us living organisms; for, he was the human intercessor in whom God had placed the essence of our lives; the bearer of the very potent mental power that would ignite our aspirations, direct our future and lead us to exalted destinations that even kings and princes aspire to – those destinations that bear no price tags nor can they be gifted by a loved one, inherited or stolen. By lightening our social being, he was just at par with, in some cases even better than, our biological parents from whom we inherited our genes.

He made life possible for us, not just as Nigerians, but as human beings deserving of dignity, freedom and all other rudimentary, common rights, privileges and opportunities that are often overlooked by members of the privileged society. Literacy, education, vocation, and employment, to the top of the social ladder!

How, you may ask? In 1989, while serving as Minister of Education, Jibril Aminu commissioned a strategic team to advise him on the educational requirements necessary to propel Nigeria into its envisaged developmental goals. Led by Nigeria’s foremost education specialists, the project provided astonishing findings, based on which policy recommendations were made.

The most critical, urgent need in the education sector at the time – even now – was to provide access to rural and hard-to-reach communities. That entails developing special models of education that could effectively target and reach these communities, defying the barriers that block the communities from accessing mainstream educational facilities. Nomadic education, implemented through the National Commission for Nomadic Education, was a policy designed to avert what has inevitably become one of Nigeria’s biggest challenges today.

My brother, a medical doctor, and I, alongside many others in my family, distinguishing ourselves in various human endeavours, were born nomads in small, semi-nomadic hamlets, preoccupied only by herding and animal husbandry. I am writing today as a professor, having climbed to the top of the globally respected intellectual ladder at an age below 40, all thanks to Jibril Aminu’s vision and a purposeful life. We are an insignificant number compared to the millions of children who attended nomadic schools in the last two decades, even more so when we look at the future generations.

The reverse in the likely pattern and condition of life, had Aminu not happened to us, is not far-fetched. It is evident in the lives of our cousins, nieces and nephews, who would be found grazing somewhere in the northernmost parts of Yobe, Borno or Bauchi states from July to December, and in the dense, thick forests of Jubi in Cameroon, from December to June, moving all year-round, constantly navigating human and animal predators.

The goal of their torturous, homeless life of bewilderment is to feed not themselves, get rich or enjoy any of the modern-day “good life.” No. It is to satisfy the hunger and thirst of animals that would ultimately satisfy the greed and hunger of some city dwellers, who eventually call the same producers of the very beef that fills their bellies terrorists, seeking to eliminate them from the face of the earth without a just cause. But then, the only difference between myself and those kins of mine is the education Aminu defied all odds to provide to the community in which I was born and bred.

Having lived an accomplished, full circle of life, at 85 years, it is perhaps a ripe time for a mortal to return to his Lord. But men like Aminu, whose entire lives were dedicated to humanity, will live on through the people and institutions they helped build. It is depressing to imagine that this great man is no longer on the scene, yet it is inspiring to reimagine his life and take the lead. Adieu, my beloved professor. Thank you for all you did for us. May you be in Jannah. Aameen!

Ahmadu Shehu is a pioneer nomadic student, professor, public commentator and administrator. He can be reached via: [email protected].