A Tribute To My Late Grandfather; Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed Karim (1942 – 2007) -By Atiku M. Jafar

Today, we remember our late grandfather, a man who lived a remarkable life leaving lasting marks on the sands of time. It is difficult to recount his place in our hearts and his profound impacts on his community and the nation, but summing up the life and times of the Late Tafidan Muri narrows the fact that hardly will you find a man who lived his values far more faithfully.

Born on 1/4/1942, gradpa passed away on 9/4/2007 after a life of devotion to the almighty Allah, service to country and community. An illustrious man of strong will and spirit, he valued education above all else and was a teacher almost all his life. He was a teacher of all things and to all people. From his education to his career, from his active days to retirement, at home, far away or abroad, Baba or Iya as he was fondly called, lived and engaged the world with the disposition of a humble and yet principled teacher.

He attended the Karim Lamido Elementary School (1949), Yola Middle School (1953), Bauchi Teachers’ Training College (1956), Bauchi Higher Teachers’ College (1961), Bauchi Rural Education College (1965), Kaduna Polytechnic (1973), University of Ile Ife (1977), Ahmadu Bello University (1980), Immigration Training School Kano (1988) and finally the Military Based Orientation Course for Senior Officers in Custom, Immigration and Prisons at the Nigerian Army School of Infantry, Jaji, Kaduna (1988).

These extraordinarily rich academic credentials acquired through 39 lofty years of formal academic pursuit explain why he devoted his life to expanding horizons and bequeathing education to his descendants and community as a foundation for sustainable development. His love for education transcended ethnic and religious boundaries as their homes at the time were open to guardianship for many non-Muslim, non-Fulani children with whom our parents grew up and studied as a family.

In deploying his knowledge and skills he paid his dues as a classroom teacher, educational administrator civil servant and later as a public servant and a statesman. He was a Teacher at the Muri Native Authority School Jen (1959), Head Master Karim Primary School (1964), Head Master Muri Native Authority Primary School Monkin (1968), Muri Native Authority Councilor for Administration (1970), Administrative Secretary, Karim Lamido Local Government (1976), Principal Administrative Secretary, Mubi Local Government (1979), Under Secretary, Yola Municipal Local Government (1987) before he moved to another passionate calling.

As service would call, our late grandfather would find himself in the Ministry of Internal Affairs as Assistant Comptroller of Immigration in 1987, the Passport Headquarters Abuja in 1988; then Investigations & Alliance Control Division of the Headquarters in 1989; roles he would so passionately discharge that it would propel him to the rank of Comptroller of Immigration Services in 1991.

As he was not a man to handle responsibilities with indolence, he had a brief stint as Kebbi State Comptroller of Immigration in 1991 and finally as the North-East Zonal Comptroller of Immigration Services before he retired from a lifetime of strengthening the security and prosperity of Nigeria through proactive border security and migration management. Yet again, he was appointed a Permanent Commissioner of the Taraba State Civil Service Commission in 2004.

In each of those roles, his primary objectives were to educate robustly, to serve dutifully and to never let anyone down. He was humble and loyal to a fault and never wanted to be the center point of attraction – an adorable trait my father, his eldest son, inherited from him.

Growing up as a little boy, I remember him fondly as a father figure to all. I reminisce on the times we would gather in his sitting room with all the children from the neighborhood and watch television with him and yet always find time to keep pace with compulsory studies. These are priceless moments I’d relive a hundred times over, if only I could turn back the hands of time.

My father told me how his dad was a widely travelled man whose interests were vastly in farming, gardening and teaching. He was deeply rooted in community and people, and those qualities led the Late Emir of Muri, Lamido Umaru Abba Tukur to confer on him the traditional title of Tafidan Muri on the 16th September, 1970.

He has gone the way of all flesh and I wish I had the remotest chance thank him dearly for gifting us those unparalleled values and, most of all, an uncommon parent. But we drive comfort in the knowledge that he lived by the lofty virtues of Islam and the code of responsible statesmanship. It’s been 14 years today since he left us, but his teachings and memories are still with us.

Allah yaafumo fewnanmo walande maako!

Atiku M. Jafar