Posted by LAWAL SAIDU, in Funtua on
FORMER Special Duties Minister and National Chairman of Peoples Salvation Party (PSP), the late Alhaji Wada Nas, may have planned to quit politics if he had survived his last bout of sickness.
FORMER Special Duties Minister and National Chairman of Peoples Salvation Party (PSP), the late Alhaji Wada Nas, may have planned to quit politics if he had survived his last bout of sickness.
The late Alhaji Nas was said to be contemplating a major public announcement to draw the curtains on his political career spanning over 40 years which saw him win election into the House of Representatives in 1959 on the platform of the defunct Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) led by the late Mallam Aminu Kano.
The late Alhaji Nas was secretary of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the old Kaduna State in the second republic, Katsina State chairman of defunct National Republican Convention (NRC).
The late former minister had informed group of politicians who visited him on his sick bed in Kaduna, that he would retire completely from active politics after his discharge from hospital.
Speaking with the Daily Champion, a Funtua-based politician, who simply identified himself as Alhaji Muhammad, said "we visited him on his sick bed in kaduna and he categorically told us that he would retire from active politics after his discharge from hospital."
Following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election and military take over after the ousting of the Shonekan administration by the late Gen. Sani Abacha, Alhaji Nas was appointed Minister of State for Education.
He was later appointed Minister for Special Duties.
He was a vocal personality in the Abacha regime, a development that pitted him against the June 12 advocates.
During the registration of 30 political parties by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the late Nas' PSP was among those registered.
He had in a recent interview with Daily Champion in Katsina, lamented the dearth of youths that would venture into the political scene and change its negative image.
He said: "Instead of venturing into politics to right the wrongs, youths now concern themselves only with forming NGOs that would bring quick money."
With this, he argued, "I feel sorry for the coming generation and the future of the country."
In Abuja, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) said yesterday that Nas' death is a national tragedy.
National publicity secretary, Chief Nnamdi Olebara, described the demise of the late politician as "an irreparable national tragedy."
Olebara told the newsmen that Nas was "a great patriot, a unifying factor, a detribalised Nigerian and a consistent personality."
"We (ANPP) received the sudden news of the death of our elder statesman and comrade with rude shock. Alhaji Wada Nas died at a time when he was most needed by the country and her citizens in the struggle for an enduring democracy," he said.
The ANPP spokesperson explained that Nas was fighting for an Igbo president in 2007, when others were doing so on ethnic basis.
In their reactions, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Progressive Action Congress (PAC) described the late Nas as a frontline politician whose guts and courage will be missed by friends and associates.
According to the NLC, his views and interventions in national life, over the last five years, assumed a critical and constructive tenor, contributing to giving oppositional politics volume and visibility.
"Nigerian politics would certainly be worse for the loss of Alhaji Nas," the NLC concluded.
In its message, PAC noted that the late Alhaji Nas style of politics had inspired many politicians whose methods and ideals remained civil engagement or the government in power through the mass media.