Reminiscences With Professor Adamu Baikie
So there was no question of being bitter with ourselves because of our faiths. There is nothing like that in this family. Every Sallah, the Emir of Zazzau sends me something, and of course, every Christmas or fasting period I send him something. What we need is respect for one another. When that happens we would overcome these challenges. We need to have open minds as we had before. One of the senior members of Sardauna’s cabinet, I think Mr. Olajide, was from Ilorin. It was after he left that Abubakar Imam took over. This is what we need now.
What is your relationship with the Kano royal family since your father was a staff member of the palace?
Our relationship is still intact. When my daughter was getting married, the emir sent Hakimin Kura, who took pictures with the bride. You can see the strength of the relationship.
During my stay in America, I always wrote the emir. In 2007, the late Emir Ado Bayero asked me to come to the palace with my family. We had a nice time, including taking pictures with my entire family.
In those days, some of the royal family members visited my father in Sabon Gari.
Your academic background shows that you have been a teacher all your life; how would you describe the teaching profession then and now?
There is a difference between working as a government teacher and a missionary teacher. The missionary teacher earns next to nothing. When I was in Gusau as a missionary teacher, I was earning only about 3pounds every month. This money was not enough to take care of my rent because I spent part of it in buying food, water and other essentials. But throughout my working career I was determined to enjoy what I was doing. One has to enjoy his work and put his mind on it. Of course, in the process of doing so, you will make a lot of sacrifice. Another important thing is building a good relationship with people around you. If one establishes that relationship, the difficulties in one’s work would be minimised. Even if you are the boss, you are expected to have a cordial relationship with your colleagues.
There are also personal sacrifices one has to make to succeed. This is what I have been doing all along. Although I paid the price of doing so in some cases because there was no material reward, I have no regret at all. This is because I now have peace of mind and I am enjoying my old age. I may not have anything materially, but nobody is going after me. That is the peace of mind I am talking about. These are the attitudes the present crop of civil servants and leaders should imbibe.
When I was in Gusau, there was no water, so I had to go to the stream myself to wash my cloths despite being a teacher. I could ask my students to wash the cloths for me, but that was not our training. It was the same thing when I was in Samaru, Zaria here in the 1950s. Despite all these, I enjoyed my job and I was always happy to go to school. My students and their parents always looked forward to seeing me.
Another very good thing then was that with your little earnings you could have plenty of food Why is it so now when it was not like this before? It means there is pollution somewhere along the line that entered into the minds of young people. Everybody wants to be a religious leader, whether he is a good Muslim/Christian or not. These people preach hard lines, and these things are getting out of control to eat with your family and even members of the extended family staying with you. Again, during our days, people lived according to their means. It was really a nice experience.
You did not apply for the job, but you were appointed a vice chancellor on three different occasions. Nowadays people jostle for appointments; what do you think is wrong?
Well, I don’t know their reasons. Maybe they have seen the lifestyle of some vice chancellors and they were encouraged. Some see it as an avenue to make money and build houses because the society has become decadent. Maybe they have the spirit of service and they want to show it. So you can speculate on why some people struggle for appointments these days.
However, what disturbs me is that in most cases, some of these people are not competent to go that far. They don’t have the commitment and sacrifice for the jobs being offered. Some are very sure they would make it because the people behind the appointments are their friends or relatives. So there are many reasons why people go for jobs these days.
During our days, one was even scared of being considered for vice chancellorship. This is because if you looked at those who were there before you, they were highly competent. One would begin to wonder whether he could measure up to expectation. When you talk of people like Biobaku, Oluwasanmi, Koduliye, Audu, etc, you would marvel. When you talk of an expatriate vice chancellors like Alexander in ABU, you wouldn’t want to step into those shoes because they were big.
When you were appointed to replace those people, you must work very hard to prove yourself. In my case, my first test was to go to Benin, a place I had never been to. In all the places I served as vice chancellor I put three things into my head, namely, God, the North and my family. These were my guiding principles. I worked to make sure I did not disappoint the people who sent me there and the people I represented. How would I face my people, particularly my family, if they heard that I stole money somewhere? So, I went all out to give my best. In all these places I ran an open system; everybody was the same. I had no kitchen cabinet. I appointed people and mixed them up. However, I was conscious of their politics and avoided them. In Benin, for example, I associated with my northern people there. I was a good friend of the Sarkin Hausawa there; we visited each other. So I had that backup. They prayed for me regularly. But in all these, we made a lot of sacrifices.
There were times they would tell us not to eat or drink this or that, but I would go ahead to eat or drink that particular thing and nothing would happen. With all humility, we have strong faith in God. In Lesotho and Nasarawa, I applied the same principles.
Who has been keeping you company since your wife passed on?
Well, God blessed us with five children - three boys and two girls. They are all working. At the last count, I had 12 grandchildren. One of them is a graduate while two will graduate this year. None of my grandchildren is married yet, so I don’t have great grandchildren. These family members are my joy in the absence of my wife.
One of my children is a retired military officer. He retired as a major. The other boy is in the civil service and the third boy is an architect in South Africa. The fourth child is a civil servant in Jos, Plateau State, and the last child was a banker.
Generally, in retirement I try to make myself available to community service. I serve in educational and religious committees. I engage in religious committees because I want to make a difference in the thinking of Christians, especially those who have a second thought about their relationship with others. I have served in different capacities in that area.
The second passion I have is writing. I am now writing a small book on Sabon Gari, Kano. I call it The Melting Point of Kano. The book is about how the area was created, the people living there, education in the area and even the area’s relationship with the palace. I am making interesting discoveries. I am recording this for posterity because I grew up there. I want to leave behind some historical accounts of the experiences I have gone through. I am getting a bit tired now, but we are moving on, nevertheless.