Balarabe Maikaba: The passage of a munificent Professor By Gambo S. Nababa
Since the sudden announcement of Professor Balarabe Maikaba’s death, the expression of grief that is coming from his family, community members, colleagues, and his students is that the man who was always willing to assist others has returned to his creator. He passed away on Sunday, 26th April 2020.
Apart from being munificent, late Maikaba was a trustworthy, hardworking and dogged fighter. And although he was easy-going, he never liked flogging a dead horse; he didn’t accept garbage and detested laxity.
The 42-year history of the existence of Mass Communication Department, Bayero University, Kano (BUK), would be incomplete without stating the role Maikaba played in uplifting the department to its present status.
He was admitted into the department in 1988 and graduated in September 1991. Being the best graduating student that year, he was eventually employed as Graduate Assistant (GA) and rose through the ranks to become a professor in October 2018. No pain, no gain was what Prof. Maikaba’s life exemplified at the department and, by extension, in the university.
He was a level coordinator at different times, departmental examination officer, sub-dean, chaired a number of technical and professional committees and he was head of the department between 2010 and 2016, a period when sixteen (16) PhD candidates were able to graduate from the department.
He was also the brain behind moving the department from Faculty of Arts to Faculty of Social Sciences where it rightly belongs, and the department was upgraded to a Faculty during his headship. In terms of a relationship with his colleagues, late Maikaba was always ready to honour any invitation for ceremonies no matter the distance or remoteness of an area.
Late Prof. Maikaba mastered the operations of the university system very well, and he used that knowledge to assist both staff and students in getting opportunities or pilot them away from trouble.
A number of tributes have been written on the life and times of the late erudite professor, and many of the writers, if not all, have stated how Maikaba assisted them in one way or the other. In sum, his generosity went beyond assisting those he knew or were close to him. As long as Maikaba believed one was responsible, he would assist in any way possible.
My teacher and a senior colleague at the department told me a story about Prof. Maikaba’s encounter with a co-traveller on a flight.
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The man was bothered because he believed it would not be a piece of cake for him to get a passport at Gwagwalada Passport Office in Abuja on that very day they were travelling. Having realized that the man sitting next to him really needed to be assisted, Prof. Maikaba calmly brought out his complimentary card and wrote a note at the back, handed it over to the man and asked him to take the card to the person in charge at the passport office.
The man reluctantly collected the card, and on getting to the passport office he did as he was requested. The card receiver assembled all necessary staff and within a very short time, a new passport was ready for the man. The person in charge of the office then was Mustapha Maikaba, an elder brother to Prof. Maikaba. Mustapha who retired as a Comptroller of Immigration died on 21st March 2020 and 36 days after his younger brother, Prof. Maikaba, followed him.
For people living around Kuntau area in Kano metropolis, late Prof. Maikaba was a community leader, a person with the capacity to mobilize and, above all, a responsible neighbour. Before he settled in the area, electricity supply to the neighbourhood was always low voltage, but Maikaba mobilized and approached officials at both state government and the electricity supply company.
The intervention led to an electricity project which has so far addressed power supply challenges the community experienced. Satisfied with his commitment towards the development of the area, the community named a street after him while he was still alive.
My relationship with Prof. Maikaba lasted for nearly two decades. Towards the end of 2003, I was assigned to the then Malam Maikaba as project supervisor; we started working well and ended as friends.
After our graduation, Maikaba said four (4) of us (who he supervised and graduated with Second Class Upper Honours degree) made him proud among his colleagues, as the number was one-third of those who graduated with an upper degree that year in the department. Thereafter, my relationship with Maikaba became cordial and he provided me with all necessary assistance to ensure that I succeeded in academia.
Born in July 1966 at Fagge Quarters, Fagge Local Government Area, Kano State, Prof. Maikaba attended Fagge Special Primary School and Government Secondary School Gwammaja II from 1972-1984. He was Secretary-General, Fagge Sodangi – a cultural and community association – for a very long time.
Prof. Maikaba is survived by four wives, 16 children and a grandchild. He always preferred the best in everything he associated with. May Almighty Allah forgive him, overlook his shortcomings and give him the best of His Jannah. Ameen!
Gambo S. Nababa is with Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano
