THE News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, has been called upon to immortalise a Nationalist and Political icon, late Malam Aminu Kano (1920 to 1983).
A Kano based Veteran Journalist and Media Consultant, Alhaji Abdulkadir Ahmed Ibrahim, FNGE, (Kwakwatawa) made the call in a Congratulatory Letter he sent to the new Managing Director of the News Agency, Alhaji Ali Muhammed Ali.
He posited that it is imperative for NAN to immortalise the late Malam Aminu Kano in whatever way possible as a way of posthumously acknowledging and appreciating the late Sage’s advocacy and agitation for the establishment of a Nigeria’s News Agency about 63 years ago.
It is on record that at a plenary of the Federal House of Representatives in Lagos on 21st April, 1960, the member representing Kano East, Malam Aminu Kano (NEPU) said: “ We have now got to begin to think about our news agency. What is going to be Nigeria’s News Agency. Are we going to rely on others to tell the world that Nigeria is so and so ? “
“Or to tell the outside world what Nigeria is doing ? The Ministry (of Information) must now tell us about plans of establishing a Nigeria News Agency run, of course, by Nigerians and not by foreigners.
“I think that these things must be done because independence is not the end itself; it is the beginning of a new era. It is a thing which we in Nigeria will project in the way we wish and not in the way some people had wished for years and years.” he concluded.
16 years later, the News Agency of Nigeria was established via Decree 19 of 1976, and became operational on 2 October 1978, providing General News Service to subscribers.
The letter added that late Malam Aminu Kano’s desire for a Nigeria’s News Agency he conceptualized and presented at parliament 63 years ago will add to his track records as a Nationalist and an advocate of African Democratic Humanism ideology, to qualify him for the recommended posthumous honor.
The nationalist, respected politician and true democrat lived and died advocating for the emancipation of women and the down trodden (the poor of the masses he often called TALAKAWA in Hausa language) as well as freedom of speech.
He was the National leader of the Northern Elements Progressive Union, NEPU, a radical and left of the centre political party during the first republic (1950s to 1966) and also led its offshoot, the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, in the second republic (1979 to 1983).
Alhaji Abdulkadir Ibrahim described as apt, the appointment of Ali M. Ali as the Managing Director of NAN considering the impeccable records of the appointee that include both academic and professional qualifications cum over three decades of working experience in the media industry.
The letter recalled the “eventful” journey of the appointee into the world of journalism that started in 1990 at the Kano State owned TRIUMPH Newspaper where he performed creditably well as a Reporter, Features Writer, News Editor and Editor of the Company’s two titles.
He later moved to Lagos and joined the DAILY INDEPENDENT Newspaper as the pioneer Group Political Editor, then to THISDAY before relocating to Abuja and Edited the LEADERSHIP newspaper and then to PEOPLE’S DAILY as the Chief Operating Officer for six years.
Abdulkadir Ibrahim said he believe Ali M. Ali’s experiences in the media will spur him to take NAN to an enviable height being the pioneer news agency in Africa.
He concluded by appealing to the Federal Government to adequately fund NAN and provide it with the needed working materials to enable it perform its statutory functions of “disseminating news and information to the Nigerian public” and remain a reliable and credible source of news.