Maitama Sule: 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About The Late Elder Stateman

Elder Statesman and Nigeria’s former Permanent Representative, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule passed away aged 88 at a hospital in Cairo, Egypt after battling an undisclosed illness.

Since news of his passing filtered in, torrents of tributes have poured him for the man whose oratorical prowess in diplomatic circles is unparalleled.

Below is his profile;

1.) The foremost leader was born in 1929 at Ungwar Yola, present day Kano municipal. He enrolled into primary school in 1937, and on completion began his secondary education in Kaduna in 1943.

2.) He joined politics in 1954 when he was elected into the house of representatives.

3.) When the Queen of England came to Nigeria during the administration of Tafawa Balewa, and they asked who was going to dance with the Queen, he was selected as one of the persons

4.) The elder statesman served as the minister of mines and power and also served as minister of national guidance in 1976 – making him the nation’s ombudsman.

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5.) During the 1979 presidential election, he fought for the presidential ticket of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) but lost to Shehu Shagari who became president. A few years later, he served under Shehu Shagari’s government as Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations.

6.) He was chairman of the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid during his stay as Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to UN.

7.) After, the re-election of President Shagari in 1983, the he was made the Minister for National Guidance, a portfolio designed to assist the president in tackling corruption.

8.) He once told journalists that he lived in a mud house that he never had the money to build his own house as a serving minister – just like his colleagues “were building theirs.”

He had said that while serving as the then minister, he was given a piece of land in Ikoyi, Lagos, like all other ministers, but while his colleagues developed theirs, “I could not develop mine. All around me, the plots were developed.”

“I, therefore, did not have a house in Lagos. I didn’t bother to get one in Kaduna and still I am not interested in getting one in Abuja, because I haven’t got the means. Even in Kano after the coup, I had no house, except the mud house, where I was born and lived with my father. That was the house I went back to after almost seven years living in a palace in Lagos.

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9.) According to his third son, Ahmed Sule, he did not use his influence to get an appointment for his son.

Ahmed spoke of how he was jobless for three months but his father who have unfettered access to the high and mighty only rendered prayers for him but didn’t make any attempt to mount pressure on people to help his “jobless” son

10.) He is survived by a wife and nine children.

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Source: Nigerian monitor
Maitama Sule: 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About The Late Elder Stateman

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