An elder statesman and renowned politician Bashir Tofa is dead.
THEANALYSTNG reports that Tofa’ died in the early hours of Monday at the age of 75 after a protracted illness.
A close associate of late Tofa, Magaji Galadima (Kachallan Kano) announced the death on Monday in Kano .
Galadima said “Allahu akbar,
we eventually lost Alh. Bashir Tofa. May Allah grant him eternal rest.”
Late Tofa was the National Republican Convention (NRC) candidate in the annulled Nigeria’s June 12, 1993 presidential election, which was organised by the military government of Ibrahim Babangida.
Born in Kano on June 20, 1947. Tofa had his primary education at Shahuci Junior Primary, Kano and then continued studies at City Senior Primary School in Kano. From 1962 to 1966, he attended Provincial College, Kano.
After completing his studies at the Provincial school, he worked for Royal Exchange Insurance company from 1967 to 1968. From 1970 to 1973, he attended City of London College.
Tofa’s sojourn into politics started in 1976 when he was a councilor of Dawakin Tofa Local Government Council, in 1977, he was elected a member into the Constituent Assembly.
During the Nigerian Second Republic, Tofa was at various times the secretary of the Kano branch of NPN, he later became the party’s national financial secretary and was a national member of the Green Revolution National Committee.
During the Third Republic, He was part of the Liberal Movement which metamorphosed to Liberal Convention when it was not registered as a political party, Tofa joined NRC in 1990.
IIn 1993, when the Babangida administration introduced the Option A4 system, Tofa was elected the presidential candidate representing Kano. During the party primaries, he defeated Pere Ajunwa, Joe Nwodo and Dalhatu Tafida to clinch the NRC ticket. At the time, he was an ally of Halilu Akilu, the security chief at the time. His running mate in the election was Sylvester Ugoh, an Igbo and a former governor of the now defunct central bank of Biafra. Both were members of the defunct National Party of Nigeria.
Tofa is also a businessman, an oil trader and industrialist. He was chairman of International Petro-Energy Company (IPEC) and Abba Othman and Sons ltd. He was also involved as a board member in Impex Ventures, Century Merchant Bank and General Metal Products ltd.
