Tributes have continued to pour in for the late writer and banker, Alhaji Abubakar Gimba who died on Wednesday. The Minna, Niger State-based writer, was a former national president of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and an executive director of both Union Bank of Nigeria and United Bank for Africa (UBA).
He died at the Minna General Hospital on Wednesday after a prolonged illness and was buried on Thursday.
Reacting to Gimba’s demise, ex- ANA president, Dr. Wale Okediran said, “His death is a shock though I was aware of his ill health. It He was a very amiable fellow and somebody easy to work with. He was selfless, humane and very austere. He shunned an ostentatious lifestyle and was a very simple fellow.”
The incumbent ANA vice president, Denja Abdullahi said, “He will be remembered as a good man, altruistic. He did a lot to nurture literature in northern Nigeria and Nigeria as a whole.”
Also reacting, Minna-based writer and administrator, Baba Dzukoggi, said “Gimba’s death is a big loss to us. We have learnt a lot from him, particularly his approach to life which is largely humanitarian. He taught us not to run in life, that the only way to run in life is to be hard working. And you are working hard not to get anybody’s applause; you are working hard for the fact that the community must be assisted. It’s a big loss to us; we mourn him and pray that he will rest in peace.”
Writer and academic, Professor Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo said, “This is shocking. The literary community, we have lost a very talented writer and a very calm gentleman. He was ANA president and we liked him because he did well and he united all of us under the umbrella of ANA. I think he did his best for ANA. I read his novels, he was a good writer. He was able to explore experiences in the northern part of the country. His writing was skilful and highly imaginative. I consider him as a good writer and he’s also been very supportive of younger writers in his region. He will be sorely missed by the writers there and I pray that he will rest in peace,” she said.
In a statement by its General Manager, External Relations, Kudo Eresia-Eke, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited, sponsors of the Nigeria Prize for Literature said: “We are particularly pained by the demise of Alhaji Abubakar Gimba, an eminent writer and banker, who blends expertise, civic passion and sheer readability into books and essays that consistently stimulate and surprise. His novels were written with passion and a stirring sense of place and justice. He was remarkable for his ability to engage, through his art, with major social and political issues of our era.
“We remember Gimba for his enormous contributions to the development of The Nigeria Prize for Literature, an initiative we are very proud of. Although The Nigeria Prize for Literature was first awarded in 2004, a lot of debate, hard work and careful planning went into the set-up process before that time. And Alhaji Gimba was one of the creative minds that helped birth the prize.
“Gimba was an honest, straight forward man and unafraid to speak his mind. He was also very humble, neither quick to condemn nor celebrate; his death is a great loss to the arts community and to Nigeria, especially at a time it needs eminent statesmen who speak with moral authority.”
Born on March 10, 1952 in Niger State, the late Abubakar Gimba obtained a degree in Economics from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1974. He then went to the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA in 1976 for an MA in Economics. He subsequently attended the University of Bradford; U.K’s Project Planning Course on Infrastructure in 1982. In 2000, he attended the University of Iowa’s writing programme sponsored by U.S. Embassy in Nigeria at the behest of the State Department.
Some of his works include‘Witness to Tears’ ‘Trail of Sacrifice’, ‘Innocent Victims’, ‘Sunset for a Mandarin’, ‘Innocent Victims’ and ‘Golden Apples’ Others were ‘Once upon a reed’, ‘A toast in the cemetery’, ‘Footprints’, ‘Sacred Apples’, ‘This land of ours’, ‘Inner rumblings’ and ‘Letter to the Muslim fundamentalist’
