By Muhammad Isa Ahmad
The death has occurred of Professor Dahiru Yahya of Bayero University Kano. Aged 74, Professor Yahya died in the early hours of Wednesday, 3rd, January, 2021, after a brief illness, he had since been buried according to Islamic rites in his country home of Kano.
An epitome of scholarship not only in Northern Nigeria but in the country at large, Professor Dahiru Yahaya was a true definition of what a Scholar is. He was a true academic who spent more than half of his life contributing to Scholarship. He was the first the first scholar to be honoured with festschrift in Bayero University, Kano.
Professor Dahiru read in more than ten languages. When he wanted to read German works he learnt German. To read French Philosophers, Prof. Dahiru went to France and learnt French. He moved to Spain and learnt how to speak Spanish. He became curious of Turkey and Ottoman Empire so he learnt Turkish. Prof. Dahiru was a multilingual who spoke many local Nigerian languages and read in many foreign ones. He cultivated Arabic, English, Hausa, French, Spanish and Turkish as research languages.
When Professor Dahiru spoke, his words were as carefully spoken as those of Socrates. He condemned with Nioetchez’s style and criticised in Aristotelian syllogism. Though not Marxist but Prof. Dahiru believed revolution must be done to push the progress of history. He did not preach feminism but believed women are equal to men. He was polygamous from a polygamous family with more than 20 children that excelled in many fields of life.
The story of Prof. Dahiru Yahya was a story of poverty which for him was a great source of inspiration and motivation. He was born to a very poor family in Dawakin Kudu to a father who preferred to send him to conventional school despite pressures from outside not to do so, and a mother who was his teacher at home.