Two among them were former sports ministers under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua while the third was a former university lecturer who was later appointed to head a parastatal of the government. Where they could be now? AWAAL GATA asks in this report.
Abdulrahman Gimba
Abdulrahman Hassan Gimba is the former minister of sports and chairman of the National Sports Commission. He was appointed on July 27, 2007 by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to serve in his cabinet but was shown the way out on 29 October 2008 as a result of a minor cabinet reshuffle. He is a product of the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he studied Law and was called to the Bar in 1979.
Gimba began his career as registrar of the High Court of Justice, Sokoto, between 1975 and 1980. He also served as senior counsel and later as chief draftsman in the Niger state from 1983 to 1989. Gimba also had a stint in the private sector as he principal partner, Summit Chambers as well as chief executive officer, Century Policy Consultants, Abuja and a member of the Northern Nigerian Strategic Analysis Group from 2005 to 2006 just before he was appointed into the cabinet.
Since he exited office in 2008 as sports minister, rarely was he input heard in both the political and legal circles. This, according to analysts is probably because he found himself on the wrong side of the political landscape as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Others say he decided to tone down every activity on account of his age. He was said to be a sports minister who had the passion for the industry but could not stay on to fulfill his plans for the sector; however, he was unable to call Amos Adamu to order despite the numerous allegations against him. At the present time, no one knows where he could be.
Sani Ndanusa
Following the removal of Gimba as sports minister, former President Yar’Adua appointed Sani Ndanusa as a replacement in 2018. He was, however, removed from office in 2010 when former President Goodluck Jonathan took over power following death of Yar’Adua. Born on May 5, 1957, Ndanusa studied Civil Engineering at Kaduna Polytechnic and Waste and Water Engineering at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom. He was at some points the general manager of Niger State Water Board from 1999 to 2001, after which he rose to the position of a permanent secretary of the board before his appointment as commissioner for transportation and infrastructural development under the late Abdulkadir Abdullahi Kure then governor.
As someone with a passion for sports, he was also the vice-president of the Nigerian Tennis Federation (NTF) for four years and was later appointed president of the federation in 2001. He was also vice-president of the Nigeria 2008 Olympic Committee. Ndanusa was earlier elected vice president of the Confederation of Africa Tennis in April 2003 and re-elected in 2007. Ndanusa is a fellow of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) and a member of several national and international organisations including ITF wheelchair Tennis Commission, Common Wealth Games Federation Sports Committee, Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria and Nigeria Institute of Management. Since his unexpected exit from ministerial position in 2010, he has not been able to stage a come-back. It was in the height of his political exploits that Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, conferred on him a traditional title as the Galadiman Rayan Kasan Nupe. Since he left office, it’s not clear where he could be and what he is doing presently.
Muttaqha Rabe Darma
Dr Muttagha Rabe Darma is the former executive secretary of Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF). Prior to this appointment, when late President Yar’Adua was the governor of Katsina state between 1999 and 2007, Dr Rabe Darma was among the academics he plucked from the country’s ivory towers to help give his government the required midas touch. Before Darma was appointed fully into the cabinet as commissioner for youths and sports where he designed a template that enabled thousands of youth in the state to be self-reliant, he was in charge of State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). Analysts say it was in that capacity that he impressed Yar’Adua who later conscripted him into the cabinet. Because of his Sterling performance, on assumption of office as president in 2007, Yar’Adua appointed this ex-lecturer at Bayero University, Kano, as the executive-secretary of the PTDF. He was in that position until his tenure elapsed in 2012. However in that capacity, he collaborated with a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in training youths from 12 northern states in various skills.
In 2015, he tried to stage a return to public reckoning in politics but was narrowly defeated in the contest for the senatorial seat of Katsina Central on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Since the defeat, it is not being clear where this former boss of PTDF could be as he never made any other attempt to return to politics in the 2019 general elections. In 2017, when the rate of suicide case was high, this man who is also a philanthropist, said, “Wealthy Nigerians should step in to assist the less privileged. My appeal to our wealthy individuals and government is that they should do more for the needy in the society. The idea of people committing suicide because of life’s challenges should be of serious concern to all of us.
“We should do more than what we can in terms of coming up with various welfare programmes and philanthropic gestures that would soothe the pains of many. If we do this, many people will do a rethink before committing suicide.” It is, however, not clear where he is at the moment.
