By Abubakar Imam
The law of nature is that everything that has a beginning must definitely have an end. This fact was a truism yesterday. It remains so today and it shall remain unchanged till the end of time.
The impending exit of a precious daughter of the Ilorin Emirate, Hajiya Sadat Hassan, from the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) is an unfolding testimony to this. She is due to retire meritoriously and gloriously as a member of the top brass in the NIS as her retirement takes effect from Saturday, December 16, 2023.
The date promises to be a glorious one in the beautiful and exemplary life of this great and outstanding woman who combines rarely combinable attributes; beauty, brain and brawn. Not many individuals combine those qualities and end up covered in glory, particularly in their careers and marriages and most especially in this part of the world. They are attributes that are, more often than not, very intoxicating and could lead to either self-destruction or unimaginable progression. History is replete with instances of many individuals who have fallen by the way or went completely off- track due to either egocentrism or self-adulation on account of such stimulating qualities.
But the case of this woman of substance is remarkably different as she is rounding off her public service career wonderfully. She would, therefore, be rolling out the drums to celebrate her peaceful disengagement from line of duties, which has consistently marked her life for almost four decades of uniform wearing. DCGI Hassan would be doing what many prayed for but were denied by the Master planner-Allah. She would be retiring from the services she joined 34 years ago and simultaneously celebrate her 60th birthday. This, she would be doing, with her glowing integrity unscratched, despite holding sensitive and critical positions in NIS at home and in a foreign land.
I must confess that I only met this paragon of professionalism and motherhood in person once. I have, however, had series of interaction with her in the last three years or so as a fellow indigene of Ilorin Emirate and siblings from different parents. My perception of her personality coupled with the information gathered from those who know her more intimately makes her come to me as a model woman and a humble officer and gentleman, who, above every other thing, considers herself as a member of the Ilorin Emirate community.
The first time I heard her name was in 2015. I was discussing the career of senior female compatriots and the threat which professional successes often posed to the stability of the sacred institution of marriage among eminent female indigenes of Ilorin Emirate origin, with some friends. Her name cropped up as one model professional and upright woman, who despite attaining an hitherto unimaginable success in her paramilitary career, remained happily married. Quite a few other names were mentioned as examples of Ilorin women, who combined successful careers with enviable marriages. This debunks the claim in some quarters that successful women hardly maintain happy homes. I was delighted that examples of such women of great virtues and gracious valour abound in my beloved Ilorin Emirate.
Before then, I never heard of her name and I disclosed my ignorance of her existence. My friends expressed disappointment in me for not knowing such a high ranking paramilitary officer despite having knowledge of many highly distinguished men and women of Ilorin Emirate origin coupled with the positions I held in the community's apex sociocultural organisation.
Ever since then, I started monitoring her career along with that of a few others whose profiles I was availed of . This was intended at juxtaposing the reality in our community with the unscientific saying that "educating a woman is like watering the garden of a stranger" and the submission of Prophet Muhammad that "if you educate a man, you educate one person but if you educate a woman you are educating a whole nation". Fortunately, her promotion to the exalted rank of Assistant Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service was announced in 2021. And as the National Publicity Secretary of the IEDPU, I had to issue a statement to congratulate her on her monumental and history-making career progression. I issued a press release on her promotion accordingly as approved by the ever supportive IEDPU National President, Alhaji Aliyu Otta Uthman,fsi. Maybe that also marked the date she would first know of my existence too.
Her promotion to the exalted rank, and being the first Ilorin woman to be so privileged subsequently qualified her to feature in the recently published "Ilorin Emirate's Frontliners", which was then in the gestation period. She featured accordingly on page 325 of the work.
To make that possible, I remembered vividly that it was Alhaji Ahmed Bolaji Nagode, a former President of the influential Third Estate Group and current Director-General of the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria(NAPTIN), who availed me her contact and that of her husband. The phone call I placed across to her evidently marked the beginning of my closer interactions with her.
Despite her status as a high-ranking member of the privileged class in the paramilitary service officers our community is blessed with, I had never been disappointed with her interpersonal conduct with me. She dazzles me with humility, fraternity, generousity, comradeship and patriotism each time I have the cause to communicate with her.
And hence, my decision to celebrate her uniqueness and achievements as an icon not just among our womenfolk but also in the galaxy of stars and outstanding professionals the contemporary Ilorin Emirate is blessed with.
This lady of substance did not fall from the sky. She was given birth to by parents, both of whom were indigenes of Ilorin. Her father was Alhaji Abdulkareem Sule Gada, a first republic Parliamentary Secretary, who died on May 7, 1973. Her father was a senior brother to a former National President of Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU), Alhaji Yinusa Ilyasu Suleiman Gada. Alhaja Aisha Bolajoko Ayinke A. K. Sule Gada, who hailed from Ile Wogiwogi in the Agaka Quarters of Ilorin, was her beloved mother. She died in 2016.
Hajiya Hassan was born in Ilorin, the city of her illustrious forebears and capital of Kwara State, on December 16,1963. The name of her paternal ancestral home is Onikanhun Compound and it is located directly opposite the popular Niger Motel, Ilorin.
In addition to the mandatory Qur'anic and traditional education she was exposed to right from childhood, she commenced her education at Ireti Nursery & Primary School, Ikoyi, Lagos. She was trained at the school between 1967 and 1972. She eventually completed her primary education studies at the United Primary School, Taiwo (Isale) Road, Ilorin, in 1975. Alhaji Bolaji Nagode, earlier mentioned, was one of her contemporaries and friends at the two schools.
For her secondary education, this great daughter of Ilorin Emirate attended the Ilorin Grammar School (IGS), Ilorin. She received her West African School Certificate from the school in 1980. At IGS, her contemporaries included the current Principal of the Senior Section of the School, Hajiya Muslimat Abdullahi; a former Member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Moshood Mustapha and Barrister Adama Magaji.
Her next port of call was the then Kwara State College of Technology (now Kwara State Polytechnic), Ilorin, where she sat for and passed her Advanced Level Cambridge Examinations in History, English and Islamic Religious Knowledge between 1981 and 1983.
She also attended the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, from 1983 to 1986 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History. The same Alhaji Ahmed Bolaji Nagode and Alhaji Ahmed Ladan Gobir, an Honourable Commissioner and Member of the Kwara State Executive Council in the last military administration in the State, were among her contemporaries just as Hajiya Risiqat Olomoda and Hajiya Hafsat Babaita were at the defunct but famous Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences(FASS) of ABU, Zaria. FASS was the headquarters of northern radical intellectualism with the late Dr Bala Usman, a foremost Historian and social critic and Dr Patrick Wilmot, a distinguished scholar of Sociology, among others, as the Grand Commanders. Hajiya Joju Belgore, a retired banker, was also her contemporary at the institution, which is otherwise called the Largest University, South of Sahara and North of Limpopo, among other apellations of my great alma mata.
As someone who would not limit her education, Hajiya Hassan studied further in order to develop herself and arm herself for leadership adequately. She was, therefore, trained at the University of Calabar for a Master degree in Public Administration (MPA). She successfully ran and accomplished the programme between 1999 and 2001.
Having offered and completed her mandatory youth service (NYSC) at the famous Queen Amina College, Kaduna, from 1987 to 1988, this illustrious daughter of Ilorin Emirate joined the services of the Nigeria Immigration Service on December 28,1989. She was accordingly enlisted as an Assistant Superintendent.
She was not the only Ilorin lady recruited that same year and into the same rank. She shared the privilege with Aminat Olayinka, who left since their early years in service to settle in the United Kingdom and Mrs Sidikat Bidemi Babatunde, who hails from the famous Galadima Ngari family of Ilorin. Hajiya Babatunde is, at present, a Deputy Comptroller of the NIS.
The other person is Hajiya I. S. Yusuf, who is a relation of the Turaki of Ilorin, Senator Saliu Mustapha. Hajiya Yusuf is currently a Comptroller of Immigration. Hajiya Hassan and her mentioned colleagues were the most senior Ilorin women in the NIS, then.
Hajiya Hassan was deservedly promoted to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Immigration in January, 1993. In January, 2000, she was elevated to the rank of Superintendent of Immigration and three years after she became a Chief Superintendent of Immigration.
Despite her fascinating record of bravery, loyalty and competence, she endured on the same rank for almost a decade. She was eventually promoted to the rank of an Assistant Comptroller General of Immigration in January 2021.The promotion was understandably backdated to January, 2020.
In appreciation of her dignity and integrity, Hajiya Hassan was promoted to the exalted rank of Deputy Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service in November, 2023. Her promotion to the rank of DCG a month to her retirement secured another glorious place for her in the annals of Ilorin Emirate and Kwara State.
This distinguished officer, who was trained locally and abroad, has also worked in various formations and held several command positions within and outside the shores of Nigeria in the course of her illustrious career in the Nigeria Immigration Service. She started at the Kwara Command of the Service in 1989. She was later transferred to the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, where she served between 1992 and 1995. She was returned to the same Airport in 1998 and remained there till 2001.
Hajiya Hassan also served at the Immigration Command and Staff College, Sokoto, between 2004 and 2007. She was also an Immigration Attache at the Nigerian Embassy in Berlin, Germany from 2011 to 2017. She was the Comptroller of Immigration, Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, from 2019 to 2021.
Following her promotion to the rank of Assistant Comptroller-General, she was appointed as the ACG in charge of Zone D of the NIS. She accordingly superintended over the Niger, Kwara and Kebbi States as well as the FCT Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service from May to September, 2021.
Thereafter, she was posted to the Passport Directorate in September, 2021. Hajiya Hassan headed the sensitive Directorate as an Ag. Deputy Comptroller-General and eventually confirmed. She provided effective leadership for all the NIS formations both in Nigeria and all over the world where the Nigerian Passport is issued.
This illustrious officer has received several honours and awards in her career and has never left no one in doubt that she is an excellent patriot. The awards were conferred on her in appreciation of her bravery, loyalty and integrity in the discharge of her services to the people and government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
For the records, Hajiya Hassan is a woman of history as far as Ilorin Emirate and Kwara State are concerned. This is because she is the first woman from the southernmost Emirate who attained the penultimate rank of DCG in any segment of the nation's paramilitary services. She is also the second indigene of Ilorin Emirate who got to the rank of DCG in the Nigeria Immigration Service. The first was the Danmasani of Ilorin and a second National Secretary of IEDPU, Alhaji Hassan Taiwo Abdulkadir. One other indigene of Ilorin who rose to the high echelon in the NIS is Alhaji Ibrahim Bayo Lawal, a renowned teacher and former Chairman of the IEDPU Central Zone, who retired as an Assistant Comptroller-General. The rest are the current National Vice President of the IEDPU and a former National President of the Ilorin Students Union (Ilorin Emirate Students Union), Alhaji Abdulmumini Ayo Abdulmalik, Dr Ganiyu Yusuf Mumeen and Mr Isiaka Yusuf, a nephew of the late Major-General Shehu Layiwola Yusuf, who was the third indigene of Ilorin Emirate that attained the rank of Major-General in the Nigerian Army. The three gentlemen retired as Assistant Comptroller-General of NIS.
In addition to the numerous successes attained in her career, this outstanding daughter of Ilorin Emirate is happily married. Hajiya Hassan met her husband, Alhaji Rasheed Omomeji Hassan, in 1986 and they got married in 1987 while she was on the mandatory national youth service. Her husband is a member of the popular Olawuwo family of Okekura Quarters, Ilorin.
The marriage of this illustrious woman is not fruitless. Hajiya Hassan is an "abiboy". All her three children are distinguished members of my gender. She is also a grandmother of three lovely children two of whom are girls.
Like in the case of every other successful person, her journey in life is not only full of lessons but also consists of ups and downs. Her happiest moments, according to this exemplary wife and mother, were when she was posted abroad to work and when she was promoted to the rank from which she is eventually retiring. She believed that the two opportunities gave her the privilege to demonstrate that "what a man can do, a woman can also do better".
The first major trial Hajiya Hassan faced in life was the death of her beloved father when she was less than 10 years of age. The other was her undeserved stagnation on a rank for almost a decade for "lack of vacancies" in the upper hierarchy of the NIS. The two incidents can break the heart of a man but as a woman of steel she remained strong in the face of the two daunting challenges. She eventually succeeded in turning the two challenges to opportunities.
While thanking her husband of 36 years for the love and support she enjoyed from him before and throughout her career, Hajiya Hassan advised members of her gender to always be loyal to their husbands. She explained that a loyal wife would always enjoy unlimited love of her husband and his family.
Hajiya Hassan believed that the loyalty she exhibited towards her husband certainly elicited the remarkable support she earned from her man and their children who supported her official sojourn in Germany for six years. For those who may wonder how the period of her stay in Germany was endured by her family, Hajiya Hassan said, "While my children were already in the University, my husband was given a resident card. So, it was easy for him to shuttle between Nigeria and Germany".
The retiring ACGI encouraged women to be focused and determined. She also encouraged wives to give their families, particularly their husbands, the best of attention from the little time that may be available to them. She also urged women to be prayerful and to consistently ask for the grace of Allah in their lives and those of their family members.
As Hajiya Hassan retires from the services of the Nigeria Immigration Service, it is my hope and wish that other women of Ilorin Emirate origin, particularly those in the paramilitary and, in fact, other services would emulate her.
I wish her a very peaceful, productive and rewarding life in retirement as I pray Allah to grant her long life with sound health and happiness to enable her reap the fruits of her labour far beyond her expectations.
Congratulations to a worthy ambassador.
Imam is Chief Scribe, Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union.
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