The Niger State Government has renamed the Dr. Abubakar Imam Kagara International Airport after the Nigerian leader, rechristening the place as the “Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Airport.”
Its former name “Dr Abubakar Imam Kagara International Airport,” was in honour of the journalist who pioneered the first newspaper in Hausa language, “Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo” in 1939.
Kagara is acknowledged as one of the North’s greatest literary icons and hailed from the town of the same name in today’s Niger State.
He once had a N40 postage stamp in his honour, and was awarded the second highest national honour of Grand Commander of the Niger (GCON).
He also was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
His listing on Wikipedia says that Abubakar Imam (1911 – 1981) was a Nigerian writer, journalist and politician from Kagara, Niger in Nigeria.
For most of his life, he lived in Zaria, where he was the first Hausa editor of Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo, the pioneer Hausa-language Newspaper in Northern Nigeria.
He attended Katsina College and the University of London’s Institute of Education. He submitted the play Ruwan Bagaja for a literary competition in 1933.
In 1939, together with Robert East and a few others, they started the Gaskiya corporation, a publishing house, which became a successful venture and created a platform for many Northern Nigerian intellectuals. The exposure of many premier writers in Northern Nigeria to the political process influenced Imam to join politics. In 1952, with the formation of the Northern People’s Congress (NPC), together with Umaru Agaie and Nuhu Bamalli, they formed the major administrative nucleus of the party.
Alh Abubakar Imam was also the author of Magana Jari Ce with the help of some collections provided by East, author of Ruwan Bagaja and Tafiya mabudin ilmi, a book He wrote on his experiences after a visit to London.
He was also the author of Tarihin Annabi Kammalalle, a biography of Muhammad.
