Director, Media and Publicity, National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Malam Ibrahim Sheme, was a guest at the Minna hilltop residence of former President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida Wednesday to officially present his book, Shata Ikon Allah, to the retired general.
First published in 2006, updated and re-published in 2018, the book is a biography of a foremost Hausa musician, Mamman Shata.
Born in 1923 in Musawa, Katsina state, and died at the age of 76 in 1999, Shata was a well-known musician and griot among the Hausa people. His vocals were often accompanied by a talking drum, known as kalangu.
He performed for the Hausa people and even non-Hausas for more than half a century.
Sheme is a bilingual writer, journalist, filmmaker and publisher. The ex-editor of Leadership Newspaper is the pioneer editor of Blueprint Newspaper and later its Editor-in Chief.
In the mid-’90s, he served as the National Publicity Secretary of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). He was also the pioneer secretary-general of ANA in Kaduna State.
