Shocking is beyond words to describe how I feel on hearing the news of the passing on of one of Nigeria’s greatest media icons and administrator, Alhaji Ahmed Abdulkadiri Tafida.
AA Tafida, as he was fondly known, was one of the greatest television script writers, producer and director that the industry has ever turned out. He left his mark at the then NTV Kaduna for his creativity in producing and directing a number of old-time local favorites like Gidan Kashe Ahu, Samanja and lots more that I cannot remember.
In January 1979 when the NTV Yola was established, AA Tafida was the pioneer Head of Programmes Division, while Chief Timawus Mathias headed the News and Current Affairs. Both of them were redeployed from NTV Kaduna and promoted to the position of Principal programmes Producer and Principal News Editor respectively.
Tafida had, after the NTA Yola fully took off around the middle of 1979, brought life in the form of quality entertainment to the homes of the people of then Gongola State. He recruited both the best and strugglers, nurtured them to the level that they became the best among the the NTA larger family. They won accolades and went on to produce some national programmes for the NTA Network Service.
He mentored great producers like Umar Mahmud, Bala Victor, Mustafa Isa, Elisha Shalangwa, to name but a few who dazzled people’s homes with quality programmes during their time. The NTA Yola, to my knowledge, from inception to the early 1990s was among the top best in the country, all thanks to AA Tafida.
For some of us who were privileged to see Tafida in action, directing drama in the control room operated from a mobile broadcast van (O.B Van) at NTA Yola during its inception, it was something to behold. The London trained producer was also a natural in what he did. Every single programmes staff between 1979 up to the time he left Yola for Maiduguri as the NTA Northeast zonal coordinator, was a student of his, and owes him all the knowledge he or she acquired in the industry.
After his assignment in Maiduguri, AA Tafida was appointed the General Manager, NTA Channel 5, Abuja. I think he could be the pioneer. Later towards the end of the 1990s, he transferred his services to mainstream federal civil service and was appointed a director in FCDA.
The late Tafida is a man who crossed the path of many Nigerians and positively changed their lives forever, including yours sincerely. He actually crossed my path twice that shaped my carrier and life in general.
I met AA Tafida, the first time, on 2nd April, 1979 in the temporary offices of the newly established NTA Yola on Hospital Road. The administration and programmes departments offices were located there, while the news division was located in a rented house on Ahmadu Bello way just a wall apart from the current permanent site.
I had just ended my two-year stint with the defunct Gongola State Ministry of Information, Yola, as Information Assistant and was on my way to Kaduna to assume work at the FRCN where I had earlier spent three months (August – October 1978) for certificate course, learning the art of broadcast journalism at the famous FRCN Training School. The main one was located in Lagos.
I was encouraged to go into broadcasting by late Alhaji Abdulrahman Pate, Kaigama Adamawa, who was then senior programmes officer with the FRCN. Apart from heading the Fulfulde unit, he was also a continuity announcer, and during my training there, I had the privilege of working with him in the continuity room and learned a great deal to give me confidence to want to work there.
On that Monday morning, Alhaji Abdulrahman Pate who was in Yola on a short break offered me a ride to Kaduna, but decided to visit with AA Tafida at the NTA before we hit the road. As fate would have it, after I was introduced, AA Tafida insisted that I should abandon my trip and prospective career in Kaduna and join them at the NTA Yola. “With what Abdulrahman said about you, you are good. We need your type here to help us take off. We are expecting the transmitter and other equipment to arrive in two months. Please join us. I will introduce you to Timawus Mathias and you can work with him in the news department.” I agreed with him and the rest is history.
My second positive cross path with AA Tafida was in April 1992. I had then left NTA and was working as Head of Information and Protocol, at the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) Kaduna. He sent a message through an NTA Kaduna staff to tell me to call him. I did. “The Governor of Adamawa State, Alhaji Saleh Michika, will be in Kaduna tomorrow, go to the Adamawa Governor’s lodge and meet him. I recommended you to him to serve as his Chief Press Secretary. I know your job pedigree, you are excellent.” On this one too, the rest as they say, is history.
AA Tafida meant a lot to me than I can ever put to words, just like I know many Nigerians feel the same about him. We are all going to miss him. May Allah grant him Jannatul-Firdaus as his final abode.
Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaihi Raji’un.
Aminu Iyawa is Nigeria’s Ambassador to Mexico
