This piece is to celebrate veteran journalist and immediate-past Kano state information commissioner Malam Muhammad Garba’s appointment as Chief of Staff to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. Even though, the appointee requires no introduction to the media circle and country at large, his appointment was applauded and regarded as that of a round peg in a round hole.
Comrade Garba’s apportionment is a testimony that the chairman of the governing party values the competence, expertise, and experience of Garba as a gatekeeper in the party headquarters and will run office with impeccable record. Wishing him more sound health and wisdom to deliver on the mission for a greater Kano state.
One thing even his critics can’t take away from him is that he harbors no ill feelings or animosity against anybody. Comrade sees no one as enemy, treats all nicely, a disposition that has made him the toast of every media practitioner and others across the country. He commands a lot of respect within and outside Kano state.
It is apparent that Garba has delivered above expectations and identified as a dedicated public servant that one would admire for his patriotism. He has indeed made his mark in the good books of the history of Kano state and Nigeria as a whole. His rise to the peak of his profession has not been as easy.
The new chief of staff started his journalism career in 1989 with Triumph Publishing Company Limited, Kano as a reporter and served in various states of the federation as a correspondent. He later became sub-editor, chief sub-editor, group news editor, and deputy editor.
Garba was also the state chairman, deputy president and president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), president of the West African Journalists Association (WAJA), president of the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), and was elected member of the Steering Committee of International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Dublin, Ireland. He was on the editorial board of many newspapers; federal commissioner, Fiscal Responsibility Commission from 2011 to 2014, member federal government Subsidy and Reinvestment and Empowerment Committee (SURE-P), 2012 to 2015. The appointee was press secretary to the deputy speaker, House of Representatives in 1993; press secretary to the deputy governor of Kano state Abdullahi Umar Ganduje from 1999- 2003; commissioner for Information and Home Affairs (2015-2023).
Garba was my mentee, guiding me to learn the art and practice journalism being one of his sub-editors while he was deputy editor in the then Daily Triumph.
Abba Dukawa,
Abuja
