Mustapha’s passing silences erudite voice on Nigeria
Abdul Raufu Mustapha, who died in Britain in August at the age of 63, taught African politics at Oxford University for two decades, having previously studied and taught at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria.
Mustapha was from Ilorin, the geographical, cultural and political crossroads of Nigeria. He sought in his scholarship and activist politics to serve as a bridge between the north and south of the country, debunking stereotypes about each region. He embodied Nigeria’s complexity: having been born in the eastern city of Aba, he spoke the country’s three main languages fluently.
Mustapha was the ultimate “detribalised” and polyglot Nigerian. He was also atypical of the stereotypical brash, boastful and loud Nigerian: he was quietly outspoken, humble and warm-hearted.
I only once saw Mustapha angry — when he spoke about the petty politics of his almost lily-white Oxford Africanist colleagues. He, however, enjoyed a close friendship with his South African mentor, Gavin Williams, who had taught him at Oxford where he obtained his doctorate.
Mustapha was an organic intellectual who sought to communicate the ideas of the marginalised masses to a wide audience. He was always on the side of the talakawa: the poor and marginalised commoners, with whom he directly and empathetically interacted in his research on rural development.
Mustapha was a first-rate scholar who wrote and spoke lucidly and thought profoundly. He was active in the Nigerian struggles of students, trade unionists and academic unions, particularly during the dog days of Gen Sani Abacha’s tyranny. He wrote with anguished passion about Nigeria, consistently highlighting its potential while castigating its profligate political class.
In an article in the Mail & Guardian on Boko Haram in April 2012, he offered a sophisticated understanding of the militant Salafist group, which has killed an estimated 20,000 people and displaced 2-million in north-eastern Nigeria. Mustapha warned that Boko Haram’s “gnawing at the religious, ethnic and regional faultlines of Nigerian society” threatened the nation state.
He saw Boko Haram as an outgrowth of Nigeria’s huge north-south divide, in which the north lags in key social indicators, with poverty rates 15 times higher than the south.
I co-edited the 2008 Gulliver’s Troubles: Nigeria’s Foreign Policy after the Cold War, with Mustapha. In his rich chapter in the book, Mustapha demonstrated his intellectual versatility in seamlessly linking the country’s domestic and foreign policies. He identified three “faces” of Nigeria’s foreign policy: the formal world of diplomats, national institutions and formal negotiations; the way Nigeria’s fractured nationhood constrains its foreign policy goals; and the effect of Nigeria’s “identity” — its global reputation for corruption and fraud, though he argued that this was often unnuanced and unfair — on its foreign policy.
Mustapha noted that, since the last two “faces” imposed unnecessary costs on the pursuit of Nigeria’s foreign policy, they needed to be prioritised in the formal foreign policy process.
Mustapha’s publications included co-edited volumes: the 2010 Turning Points in African Democracy; and the 2013 Conflicts and Security in West Africa. He conducted innovative research on the effect of white Zimbabwean farmers in Nigeria.
Sadly, Mustapha’s passing meant that the magnum opus he was crafting on Nigeria’s politics was abandoned, as he selflessly devoted his energies to collaborative projects on the country’s religious and ethnic conflicts with younger Nigerian scholars. This was heroic, but also a huge loss to the world of scholarship.
Mustapha is survived by his devoted Canadian wife, Kate Meagher, who teaches at the London School of Economics; and their two children, Asma’u and Seyi.
The world of scholarship bids farewell to a gentle soul, a national bridge-builder and an organic intellectual.
HE WAS ALWAYS ON THE SIDE OF THE TALAKAWA: THE POOR AND MARGINALISED COMMONERS, WITH WHOM HE DIRECTLY INTERACTED MUSTAPHA WARNED THAT BOKO HARAM’S ‘GNAWING AT THE … FAULTLINES OF NIGERIAN SOCIETY’ THREATENED THE NATION STATE