Three months ago, I broke to the University of Maiduguri Mass Communication Students Association, class of 2002, the news of the elevation of our university “Class Rep”, Hamza Idris to the position of Deputy Editor-in-chief of the esteemed Daily Trust Newspapers. That provoked spontaneous expression of an innermost sense of collective admiration and solidarity, laced with that unspoken conviction of “we indeed saw it coming.”
How did we see it coming? This is this write-up’s substance, but a little digression at this juncture will suffice.
I have associated with the Trust Newspapers long before I got into contact with Alaramma. I began addressing Hamza Idris as Alaramma after his beloved father’s demise, the name’s original bearer. This is out of deep respect, knowing fully the spiritual denotation and connotation of the word.
I had known of plans to midwife the paper, and when it was birthed with a bang as a weekly staple, I never missed an edition.
It all along hurt me that the vast north, with its vast intellectual ocean dating back to the proud days of the Islamic literary renaissance, had been reduced to nought in terms of print medium to grant assertive voice and advance the history and socio-cultural value excellence of the people. I grew up to catch a glimpse of “Gaskiya Tafi Kwabo” Hausa vernacular news daily.
I got to know how the New Nigeria Newspaper was a force to reckon with in shaping public opinions and public policies. Radio wise give it to the north. The Hausa language was next only to Swahili in Africa on enlistment as a global broadcast language by the almighty BBC.
Imagine therefore the pain of the North without a single steady newspaper. Weekly Trust eventually came to the rescue and successfully bridged that wide gap.
Through it we witnessed the resurgence and trade fare of made in the North intellectual giants of global intellectual comparison, unleashing their earthshaking talents in commentary and informed analysis of issues on all subjects under the earth.
Since then, as was the case before and post-independence, the north raised its pen voice with the might of deafening eloquence, thanks indeed to our Daily Trust!
In 1999 when I went to the University of Maiduguri on supplementary admission, some faces were constantly notable in my class. The class captain was one of them. In such situations, you wondered how such a leader emerged amid suitable alternatives.
It did not take me long to understand and deeply appreciate the leadership dispositions of Hamza Idris.
A world-renowned Bhudist intellectual, Fuchan Yuan sums them up better. “There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity and courage.”
Alaramma is imbued with full doses of all these attributes. His sense of humility was spectacular. He didn’t carry on his head his exalted position as a leader. He meandered with humility through the labyrinth of the high current heterogeneous complexities of our class.
We had a quotation we so much loved, “we cannot communicate.” Unfortunately, at a point, we failed to communicate ourselves to unity because of socio-ethnic and political undercurrents that failed to fuse.
When it was our turn to produce the president of the Mass Communication Students Association of the university, the election was marred by tensions, and hence, annulled by the authorities of the department.
We ended up with a caretaker president in the person of Miriam Musa, who surprisingly proved herself as one of the best, most productive and successful MACOSA presidents in the history of the department.
In all the political fiasco of the moment, our Class Rep kept his head above the waters, not aligning himself with any interest group, and therefore respected by all members of our class across all divides of interests. Humility had indeed served him excellently well.
As per clarity, he was a master of the art. He had a clarity of purpose and even more definitive clarity in the expression of his purposes. He led us with the clarity of a servant leader that respected all. He was unambiguous in his communication.
And talking of communication, even then he was an excellent communicator. We once had a class debate. I led the team he belonged to, but he practically carried the day judging by the uncontrolled applause that punctuated his presentation.
That was the only debate I knew that the debate master failed to reveal the winner, even though he confessed to being swayed by one of the groups. Unfortunately, we painfully lost him and the debate result has remained unannounced for over two decades now.
Words they say do good if he that speaks them pleases those that listen. Hamza Idris’ words did a lot of good, to him and us. He was not always serious. His good sense of humour was always handy and added to the clarity that defined his leadership of our class. He was once fooled on an April fool day. We often get amused by the remembrance of it.
As a leader, with a good look and an urbane sense of dressing and neatness, be sure the ladies would always fall in for him. And we are talking about the university environment. You were only at peace then, if your girlfriend didn’t cross paths with the Class Rep.
The third and last leadership attribute according to Fuchan Yuan which Hamza Idris fits is courage. Evidence of this is not farfetched. If you represent a medium like Daily Trust, you are a player in the centre of attraction, not one of those players.
With a name to yourself and a powerful platform at your disposal, surviving the horrendous and tragedy-packed environment of Maiduguri at the peak of the Boko Haram terrorism required extraordinary doses of courage. Courage to survive the terrorists, and courage to survive the onslaught of frontline security operatives who would see any unfavourable press bulletin as enmity against the Nigerian state. He went, he saw and conquered our collective pride.
A good journalist with a good platform is like the proverbial goldfish. He has no hiding place. That has been the case with Hamza Idris. The risks abound for him, but so are the opportunities. We overtime became envious of his journalistic globetrotting and mingling with the best of practitioners all over the world.
That was a rare reward for hard work and assertiveness in practice. It was no surprise therefore when the man seized the opportunity to build himself to a reliable and result-yielding journalist and editor of repute that is by every stretch of consideration worth his salt.
In all these and many more victories unsung, hard work is front and centre of it all. Remember, the only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. Remember too, the highest reward for a person’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it.
For Hamza Idris, an unyielding professional of the pen, hard work has today propelled him to the enviable position of Acting Editor-in-chief and Chairman Editorial Board of one of the nation’s most respected national dailies, the Daily Trust Newspapers. Congratulations and a humble prayer for Allah’s guidance Mr Class Rep Sir.
