PROFESSOR ABDULLAHI MAHADI: A LIVING LEGEND
By Usman Isah Ya’u
On the 16th of December, 2022, Professor Abdullahi Mahadi (popularly and simply known as Prof. Mahadi) departed this world after 77 years of celebrated life of service to Allah and humanity. Born and brought up in Gwoza, Borno State, Prof. Mahadi travelled widely and lived in different places, but perhaps his most productive years were spent in Zaria and Gombe, where conducive atmosphere for intellectual enterprise and academic leadership was provided for him to give his best for humanity. Serving humanity is another name of Prof. Mahadi, and by general assessments, he had served humanity with passion, being mindful of the wise saying that service to humanity is service to the Almighty Allah, Who chooses a few and bestowed them with the much needed resources, wisdom and stamina to change society for good.
Prof. Mahadi was in the category of the few resourceful men chosen by Allah to bring the much needed change in the society, and he was, by all standards, one of Nigeria’s brightest intellectuals and finest university administrators of all times. His achievements in academic and institutional leadership are palpable and everlasting because he had trained hands, moulded minds and transformed the environment and thus added value to the lives humans and animals in varying ways. The numerous students and subordinates he trained and changed their worldview would eventually become big men and women, academics, administrators, entrepreneurs and the rest in different places where they are expected to continue with his good work in their little but different ways long after he departed this world. That is why I described him as a Living Legend. Yes, Prof. Mahadi has gone, but his legacies are numerous and indelible. So literally it is as good as he lives on. For this short tribute I will only mention or highlight his legacies in leadership and service to humanity, with reference to his colorful years of service in Gombe, where we worked closely together.
From Teacher’s College, Mubi to Federal College of Education, Zaria, Prof. Mahadi enrolled for further education and later joined the services of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, where he started his academic career as a university lecturer. He had over the years built a reputation for academic excellence for which he was at different times a staff union (ASUU) leader, Head of History Department, Sub-Dean, Dean of Faculty of Arts, Director Arewa House Centre of Historical Documentation and Research, Kaduna (affiliated to ABU), Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration and eventually became the Vice-Chancellor of that prestigious University. Testimonies from teaching, non-teaching staff, students and the communities within which ABU is located, indicate that Prof. Mahadi was Vice-Chancellor of ABU with a difference. He was all over the place. His leadership transformed ABU, giving the institution a new facelift, thereby making it continue to wax stronger to this day.
Prof. Mahadi’s outstanding performance at ABU attracted the attention of many stakeholders in the education sector. When the Gombe State Government decided to establish a university, the then Governor Alhaji Muhammadu Danjuma Goje found a good hand in Prof. Mahadi. He was made the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of Gombe State University (GSU) and, by choice became one of the teaching staffs in the Department of History, GSU. He was highly committed to his teaching and administrative duties.
Prof. Mahadi provided excellent academic leadership, and was deeply involved in teaching, research and community service, the three components that make a good university. As a result of his all-week round commitment in teaching and institutional leadership he suffered from accumulated stress and fatigue at an advanced age when he was supposed to be resting. Vice-Chancellors and most heads of institutions of higher learning rarely teach students in the same institution they head. They mostly provide leadership (enjoying, if I should say the comfort of their air- conditioned offices). Prof. Mahadi was different. He was involved in teaching all the years he served as Vice-Chancellor in GSU and later Gombe State University of Science and Technology, Kumo. And he was always the first to come to work, supervising his subordinates, moving from one end of the University wall to another, mostly on foot. This seriously affected his health since he was not growing younger but was advancing in age. Though the heart was strong, the body was not as his strength was depreciating. He needed to rest but continued to work for several hours a day, all work-round, even against medical advice. This, I feel, was one of problems behind his terminal illness.
However, if not for his workaholic spirit and dexterity GSU (ABU before it) would not have become shining example as model institution of higher learning in this corner of the world. Hard work pays, as he often told his subordinates and colleagues. He believed in team work and was a great team leader in all the institutions he headed. Having laid a solid foundation in GSU after a ten-year tenure as Vice-Chancellor, the then Governor of Gombe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, saddled him with yet another responsibility of starting from the scratch Gombe State University of Science and Technology, Kumo. Prof. Mahadi started the University project with high spirit and enthusiasm, but politics stunted its growth. It became a Lincoln University College based on a partnership arrangement Gombe State Government sealed with Lincoln University Malaysia. Prof. Mahadi was its ceremonial head till the time he passed away. He was full of hope that the University project will be a success story, in the foreseeable future. He did not live long to see his dream become a reality. I am optimistic he will be vindicated. Only time will tell.
Prof. Mahadi, as we all know was a historian by training and indeed a one time President of the Historical Society of Nigeria (HSN), but he was by choice also an environmentalist. His environmental transformation of ABU was replicated in GSU, making them model Universities in many respects. His greening and beautification of the campuses of these Universities was revealing and impactful on even nearby communities. Through the Mahadi Foundation he promoted town-and-gown relations that significantly changed the environment of Gombe State and elsewhere (I am fully aware that he donated thousands of seedlings and flowers to several schools, towns, communities, and private individuals from Sokoto to Yobe, Kaduna to Jigawa, Abuja to Taraba).
Perhaps Gombe is the greatest beneficiary of his tree planting programme: public and private schools, township streets and major highways, communities and praying centres have trees (sherterbelts), gardens, parks, or lawns planted and nurtured to maturity for the benefit of humans and animals. Besides this ecological investment, he also invested in social services, having provided wells, public conveniences, computers, books, relief materials, education support funds, institutes, among others to the deserving persons and communities in Gombe and elsewhere in Nigeria. For his passion for education and educational advancement of others, he directly taught and sponsored the education of numerous persons he had no blood, ethnic and religious bond with beyond being humans and Nigerian citizens. Less privileged groups, persons with physical disabilities, girl-child and women education was given serious attention. He promoted teaching and research and continued, until he became terminally ill and unconscious, to write and present papers on historical and contemporary issues that affect humanity. For his intellectual output academics, researchers, students and other people have continued to quote and cite his scholarly works.
Prof. Mahadi was fatherly, friendly, humble and amiable, who left a good impression on his students, friends, associations, colleagues and neighbours. He gave employment opportunities to people based on merit and special needs regardless of your ethnic, religious and regional identities. He was in all senses a detribalized person with a cosmopolitan mindset; very jovial and assertive. By his principles, he rewarded hardworking people generously and punished offenders severely. He believed in doing things the way it should be, not the Nigerian way, for which he stepped on the toes of different people, who used the opportunity to give him bad name. In his drive towards achieving academic and administrative goals he could go extra-mile to get the desired result. Being human sometimes he erred in the course of doing things, but on realising his mistake, he had the amazing humility and courage to apologize. This I know very well. He was a man of conviction and substance with sterling attributes of a complete gentleman. This explains why he was popular with people from different backgrounds, the rich and powerful, the royalty and nobility, the proletariat and commoners. He had touched positively the lives of many, but was also keenly concerned about his spiritual wellbeing. He was a practicing Muslim and invested so much to improve the wellbeing of Muslims and promote Islam in different ways. He also assisted people of other faiths. Hence he had positive impact on the lives of diverse people across the religious divide. His legacies will impact generations to come and stand the test of time.
Prof. Mahadi’s achievements or rather his life of fulfillment and accomplishment has been celebrated. This had been demonstrated immediately his death was announced; several people from different parts of the world commented positively on his persona, on different social media platforms and on print, audio and virtual media channels. I have not seen in many years people making enchanting remarks on a deceased they so much admire, respect and love for adding value to the lives of Nigerians of all colours and backgrounds like that. This is a testimony to the fact that Prof. Mahadi was (and still is) a Living Legend. He had a very good ending, one that many would wish to have when their times come. We mourn his death not because he did little in this world, but because he is no more in our midst and we are therefore seriously missing him. He has gone forever until we meet in the Hereafter.
For the wonderful life Prof. Mahadi lived eulogies have been passed and tributes have been paid by different persons in Nigeria and abroad about his fulfilled and accomplished life. It is proper that the institutions he served with high sense of patriotism and selflessness should immortalise his memory by naming iconic buildings after him.
The call for tributes book project in his honour initiated by GSU inviting his formers friends, associates, colleagues, students, mentees, admirers, relatives, and family members to submit tributes is a good step in the right direction as it provides the diverse men and women with the opportunity to share their good memories of what they remember him for and what he had done in the course of his life journey in this world. We ought to celebrate his life of service to Allah and humanity.
May the Almighty Allah accept the good deeds of our father, mentor and teacher, Prof. Abdullahi Mahadi, forgive his shortcomings and grant him Jannatul Firdaus, amen!
Usman Isah Ya’u, Department of History
Gombe State University, Gombe.
Professor Mahadi is unarguably a ‘Living Legend’. I can’t forget my personal experience with him while l was an undergraduate student back in Gombe State University. He’ll practically refuse anyone offering to help him carry his big books while he alights from his old faded Peugeot 406 Prestige Car. I couldn’t stop to wonder why a man with such position of authority & caliber would be so humble to a point people who aren’t familiar with him within the Campus Community mistaken him for a Gardener. So much l can pen down about the life & mind blowing legacies of Renowned Professor Mahadi of blessed memory but we’re comforted with the fact that we are privileged to have been beneficiaries of his extraordinary leadership/mentorship.
His exemplary life & impact will never be forgotten by History.