Ahmadu Chanchangi [1936-2017]
The death on Wednesday last week, April 19, 2017 of Alhaji Ahmadu Chanchangi robbed Northern Nigeria and Nigeria as a whole of one of its most prominent businessmen and also one of its most generous philanthropists and community titans. Chanchangi, who was 81, had been in poor health for some time and his family members and associates were moving him from Kaduna to a hospital in Abuja when he died. They then returned to Kaduna. His funeral was attended by tens of thousands of people, most of whom bore testimony to his many decades of selfless service to community and humanity especially in the place where he lived, Kaduna’s sprawling Tudun Wada area.
Alhaji Ahmadu Chanchangi hailed from Chanchangi village in present day Taraba State but he moved to Kaduna in the early 1970s, where he soon became one of the top moguls of land transport in Nigeria. From the 1970s until the 1990s Chanchangi owned perhaps 1,000 trucks and trailers which were ubiquitously marked “A.A. Chanchangi.” His trailers hauled goods mostly from the Lagos ports to the hinterland and were a prominent sight in every major trailer park across the country. His sprawling business employed thousands of drivers, mechanics, clerks, labourers and other officials. One feature of Ahmadu Chanchangi was that he was slow to modernise his management system. Even when the business grew from a few trucks to a thousand, he insisted on relating with his drivers directly and personally and he sometimes joked that a place “lacks organisation like Chanchangi’s garage.”
In the mid-1990s, Chanchangi largely pulled out of road transport and started Chanchangi Airlines based in Kaduna. The airline flourished for a time and was Kaduna’s main air link with the outside, but it began to decline in the last decade. In addition to business, Chanchangi was also Kaduna’s most prominent philanthropist, a benefactor of many mosques and Islamiyya schools, a generous donor to poverty alleviation schemes, founder of the famous Sheikh Abubakar Gummi College and a major contributor to community schemes such as neighbourhood security, cemetery repair and payment of medical bills for the sick. He personally sponsored hundreds if not thousands of students to further their education at all levels and he was a conspicuous presence at social occasions, funerals, condolences and disaster scenes.
Despite his immense wealth, Chanchangi made his home in Tudun Wada, Kaduna and he never moved out to the GRA to live among fellow rich folks. His doors were open to the poor and the needy twenty four hours a day and even though he did not involve himself in politics, his house was always a beehive of activity as hundreds of people went in and out on a daily basis seeking his assistance and his wise counsel.
Among those who paid tribute to him was President Muhammadu Buhari, who described Chanchangi as a notable entrepreneur who devoted his wealth to the advancement of the welfare of others instead of pursuing conspicuous consumption in a society overwhelmed by poverty. Buhari also praised Chanchangi for his “selfless commitment to humanitarian causes, demonstrated in his offering succour to those in need, sponsoring community enlightenment programmes and uplifting of people’s spiritual well-being.”
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar wrote, “Hard saying farewell to Ahmadu Chanchangi, a Nigerian aviation pioneer. He will be long remembered. May Allah grant him a peaceful repose.” Senate President Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara and Kaduna State Governor Nasiru el-Rufa’i all paid glowing tributes to Ahmadu Chanchangi. They harped on his philanthropy, his selfless service to God and community and his tireless promotion of peace, education, religion and inter-communal harmony. Alhaji Ahmadu Chanchangi is survived by two wives and 33 children. With his departure, Kaduna, the North and Nigeria have all lost a great father of peace, philanthropy and entrepreneurship. May his great soul rest in peace.