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Your father was a prominent Nigerian figure who meant different things to different people. He was a politician, a social critic and a community leader; as a son, who was late Mallam Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa to you and what kind of husband was he to his wives?
If I may answer you truly and fairly, he didn’t see us as a family that he had to accord special preference to. The talakawas (downtrodden) in the society were majorly members of his family. I will give you an instance to buttress my assertion.
My father hardly took care of us as very special while at home in our residence located in the GRA area of Kaduna. We lived together with prominent people such as ambassadors, top civil servants and the like yet he opened his doors to talakawas whom he considered as his primary constituents.
It would interest you to know that whenever my late father collected his pension, most of the money went to these people. This is why he wasn’t too particular about members of his immediate family. My father gave accommodation, feeding to people he never knew.
The last time he gave me money was when I was in primary school. Since then, he never gave me free money again. He was a good father who was will- ing to serve the people and the country and not just his family alone.
That doesn’t mean that your father never took interest in affairs of his immediate family…
I didn’t say so. He saw us as secondary. His primary concern was the talakawas. What he did to help people whom he might not have met before who needed his help could be better than whatever he would have done for us. For example, I know many people whom he had helped to get better jobs or contracts. He never did that for members of his family.
What do you know about his impeachment from office?
There were issues with regards to his election into Government House. What I know is that he submitted a list of his cabinet members to the Kaduna State House of Assembly for approval about three times.
Unfortunately for my father, the majority of the members of the House of Assembly were members of the opposition party. Many of them were members of the NPN (National Party of Nigeria), so it was difficult to agree and approve his nominees.
He eventually went ahead to administer the state without commissioners for several months before he was impeached. That showed how effective the civil service was at that time when his government had to build one industry in each of the local governments of the state. He achieved all these within 18 months in office.
Some people accuse your father of being too rigid, saying he ought to have struck some deal with members of the then state House of Assembly?
Yes! I agree, my father was too rigid. He acted so for two basic reasons, there is a social reason for that which is rooted in his Islamic convictions. As a Muslim, he never felt he should engage in corruption or corrupt practices.
Secondly, as a member of the PRP, there was this strong ideology in the party that states that human beings are more important than wealth or any other material possession. What happened was that members of the state House of Assembly had wanted him to bend his principles.
According to a reliable source, even though my father never told me, members of the state House of Assembly wanted my father to give them N50,000 each and a plot of land each in the GRA. He refused, saying he never had the capacity to do so as a person.
He said he couldn’t use state resources to do that. I blame him because I feel that in serious circumstances one must bend his principles. My thinking is that if he had bent, he would have been able to do more for the state.
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