By Henry Akubuiro
Conversations with Bukar Usman, Whetstone Publishers, Kano; Ed. Khalid Imam, 2022; pp. 927
Bukar Usman’s long awaited collection of interviews, Conversations with Bukar Usman, compiled by Khalid Imam, has finally entered the village square like a big masquerade appearing once in a blue moon. A book in two parts, it contains a total of 43 interviews, illuminating Usman’s thoughts on the civil service, public administration, governance, burning national issues, culture, writing, literature, security, history and sundry affairs.
The interviews, conducted between 1996 and 2021, reflect Usman’s coalescent breeding as a Jack of all trades but one with the knack for mastering all. As an administrator, he worked at the highest echelon of public service, retiring as a permanent secretary in the presidency, where he was key to influencing and implementing government policies. He is also a revered social commentator, historian, author, patron of the art, philanthropist and culture aficionado.
Reading through this new book, the wealth of experience garnered from many fields are evident. Usman’s life as an active participant in the evolution of modern Nigeria, albeit from the corridors of power, reads like a never-ending tale. The more you read, the more you become a slave to knowledge with its eye-opening tissues.
Duve Nakolisa of Klamidas Communications Ltd, the book publisher, in the introductory pages of Conversations with Bukar Usman, which he titles “The Art of Fielding Questions from the Press”, notes that not all (retired) public office holders are confident enough to publish their compilation of press interviews like Usman, who, with this book, “offers some practical lessons in the art of fielding questions from the press”.
2014 was a remarkable year for Usman: he was awarded D.Litt by Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; a prestigious award by the Linguistic Association of Nigeria; the Kungiyar Marubutan Nijeriya da Nijar in Niamey, Niger Republic award, for his contributions to Hausa Literature and Culture. Little wonder, he granted many interviews to the press around that period, from local to foreign media, such as BBC Hausa Service, Radio France International, Radio Alternative FM, Niamey, etcetera, which have found their way into this book.
The interviews in Conversations with Bukar Usman range from print media, radio to TV interviews, the latter which have been transcribed for the reading public. The first interview in this collection – “Reforms are Periods of Instability in Civil Service” – was conducted by Shittu Obassa. Among other points raised by Usman, one learns that there is strong injection of some militarism in the running of public service, because the military, before 1999, had ruled the country more than the civilians, which also affected the civil service in the country.
The issues of human rights, security and emerging political development formed the crux of the third interview in Part 1 of the book, where Usman submits that changes herald instability, in an interview with Samuel Odaudu. Here, we digest the role played by Usman in the formative stages of the National Human Rights Commission.
In the sixth interview, Usman echoes that conflicts in civil service are resolved through information management. This interview is a goldmine for public administrators. In it, Usman informs us how long it takes to be a director in a well established civil service. We also learn that some flyers spend less years getting to the top on account of their brilliance. He bares his mind, too, on the decision to retire directors at 70.
In this book, Usman elucidates, from experience, having worked in the civil service and seeing governments come and go, that orientation of Nigerian leaders has drastically changed. He is also affirmative in another interview that good governance should lead to security and welfare of the people.
Many of the interviews in the first section have to do with Usman’s perspectives on his writings, Hausa literature, book culture, folklore, and being a man of many parts. Usman carols that not only Hausa people should be passionate about Hausa language, in an interview with Ashafa Murnai Barkiya, when Usman was 66.
Reacting to why he wrote books for primary school students in Hausa, in the interview, the author says: “I felt I should write folktales since most of us have forgotten, and if they are not written down, the stories would be forgotten forever. I once asked a university student about a folktale and he couldn’t recite it since he didn’t even know it. That is why I tried my best to put down in writing those stories I remembered.”
Conversations with Bukar Usman reminds us how Usman got his first international award in Niamey, Niger Republic, due to his effort in reviving folklore in Nigeria, in an interview with Bashir Malumfashi. How far has Usman gone in actualising his vision for the Nigerian Folklore Society as its president? If you read from pages 113-116, you will find his original vision and match it with his activities since then.
There is also an interesting chat with a group of visiting Chinese students from the Institute of African Studies of Zhejiang Normal University, China. Asked how he collects folktales, Usman says: “…I send people to the countryside. I gave them guidelines. Some were professors in the university. They sent their students to collect some of these tales. Some, like my staff,… I commission them to go and organise the tales collection. They got people to do so….Old people have good memory. They will remember. If you go and sit with your grandmother, you will be surprised.”
Rounding off the print media conversations is the interview, “My Involvement in the World of Folktales”, with Khalid Imam, in which Usman tells us how the journey started:
“…during my childhood, my mother was the one who told me stories. Her occupations were farming and trading in foodstuff. Therefore, whenever she returned from the farm or the market, after she had cooked for us and we were well-fed, she would tell us folktales. She mostly does this on moon-lit nights; but even when the night was dark, this didn’t stop the story-telling.”
From the base of Biu escarpments, Usman has given us, in decades of service to humanity, plenty to relish on a silver platter.