Professor Haruna Wikili's Death

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. Twitter: @farooqkperogi The death today of Bayero University Kano's Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration) ...

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Twitter: @farooqkperogi

The death today of Bayero University Kano's Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration) and professor of history Haruna Wakili is one death too many, especially coming after the deaths of many other BUK professors these past few months.

Although Professor Wakili didn't teach me when I was an undergraduate at BUK, I was familiar with his work through my friend Professor Moses Ochonu whom Wakili taught-- and through Professor Ibrahim Bello-Kano, his close friend at BUK in the 1990s.

When I met him in his hometown of Hadejia in 2010 during my visit to Nigeria after my wife died in a car crash, he was Jigawa State's Commissioner of Education. He was exceedingly gracious and kind to me. I was flattered that he recognized me from BUK and was even more flattered when he told me he read my newspaper columns.

I met him in Hadejia through my friend Adagbo Onoja who was Governor Sule Lamido's Media Adviser at the time. Thereafter, Professor Wakili and I became Facebook friends.

Just two weeks ago, for some reason, I thought of him and wondered why he was no longer active here on Facebook. I checked his page and found no recent activity. Then I woke to the news of his death on June 20 at the age of 60.

The Kano Focus online news site reported that he died at the National Hospital in Abuja after a battle with cancer. 

This is truly distressing. May Allah admit him in aljannah firdaus and comfort the loved ones he left behind.