Prof. A. A. Zuru - Sanity, Morality And Servitude Misconstrued

SANITY, MORALITY AND SERVITUDE MISCONSTRUED

Mubarak Maibasira
17/04/23

I could recall when I once called Prof. A. A. Zuru around 10:30 pm some five years ago on my plan to lead a protest that same night because we couldn't resolve with the matron of one of the female student hostels who locked their hostel threatening to punish the students to pass the night outside and went away with the keys. As the Students’ Union President of Usmanu Danfodiyo University at that time, to lead a protest at that hour would've been tragic as I know Prof. A. A. Zuru smelt the tone in my voice to be that of a frustrated boy not knowing how to convince the world on the value of “sanity”. He was ready to stop it and bring back all sanity in less than an hour. Professor Abdullahi Abdu Zuru as the Vice Chancellor at that time not only rushed to the hostel but called all other principal officers of the University, ordered the breaking of the hostel doors by the Chief Security Officer, and went around the hostel squatting corners together with his team to witness how devastating staying in those places could be to an extent a ‘sane’ person can still lock it for vulnerable ladies in the name of punishment.

PRINCIPLES

Prof. A. A. Zuru was a clear definition of a father, mentor, and guardian. He revalidated, again and again, our loyalty to him on different occasions not just the one described above. Many times he shifted the date for the closure of registrations for the many vulnerable students that were still finding it difficult to pay their school fees. He would go ahead and call me on some of those students that can't have access to him but would come to me shedding tears on how tough it was to eat not even paying school fees and would make me get them to waive their registration for that session. He once personally conveyed a sick student to the University clinic and all this without compromising the calendar of the University or being weak in terms of character and discipline. Prof. A. A. Zuru is a man of impeccable character and principles.

The Nigeria I grew up in made the likes of Prof. A. A. Zuru the subject of appreciation and role models looking at the hurdles he overcome which gives a clear affirmation that ‘hard work pays’. But the gruesome attack and humiliation suffered by Prof yesterday give me nightmares about Nigeria we are living in.

ANGER

At the heart of a northern Muslim state, in this sacred month within highly sacred days, with the level of impeccable service and development to this country brought by Prof. A. A. Zuru, what type of country humiliates such a personality and prays for prosperity? We know we are angry about our leadership but we are failing as a people to mobilise enough anger in the right way. Even if Prof. A. A. Zuru or any of his look-alikes has done something to the touts, at least we may not be saneful politically but we are people of ‘morality’, we should've used the right ways of channeling our anger and allow the laws to humiliate whoever betrays this country.

CONFESSION

I remembered once telling Prof. A. A. Zuru that after the Students’ Union, I am done with politics, as an elder he smiled and said you'll be drafted back. I can still recall every detail of that conversation with the colour of the clothes he was wearing and the setting of his office. With horrible situations like yesterday, I am moved to once again align myself with the few saneful politicians I know to please sanitise our politics and remove the thuggery out of it. An ideal politics does not operate with thuggery and humiliation of the upper echelon considered to be the elders of a country. I only have the opportunity to plead with anyone out there as a hopeful of joining politics or who is in the middle of political correctness to please consider a moral and sane pattern of sanitizing Nigerian politics. 

Please we need your candidate to win but not at the expense of our safety and security. We need your candidate to win but not at the expense of an insane and immoral society. We want your candidate to win but not with the humiliation of achievers, role models, and fathers who have given their all for you, your children, and your grandchildren.