Obasanjo, Jega, others condole with late Maitama Sule’s family
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was among the many personalities that visited Kano State to condole with the family of the late elder statesman Yusuf Maitama Sule, Danmasanin Kano, who died Monday morning in Egypt at the age of 88.
This is just as the state Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje temporarily relocated to the late diplomat’s residence at Dawaki Road in Nassarawa GRA to receive dignitaries who keep trooping from within and outside Nigeria.
President Obasanjo said the late Danmasani was an erudite elder statesman whose contribution to the development of the nation cannot be quantified since Nigeria got out of the repressive colonial bondage.”
The former president said it was as a result of the immense sacrifice rendered by the late Danmasani that kept Nigeria solidly unified.
Also among the dignitaries that arrived late Maitama’s residence yesterday were governors Muhammad Jibrilla (Adamawa), Abubakar Sani Bello (Niger), Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo (Gombe) and former governors Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Dalhatu Bafarawa (Sokoto), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) and Mukhtar Ramalan Yero (Kaduna).
Former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Attahiru Jega, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Aminu Wali, Alhaji Bello Maitama, were equally at the residence to condole with the family.
FEC in one-minute silence
Meanwhile, the Federal Executive Council (FEC), led by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, observed a one-minute silence in honour of Maitama Sule.
Osinbajo said the former Nigeria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations would be "sadly missed by all of us who regarded him as a mentor and as a father of the nation and one of the great contributors to the growth and stability of the nation."
Immortalize Maitama Sule Senate
The Senate urged the Federal Government to immortalize the late Yusuf Maitama Sule by naming a national monument after him.
The call followed a motion by Senator Rabiu Musa kwankwaso (APC, Kano Central) on the demise of the late elder statesman during yesterday's plenary. Kwankwaso said the deceased was a bridge builder ,and promoter of national unity.
Senators, who spoke, paid glowing tribute to the late elder statesman.
Borno elders mourn Dan Masanin Kano
The Borno Elders Forum (BEF) condoled with the government and people of Kano State and Nigeria at large over the death of Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule.
A statement by the Chairman of the forum, Ambassador Gaji Galtimari, said “The demise of this great patriot should remind us of the eminent extinction of our reservoir of knowledge and wisdom. With his death, only few of our founding fathers are left to guide us, call us to order and imbibe in our younger generations the spirit of patriotism and nationhood.”
Wamakko extols virtues of late Maitama Sule
Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko extolled the contributions of late Danmasanin Kano, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule to national development and cohesion.
In a condolence message signed by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Bashir Rabe Mani, the Senator said: “The late Danmasanin Kano was a foremost elder statesman, front line nationalist, astute educationalist, outstanding Diplomat and an upright politician."
Maitama was committed to unity of Nigeria- Oshiomhole
Former governor of Edo State Adams Oshiomhole described Maitama Sule as a detribalised Nigerian who was committed to the unity of Nigeria.
In a statement signed by his media aide, Victor Oshioke and made available to journalists in Benin yesterday, Comrade Oshiomhole, described his death as a colossal loss to Kano State and the nation at large.
He said “there is no doubt in my mind that his name has been written in gold and engraved in the historical epitaph of Nigeria as one indivisible nation.”
“I pray that God should reward him with paradise,” he said.
‘Maitama’s diplomatic efforts saved Obasanjo, others’
The former Minister of Communications, retired Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju, has condoled with the family of Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, saying that diplomatic efforts led by late elder statesman, himself and former National Security Adviser (NSA), Ismaila Gwarzo, prompted former Head of State, Gen. Sanni Abacha to commute the death sentence on Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to 25 years imprisonment.
Obasanjo and others have been implicated in an alleged coup plot against Abacha in 1995 and had subsequently been sentenced to death by a military tribunal.
However, in a statement yesterday, in Lagos, Olanrewaju said Maitama Sule had, at Obasanjo’s trying moment, led a delegation to Switzerland to meet with American delegation comprising Ambassador McHenry, then Assistant Secretary of State on Security Susan Rice and Assistant Secretary of State on Africa George Moose sent by then United States’ President Bill Clinton.
Gen. Olanrewaju recalled that the American government had at the time called for the release of political detainees, comprising: Obasanjo, General Shehu Yar’Adua and the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 election, Chief MKO Abiola.
“At the end of our meeting with the American team, Nigeria never lost but gained. Based on our discussion with them at that meeting, the Federal Government at that time swung into action by commuting the death sentence particularly on General Obasanjo to 25 years imprisonment and was considering that of Yar’Adua and Abiola but I cannot tell all the stories here. What is important is, we commuted Obasanjo’s death sentence to 25 years imprisonment and he was on that when I had crisis and didn’t know what happened thereafter.
“And being a seasoned diplomat, Ambassador Maitama Sule used his maturity, age, experience and leadership in getting America to listen and was therefore able to present Nigerian position clearly, unambiguously on our national interest and the rest of that.
“In all, I would say that the death of Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Sule is a rude shock to me because he was active till the point he died. He will be missed by Nigeria as a whole,” Gen. Olanrewaju stated in the statement.
Unionists, activists mourn
Trade unionists and activists also joined in paying glowing tributes to the late Danmasanin Kano, just as they mourned the death of Prof Abubakar Momoh.
This was the outcome of a one-day colloquium in honour of Prof. Abubakar Momoh, acclaimed professor of Political Theory and former pioneer Director General of the Electoral Institute of INEC, in Lagos.
A National Executive Committee (NEC) member of NLC and one of the guest speakers at the occasion Comrade Issa Aremu hailed the late elder-statesman, and acclaimed orator diplomat, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule (the Dan Masanin of Kano), and the late Abubakar Mommoh as "patriots" who he said "stood to the end for a united and developed Federal Republic of Nigeria".
Aremu, who is also the General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGWN) said no gathering of progressive and democratic forces in Nigeria and Africa and indeed in the world would fail to acknowledge Alhaji Maitaima and Momoh as great Nigerians.