I started reading Mohammed Kudu Haruna’s (MKH) columns with the Citizen Magazine in the late 80s. I found his clarity and force of intellect inspirational. Alternately pungent, lyrical, and hilarious, he highlights, and then smashes political hypocrisy with the zest of taking a sledgehammer to a watermelon. When the ace columnist announced in 2017 that he will be taking a leave from his regular weekly Wednesday column with the Daily Trust and Nation Newspapers which he ran with great sobriety and dignity for a national assignment, he received an outpouring of support from well-wishers, professional colleagues, casual readers, folks and those who disagreed with his opinions, but greatly respected him.
I am infatuated with newspaper columns. Columns are the intellectual nerve of any newspaper. Columnists’ minds are at times; eccentric, peculiar, contentious, brilliant, shrewd, beguiling and inspiring. Columnist’s actually sell newspapers. One can judge the superiority of a newspaper by the intellectual merit of its columnist and its editorials. But in Nigeria, there are no awards or special ways of recognizing our country’s top columnist. Elsewhere, they are greatly celebrated and always bag awards after awards for excellence in column writings.
This tribute is to the columnist extraordinaire who has written uncountable accolades to worthy Nigerians irrespective of their tribe, religion or region. On 22 September, 2021, MKH who hailed from Bida in Niger State, but born in Ibadan on 22 September 1951 celebrated his 70th birthday. He started his primary education at Tudun-Wada Junior Primary School, Kano and Kuka Primary School, Kano from 1957-1963 respectively where he obtained his First Leaving School Certificate. From 1963-1969, he was at the famous Government College Bida where he obtained his West Africa School Certificate (WASC). In a quest for furthering his education, Haruna gained admission into Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria where he obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree (Political Science and Government) in 1975. From 1975-1980, he worked with the New Nigerian Newspaper (NNN) as a journalist where he rose to various Editorial and Executive positions at the NNN. In 1980, he was at the Glasgow Institute of Technology, Glasgow, United Kingdom where he obtained a Diploma in Public Administration. In the same year, he was appointed as the acting Managing Director of the NNN, the office he occupied until 1981.
From 1975-1981, Haruna carved a niche for himself in his career and rose to prominence in the 1970s with his razor-sharp weekly column ‘Political Diary’ in NNN as well as his tremendously vibrant coverage of the 1977-78 Constituent Assembly and interviewing virtually all the political actors of Northern Nigeria who later become prominent in the Second Republic. As someone with the passion for his profession and career development, Haruna left the shores of Nigeria to the United States where he attended the prestigious Columbia University, New York and obtained a Master’s Degree in Journalism in 1984. Back home, he was appointed as the Managing Director of NNN from 1985-1989 after being denied the opportunity by political actors due to his highly independent style of journalism in 1980. Upon leaving the service of NNN in 1989, he and three of his colleagues co-founded the Citizen Magazine where he was the Managing Director/Editor- in- Chief from 1989-1994. In his pursuit for further knowledge, he attended the prestigious Harvard University Business School, Boston, United State where he obtained a Diploma in Advance Management Programme in 1995.
In October 1998, he was appointed as the Chief Press Secretary to the former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar, and the post he held until May 29, 1999. From 2008 to 2014, he was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. Mr. Haruna also served as a director and board member of the following organizations: News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), National Oil Company, Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialization (TCPC), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Vision 2010 Committee, Vision 2020 Committee, Institute of Nigerian Journalism, Director of People’s Bank of Nigeria, and served as a member of Federal Government Delegation to United Nation General Assembly.
He was at various times a media consultant from 1984 – 2017 until his appointment as the National Commissioner at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Haruna is fearless, tireless, mysterious, funny, tough, supremely confident but engagingly self-deprecating, gifted, and, above all else, possessed “his goddamn brain power.” He is honoured as a fellow of Nigerian Guild of Editors, Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria and African Centre for Democratic Governance. MKH is one of the best, finest, brilliant and indisputable journalists for four unbreakable decades in Nigeria. At INEC, he currently serves as the chairman board of survey and technical equipment acquisition committee and member of: appointment, promotions & disciplinary, electoral operations and logistics, Board of electoral institute, information and voter education, health and welfare committees.
Haruna is one of the best syndicated political columnists in the country known for his powerful, razor-sharp, and well-investigated writings. No doubt, he is one of a kind in his generation. I don’t think there is anyone more prodigious than him. He is talented and gifted with spontaneous wit. He is also extraordinarily consistent. I envy him for that. I admire the sheer amount of knowledge he possesses. I go to his pieces for knowledge, but while at it, I get tremendously thrilled by his opinionated mind and it is a treasure to have people like him around. He represented, in fact, all the things the newspapers strive, however imperfectly, to be. He sought, rather, to provoke us to think, to enlarge our understanding, at times to make us reminisce events and laugh. His unsparing judgments were cheered by some readers while angering others. But few could disagree that he always wrote columns of breath-taking range, intelligence and integrity.
Having been on the receiving end of more than a few of his darts, I can attest to the pointed power of his pen and also the accuracy of his criticisms. He could get it wrong, but never intentionally so, he worked the issues as hard and thoughtfully as any I have known, and few modern journalists have so thoroughly discredited their critics by later being proved right. He believed in a great animating spirit in everything. One spectacular thing that stands him taller among his co-columnists is his regular publishing of a lengthy retraction and apology.
A pen is indeed mightier than the sword. For Mohammed, journalism was more than a profession – it was a public good vital to our democracy. He was a true newspaperman, he transformed NNN and later the Citizen Magazine into one of the country’s finest newsmagazines, and with him at the helms, a growing army of reporters publish stories that needed to be told – stories that helped us understand our country, government, politics, history, culture, tradition, religion and one another a little bit better. The standard he set- a standard for honest, objective, meticulous reporting- encouraged so many others to enter the profession. Coupled with his unequalled wit and civility, he was unsurpassed in his writing.
He was a genius leader and had total ‘joie de journalism.’ His one obdurate principle is the quest for the truth and the necessity of that pursuit. He had charm, charisma and the pluck of an army. He made an indelible mark on the history of journalism. His guts have been an inspiration to generations of journalists, demonstrating what the profession can achieve when it is led with courage and an unwavering commitment to truth. His gusto for the profession was infectious, his personality irrepressible.
Thank you for your amazing columns over all these years which are not only educational, but a service to your nation and humanity. Thank you for stirring many young men into reading, research and writing including this author. Happy many return Sir!!!
Yahaya writes from Jagbele Quarters, Muye, Niger State
