Preeminent English novelist from Northern Nigeria, Labo Yari, is dead.
He died on Saturday at the Federal Medical Centre Katsina at the age of 81 years.
In 1981 Yari was among the handful Nigerian writers that teamed up with Chinua Achebe in midwifing the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and was one of its longest serving trustees.
The most famed of the five books he authored was his 1973 magnum opus, Climate of Corruption, the first novel in English language to be published in Northern Nigeria, and his 2007 tell-all biography of the Emir of Katsina, Muhammadu Dikko (1865-1944).
The April 14, 1942 born author also published “A house in the dark” (short stories) in 1985, “Man of the Moment” (a novel) in 1992, and “A day without cockcrow” (short stories) in 1995.
