By AbdulRahman Abdullahi
I consider coming up with this birthday piece on the 60th anniversary of Hashim Ubale Yusufu as not only indulged but imperative owing to the stock of things to say on a person known to be the crusader of masses, champion of justice, a politically sagacious and professionally top-rank individual.
There is no doubt that what this write up attempt to dish out is all but a tip of the iceberg on the celebrant. Despite its sheer meager of size, it speaks volumes of the personality involved, his dynamism, magnanimity, and pragmatism on issues related to public concern and his unrelenting effort to see Jigawa rise to its rightful position in Nigeria and beyond.
Hashim Ubale Yusufu is an administrative and political house hold name, known not only in his native and neighboring states, but, in and outside the country. Despite the saying that “charity, begins from home”, Yusufu’s name puts confidence, rekindle hope and usher in a renewed optimism in the minds of the less privileged and the downtrodden masses in Jigawa state.
It is not out of place to say that, Yusufu emancipated countless number of people from the shackles of hopelessness which emanated due to the poor people-oriented policies of the government. No wonder, therefore, the name, Hashim, frightens those that are holding the people of Jigawa State in economic slavery and social bondage.
A 1981 graduate of the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Hashim Ubale started his career as an intern with the Kano State Hospitals Management Board in 1983. Between 1984 and 1987 he was a manager at Namco Pharmacy, a company owned by the business mogul, Alhaji Aminu Dantata.
Pharm. Yusufu joined the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, in 1992 and later the National Agency for Foods, Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC in 1994.
Between 1999 and 2000, Pharm Yusufu was Permanent Secretary, Intergovernmental Affairs and Permanent Secretary Jigawa State People’s Congress, and between 2000 and 2003, Hashim was appointed a commissioner, Ministry of Cooperatives and Entrepreneurship and then Ministry of Agriculture.
On the professional frontline, Yusufu was the Chairman, ECOWAS Medicines and Counterfeit Community; Initiator of the Nigeria World Health Organization free-qualification for pharmaceutical manufacturers; a two-time Chairman, Federal Taskforce on Fake and Counterfeit Drugs and was a Consultant for the African Health Organization for the Review of the Regulatory Capacity for ECOWAS Member States.
Pharm. Hashim underwent training on Medicines Regulatory Control on Drugs, Investigative Skills on Financial Crimes and International Narcotics Control among numerous others.
A fearless and an astute technocrat, Pharm. Yusufu is an All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain, a grassroots mobilizer and a resounding political heavy weight and a force to reckond with.
He was Jigawa State APC Gubernatorial Aspirant in 2015 general elections but narrowly lost the charade primaries due internal and external scheming of the process by some known elements who are against anything pro-Buhari as APC Presidential flag-bearer in the 2015 Presidential election.
After conceding the primaries widely seen to be conducted through dubious means, the extremely patient Yusufu wholeheartedly called on his supporters to remain calm and resolute and work for the APC’s victory.
He was the spinal cord of the party, its heart beat and brain behind its success in Jigawa State.
Pharm. Yusufu effectively set up coordinating teams in all the 27 local governments of Jigawa state and then traversed all the 287 wards to form teams that worked in collaboration with their local governments coordinators. The 3687 polling units of Jigawa state also had representatives of the Yusufu mobilization teams and educate voters on voting and other electoral processes, especially with regards to the technically first time used card reader machine.
This onerous task undertaken by Yusufu even before the conduct of the party’s primary election prepared the ground for the historic feat of recording 885,988 votes for General Muhammadu Buhari at the 2015 general elections from Jigawa state, thus, placing the state in the first position in voters turn out among its peers in the North west.
This sexagenarian, whose foot soldiers at all the local governments, wards and polling units stamped the love of the APC in the minds of Jigawa people through his popular people oriented initiatives, would forever remain relevant and, of course, indelible in the minds of the people of the state and the APC as a party, till the end of times.
While I celebrate this gentleman as he clocks 60, I wish to restate here, that, the struggle to liberate the people of Jigawa state has just started and will continue to gather momentum until it’s realised.
AbdulRahman is a concerned Jigawa citizen and wrote from Jabi, Abuja
