Waƙar "Taimaka Rabbana" ta Sani Sabulu Kanoma

Baitikan da na fi so a waƙoƙin Alhaji Sani Sabulu Kanoma su na cikin waƙar sa ta "Taimaka Rabbana". Ga su na zauna na rubuta su kamar haka:


In ka na yawo cikin duniya,
Kag ga abin mamaki bai kamar ƙarewa,
Sai kullum ƙaruwa za ya yi.

Sai ka samu mutum cikakken mutum,
Ka iske mutum kamak kamili,
Hannu na mutum, idanun mutum,
In ka koma cikin zuciya tasa sai ka ga ƙwamma kura da shi!

Ka san sha'anin duniya wuya ce garai,
In an ka iya shi daɗi garai.

In kay yi kure, akwai 'yaw wuya.

Ya ikon Allah, ka tserad da mu ka hana mu faɗa ka ganar da mu gaskiya.

Taimaka Rabbana, ya Jallah ka ceci 'yan zamani.

Ka san sha'anin duniyag ga sai Rabbana.

Ka san sha'anin duniya wuya ag garai,
In ka ga mutum ka na ra'ayi nai malam,
Kafin ku zam jiki kai da shi, na so ka yi bincike nai kaɗan,
Ka bar dubin fuska da kaurin jiki,
Na so ka yi binciken zuciya da irin halin da duk ag garai.

Ka san cinikin ɗan'adam wuya ag garai,
Ko an bar ma sule goma nan a cikin naira rage sule biyar,
Watakila ka na zaton faɗuwa.

Ka san hikima - eh?
Sha'anin duniya wuya ag garai.
Amma inji mai waƙa uban Zainaba, Sani,
Amma inji mai waƙa uban A'isha, Sani.

Sha'anin duniya wuya ag garai,
Sannan cinikin ɗan'adam wuya ag garai,
In an ka biyo ana bincike, ka je ka hwaɗi garan an ka ji.

Taimaka Rabbana, ya Jallah ka ceci 'yan zamani.
Ya ikon Allah, ka tserad da mu ka hana mu faɗa ka ganar da mu gaskiya.
Ka san sha'anin duniyag ga sai Rabbana.

Ka samu mutum cikakken mutum,
Hannu na mutum, idanun mutum, a'ah!
Daidai ya yi godiyar Rabbana, sai ka iske ana ta'asa da shi.

Allah ya yi ma jiki na mutum,
Kuma yai maka lafiya ta mutum,
Daidai ka yi godiyar Rabbana, sai ka iske ana ta'adi da kai.

Ka san sha'anin duniyag ga sai Rabbana.

Ka samu mutum kamar kamili,
Ka iske mutum cikakken mutum, (2x)
Ga riga, cikin rawani,
Da ka koma cikin zuciya tasa sai ka ga ƙwamma kura da shi!

Ka san sha'anin duniyag ga sai Rabbana. (2x)

Garba Dangida at 62: A Short Appreciation

Alhaji Garba A. Dangida in his office - in those days!

Here is a special Happy Birthday greeting from me to a man I respect so much. Alhaji Garba Dangida, the publisher of Abuja Newsweek magazine, clocked 62 yesterday. May the almighty God continue to give him good health, wealth and, above, all rest of mind, amen.

We first met in 1991 when I was the Deputy Editor of a Kaduna-based weekly newspaper, Nasiha, the Hausa language sister of the daily newspaper The Reporter, both published by the late General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua. Alhaji Garba was at the time the publisher of Katsina Newsweek, the first indigenous newspaper established in my state (it became Abuja Newsweek when he moved to Abuja). He had gone to the newspaper company where I worked in order to print his magazine when we met and, I guess, we clicked almost immediately.

From then on, as I waded through life, working here and there as a journalist, I served in various capacities (though without any appointment letter!) as Alhaji Dangida's newspaper and magazine Editor, his P.A., S.A., Senior Special Adviser, errand boy, confidant, business partner, younger brother, co-conspirator, son, etc. Sometimes I combined two or more of those roles.

Through it all, I saw in him a special breed of human being: kind, selfless, loyal, humorous, jovial, fun-seeking, philanthropic, diplomatic and patriotic. He also has a way with business which I can simply describe as a Midas touch, i.e. whatever he touched turned to gold. I reckon he acquired that acumen during his long stay in Lagos where he worked with some expatriate businessmen. He is simply a goal-getter. Surely, he has his own downsides, like us mortals, but those have been outweighed by the positives that he exudes.

Even know he didn't know it, I actually learnt many lessons from him about business, family life, relationship with friends and foes alike, and just what it takes to survive in the shark-infested waters of Nigerian life. One of those great lessons is that you must have the heart to forgive those who hurt you and accommodate those whose views or perspectives contradict yours. Another lesson is that you must go out of your way to be kind. Another lesson is that you must strive to be friends with your kids. Another lesson is that the daggers of backbiters may hurt, but they cannot fierce through the focused heart. Yet another lesson is that you must respect people, not only those of your own tribe or religion but also those of different backgrounds. And whilst you seek pleasure and joy, it must not bother you that you aren't as rich as the other fellow.

As Alhaji Dangida piles on the years, I noticed that he has not lost his well-known penchant for gracefulness, looking good and speaking wisely. Sadly, however, I also noticed that he and I hardly meet even though we live in the same city; we speak on the phone occasionally, but generally we were closer when we lived in different cities! Why? Search me.

Alhaji Garba Dangida may not be as materially rich as some might think, but I see him as I always regarded him from the very first time of our acquaintance - a rich, fulfilled man. He lives well by the  standard I personally set for one to be living well. And he is an achiever in business, family life and human relations.

My prayer for him as he quietly celebrates the unique milestone of his birthday is to continue to savour his achievement in the three areas I described above - and eternally enjoy God's grace in this life and the next. Amen.

Waƙar 'Baƙar Rama' ta Haruna Uji

Haruna Uji ya na kaɗa gurmin sa

Na rubuta wannan waƙar daga wani faifai na Alhaji Haruna Uji a ranar 21 ga Mayu, 2015. A lura da cewar da yake Uji ya rera wannan waƙar a lokuta daban-daban, mai yiwuwa ne ka ji wani samfur na waƙar wanda ya bambanta da wannan da na rubuto.

Waƙar "Baƙar Rama" dai Haruna Uji ya yi wa matar sa Tasalla ne, don nuna shauƙin soyayya da ke tsakanin su. Bismilla:

*

 Ruwa isa gayya, Baƙar Rama,
Ruwa isa gayya, ya ki!
Allah Sarki, Baƙar Rama,
Ke 'yar masara mai yawan zani,
Sannu da rana, Tasalla!

Na kaɗa gangar Baƙar Rama
Wa'yansu mutane su na faɗi: "Baƙar Rama ko ba mutum ba ce?!"
Na ce musu, "A'a, ku bar faɗi, Bakar Rama amma mutum ta ke."

Ai sai su ka ce min: "Haru Uji, Baƙar Rama in dai mutum ta ke,
Ka yi mana taɗin Baƙar Rama."
Sai na ce "Na yarda!"

Sai ku matso zan gaya muku,
Na farko zancen Baƙar Rama,
Mai son 'yar nan Baƙar Rama,
In gan shi ga kogo kamar guza kamar gansheƙa, ya ja ciki,
Ta ce ba ta so, ba za ta ba.

Ina mai son ki?
In kai shi ga kogi,
Iy yi nutso ya ɗebo yashi,
Sai ya ƙirge yashi,
Baƙar Rama ta ce ba ta so, ba za ta ba!

In ya haɗa wannan,
In kai shi ga rairai ya tandara,
Ta ce ba ta so!
Ya hau kan rimi,
Sai ya kere rimi, ya faɗi da ƙirji,
Baƙar Rama ta ce ba ta so, ba za ta ba!

Mai son 'yar nan Baƙar Rama,
Ya zabura sosai,
Ya je dawa ya samu giginya,
Ya hau giginya da baya,
Baƙar Rama ta ce ba ta so!

In ya haɗa wannan,
Ya zauna ya yi mata kukan wata bakwai da kwana hamsin,
Sai ta ce ba ta so, ba za ta ba.

Allah Sarki, Baƙar Rama!

Again, I was omitted by Daily Trust

Recently, the Daily Trust on Sunday published my article titled “Daily Trust: My Omitted Story”, which dwelt on my role in the founding of the newspaper. The purpose of the write-up was to set the record straight, as I wrote, because omitting such contributions at a time the newspaper company was documenting the significant epoch of attaining twenty years would be doing a gross injustice to its own history.

Mannir Dan-Ali's list

Now, only yesterday (Tuesday, May 8, 2018) I observed another glaring omission. The newspaper published a list on page 7 of what the CEO/Editor-in-Chief, Mannir Dan-Ali, called “all the columnists past and present who have contributed to the building of the Daily Trust brand”.  The list contains not only those persons who are still alive but also some nine deceased ones, such as Mahmoon Baba-Ahmed (whose name was misspelt as Mahmood).

The list was clearly meant to be exhaustive, from what the CEO/EIC indicated.  But my name was not there!

In my recent article published in the Sunday paper, I stated clearly that I created and edited a literary column called Bookshelf, which ran in the Weekly Trust for years. As many commentators observed after reading the article, Bookshelf was one of the most crowd-pulling sections ever published in the newspaper. And as I stated in my write-up, it was only in 2004 that I stopped handling it because I was appointed the editor of the newly created Leadership newspaper, and Odoh Diego Okenyodo succeeded me as the literary editor. Mr. Okenyodo’s name is in Malam Dan-Ali’s list of “all columnists past and present” – on account of his handling Bookshelf.

All this is not about me per se. As I pointed out, the purpose of drawing attention to this type of omission is simply to set the record straight. Official endorsement of such efforts may end up in another publication or a certain hall of fame, and history would then not have been adequately served. Hence my speaking up again here.

And, by the way, since four columnists in the vernacular Aminiya have been listed by the editor-in-chief (Ado Saleh Kankia, Ibrahim Malumfashi, Abdulrahman Abubakar Dodo and Mahmoon Baba-Ahmed), why not similarly recognise my friend Nabila Ibrahim Khalil who has consistently been running a column on marital issues in the Hausa paper for several years?

APC chairmanship contest: PDP style?

The reported endorsement of former Edo state governor Adams Oshiomhole for the APC chairmanship in the party's May 14 Convention by President Muhammadu Buhari, if true, would be PDP style, especially when the incumbent chairman, Chief John Adigie-Oyegun, is running for the post. Under the past regime and the ones that preceded it, the ruling party's chairman had to be at the beck and call of the President in order to survive in office. And that's an irony because it is supposed to be the other way round: the party is supposedly supreme. In our brand of democracy, however, it is the tail that often wags the dog. Recall that Audu Ogbeh was said to have been forced to resign as PDP national chairman at gunpoint during the Obasanjo Administration.

Not many analysts had anticipated that the APC would be playing the politics of party chairmanship exactly the way the PDP did. After all, this is a Change regime. But someone says Buhari is finally learning the way politics is played in Nigeria. He wants a party chairman he can work with, and it is said that Oyegun is not type of man.

But what goes round comes round. Often, there are debilitating repercussions with that kind of tinkering. Already, things are not very quiet within the APC. Personally, I foresee some top APC members (including former governors) decamping back to the PDP fold or other parties as a fallout of the Convention and the anti-corruption fight, as well as grouses by those who feel shortchanged and sidelined after contributing to the party's past successes. A coalition of opposition parties is also a strong possibility. That scenerio is very familiar; it was its type which gave birth to APC itself. The early quitters of APC included Atiku Abubakar.

In spite of that, however, I am yet to see the chance of President Buhari being defeated in the 2019 general elections. No formidable opposition has been built yet as to pose a serious threat at the federal level. But of course some of the APC state governors and National Assembly members are bound to be defeated. Why? Politics is always local and it is at the local level that the opposition to APC leaders is the stiffest. I think many pro-APC voters would feel comfortable retaining Buhari as president while doing away with the governors and NASS they voted in 2015. This time around the "sak" jargon, on which many governors, senators and Reps were elected, will not apply. It is going to be everyone-for-themselves. You bet!

Staff help NOUN VC celebrate 62nd birthday

For the third time running, the Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu, today celebrated his birthday with staff of the institution. As it happened last year, today's event was a surprise one for him because he was not told about it beforehand.

The celebration took place inside the VC's conference room, with staff coming from the various faculties, departments and units.

They included most of the principal officers, many directors, heads of units and several middle level and junior staffers.

The Kano-born VC clocked 62 today.

As he stepped into the room, Stevie Wonder's 1980 hit song, "Happy Birthday", broke out from the sound system.

In an appreciation speech, he thanked everyone for their contribution to his unfolding success in administering the only single-mode Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institution in the country, saying he couldn't have done it all alone.

He particularly singled out several persons and narrated what they meant to him and to the university.

Prof. Adamu cut a cake to much cheering and claps, and the glasses clicked as a toast was offered by Prof. Samaila Mande, the Dean of Postgraduate Studies.

Prof. Adamu assumed office in 2016 for a five-year tenure.

Sam Nda-Isaiah @ 50: My Personal Odyssey With Chairman

This morning in Abuja, one of the most remarkable phenomena to happen in the history of the Nigerian media – Sam Nda-Isaiah – is going to celebrate his 50th birthday. A high-profile event is scheduled to take place at the International Conference Centre in Garki.

Much as I resisted commenting on the event in spite of prodding from a couple of friends, I found the urge to say this little bit on the person and personality of the Chairman of Leadership Group Limited irresistible. Reason: my impressions of the man are both exhilarating and painful, having known him at close range – probably more than many of those who consider themselves his closest associates – for all the eight years that LEADERSHIP newspaper has been in existence. I own the onerous record of being the longest serving editor of LEADERSHIP (which he insists we write in capital letters, no italics). I was editor of the paper as a weekly from 2004 to January 2006 just when it was going daily, and editor of the daily (except for a few months) from 2007 to 2010 when, on my own volition, I made him to appoint another editor and I was moved up as Editorial Director. Our paths first crossed in 2004, shortly after LEADERSHIP had come on stream as a weekly.

A friend of mine, Badamasi Burji, phoned me from Sokoto where he had gone to meet Governor Bafarawa and said he had met with Nda-Isaiah at the governor’s waiting room and that he had told him he was looking for an editor for LEADERSHIP. The first editor, Audee Giwa, had absconded after a bitter disagreement with the publisher. At that time, just about three issues of the paper had been published. Burji said he had recommended me to Nda-Isaiah and the latter was looking forward to our discussing the possibility of my taking up an offer of editor. I was lazing about in Kaduna at the time, trying to figure out what to do with my life, after an egregious encounter at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation, where I had worked as deputy to the director, Jacquiline W. Farris. I told Burji that I had since made up my mind not to work for anyone again. Burji insisted that I meet with Nda-Isaiah and hear his side; if I didn’t like it, I could back out.

Now, Sam Nda-Isaiah is a very persuasive person. He could make almost anyone work for him. Not surprisingly, he became my boss just a few days later after Burji and I had met with him at the LEADERSHIP offices in Abuja. In fact, the very day I met with him to discuss my terms of employment he did not allow me to leave the premises before I wrote the editorial comment for the following week’s edition of the paper. I had already started working! I also penned my bio data and dropped my photograph for an announcement of the big catch. Sam Nda-Isaiah (whose name is taboo at LEADERSHIP, but Chairman to all and sundry) does his things both in a big way and in a much organised manner; you could see that from the preparations for today’s event!

For the following seven years I would remain his staffer, nay editor of his pet daily, except in 2006 when I left to start a paper of our own with some friends. When our paper collapsed by the end of the year, Nda-Isaiah re-engaged me as the Chairman of the Editorial Board in early 2007. Within a month or two he reappointed me the editor of the daily.

Working with Nda-Isaiah is an experience that would last anyone a lifetime. You learn a lot. He is a tough instructor, the kind you find only in military formations. First, he throws you into a grinder of the high standard he always sets for anything. He makes it clear to you the goal he wants to achieve, and then pushes – nay, lashes – you towards it: tongue-lashing, mostly. But he would make it appear as if, beyond using his censorious tongue, he is about to hit out physically at you. Many who experience Chairman from afar would be deceived by his chummy disposition. Yes, outside of work, he is one of the nicest creatures on Planet Earth. He is good natured, witty, and even comical. His jokes can evoke bellyaching, rib-cracking laughter. And he exudes this trait very strongly in his column, The Last Word, which he has amazingly never failed to write, come rain come shine. Refer also to ‘Ghana Must Go,’ the back page cartoon whose dialogue he unfailingly produces.

Where work is concerned, however, the story is different. Nda-Isaiah always pushes the envelope to the extent that he makes some staffers feel worthless about themselves. This way, he is misunderstood by many who feel that they should be patted on the back, even if not rewarded, for their hard work instead of being ‘dressed down.’ But to those of us who understood him well, we knew that his obsession with excellence was behind his mercilessly keeping staffers’ noses to the grindstone. A friend of mine who went AWOL after a telephone exchange with Chairman over a one word misspelling in a 2,000-word piece way back in 2005 when we were producing LEADERSHIP as a weekly told me: “Ibrahim, I just had to leave in order to retain my sanity. This man who just began journalism last year tended to make me question my capacity as a journalist after I have put almost a decade into it.”

I know many staffers who left LEADERSHIP without resigning, some in order to get even with Chairman. Surprisingly, some – including my friend who vamoosed in 2005 – would return to the newspaper company and resume work, and resume their disagreement with the publisher. Chairman’s legendary temper is responsible for the reason his paper has the highest tally of editors among the established dailies. It made him to take wrong turns in such appointments on some occasions, which proved costly in terms of maintaining finesse and even image-wise. I think he has a low opinion for many who work for him. Not surprisingly, in his anniversary interview published in the Sunday Trust and in the column he wrote in LEADERSHIP on his milestone yesterday, I waited with bated breath to see where he would credit his staff, past and or present, with some of his accomplishments. Disappointingly, there was none. It was all like Napoleon or Churchill winning the war alone.

Many consider me as one of the greatest “survivors” of the LEADERSHIP mill. They ask: how did you do it? How did you cope with the man’s temperament? Yes, I was one of the few Chairman respected and clearly tried not to bark at. The secret, I think, was that I was able to meet the basic standard of excellence he set for his editors and combine that with a thick skin. I was also passionate about our newspaper being able to confront the competition in every way possible. I waded through his temper, ego and meddlesomeness in editorial matters by matching all those with my own passion for excellence. Of course, we had our big differences, but somehow we were able to condone each other at a level that we could work together as boss and hireling.

One good thing I learned from Chairman is that you can be censorious and remain detached from some of the base instincts that afflict the average Nigerian, i.e. tribal and religious sentiments. Forget about what anyone might have told you, the truth is that even if you accuse Chairman of so many other things, you cannot catch him being sectional in those base sentiments. He is one of the most detribalised Nigerians I’ve ever seen. Indeed, I daresay he cares very much about what afflicts the Muslim community. In LEADERSHIP he always wants to see good things about Muslims. His paper gives more space to Islam on Fridays than the more established Muslim-owned newspapers do. And any day the Islam pages were not published he would be the first person to take me up on it.

What pains him, therefore, is the vain attempt by some to associate him with religious or tribal sectionalism. I know people who tried to bring him down using those base sentiments, all to no avail. I wouldn’t say his morals for money are perfect; in fact, on this I know very little. But Chairman is a good Christian because, to the best knowledge of some of us that think we know him well, he is hardly involved in many of the un-Christian vices that others wallow in, including booze, women, gambling and lies.

One point that needs to be raised here, perhaps, is Nda-Isaiah’s sense of patriotism. He loves Nigeria to an extent that sometimes his vision is clouded by what some regard as his self-centredness. What you read in his columns encapsulates his innermost thinking. He is a dogged anti-corruption fighter, and he fights those that try to suffer Nigeria even if they feel that they ought to enjoy his protection. LEADERSHIP once did a front-page comment on the anti-Muslim killings in Plateau state, insisting that Governor Jonah Jang should be blamed for them. During a meeting of the Editorial Board, Chairman (who is not a member but pops in at the meeting occasionally) spurned some in the organisation who argued against writing the editorial because they saw themselves as Christian representatives first and Nigerians second. The editorial, written by a devoted Christian, was so trenchant on Jang’s divisive manipulations that the state government had to complain to the publisher. Instead of trying to extricate himself out of the mess, Chairman did a follow-up in his column and said worse things.

 I left LEADERSHIP last year when I thought that after serving as Editor, Divisional Director and Editorial Director, during which the weight of the Editorial Department fell on me, the job no longer held any new excitement for me. I had become like a director in a ministry of information. The handwriting on the wall also said my time there was up. Besides, a friend of mine had pestered me for years to come and let’s establish a weekly newspaper. Chairman indicated that he did not want me to leave, and appointed a committee headed by the Managing Director, Mr. Azubuike Ishiekwene, to dissuade me. When I was leaving, Chairman instructed that I should go with my official car and be paid a parting gift of one million naira, as well as given a letter of commendation for my contribution to the growth of the company. For that I was very grateful. Thus, I became the only editor of the daily that didn’t leave after a bitter disagreement with the big man.

The story of Sam Nda-Isaiah cannot be written in a small space like this. It should be a voluminous book. The story should be able to explore much more than I have done here. Even here, I skipped so many things. The short of it is that Chairman is a phenomenon in spite of his foibles. His ability to found a newspaper from scratch and build it into a success in a hostile environment such as Nigeria’s, which discourages the germination of anything close to LEADERSHIP, is wondrous. Today, LEADERSHIP is a force to reckon with in Nigeria. In fact, the feeling within and out of LEADERSHIP is that if Nda-Isaiah had concentrated on his newspaper business only, without veering into fields like buying a hotel in South Africa, establishing an expensive school in Abuja, co-owning an amusement park, book publishing, etc., as well as tolerating and adequately rewarding hardworking staff, LEADERSHIP would have become a bigger sensation. But then his restlessness, which defines his character, would not let him. He will always remain a Sam Nda-Isaiah. Trying to make him anything else would be futile. My prayer for him, therefore, is to witness another 50 years in good health, strength and happy increase. Whether you like him or not, he is very good news to our part of the globe.

 Published in Blueprint newspaper on May 1, 2012