07/12/2020
Remembering Alhaji Musa Daggash,
OFR (born Musa Jibrin Muhammad Al-amin)
Alhaji Musa Daggash was a retired Nigerian civil servant, who served as Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Mines and Power, then the Ministry of Defence and finally the Ministry of Transport. Daggash was part of the cohort of civil servants referred to as Super Permanent Secretaries. From 15 January 1966 to 3 June 1967, Nigeria had no Ministers, that was a period of over fifteen months. The two military regimes of Major General Aguiyi Ironsi and General Yakubu Gowon made permanent secretaries members of their Federal Executive Councils. These individuals were later referred to as "Super Permanent Secretaries".
Daggash was part of the first group of Northerners who were transferred to the Federal Public Service during the Nigerianisation policy in the 1950s.
He retired from the civil service on 26 March 1969. Daggash was appointed as the chairman of the Corporations Standing Tenders Board in the same year by Gen. Yakubu Gowon. Daggash was appointed as the first Nigerian to chair the Board of Barclays Bank (now Union Bank of Nigeria), from 1973 to 1976. He became the first General Manager of the Chad Basin Development Authority in 1973. He also served as Chairman of the Borno State Local Government Service Commission, Public Complaints Commission and Borno State Civil Service Commission
BIOGRAPHER:
Musa Daggash was born in about 1918 at Kirenowa, Marte local government area of Borno State to Jibrin Muhammad Al-amin and Habibata Jidda, he was of the Shuwa Arab ethnic origin. His paternal grandfather, Mu'allim Al-amin was a well to do farmer and cattle rearer. Daggash was the third of nine children, Musa grew up in a traditional Shuwa Arab home, his parents imparted in him the fundamentals of Islamic training received by a child in a traditional Muslim society.
In 1924 the senior superintendent of education Mr. S.L. Price arrived Kirenowa with the aim of enrolling a set of pupils in the provincial school. By virtue of being one of those with children, Jibrin (Musa's father) was told to bring a child from his household for enrolment. Musa was admitted and registered to the Maiduguri Provincial School on 3 May 1924. Having passed through the travails of the Provincial Primary School, Musa proceeded to Borno Middle School in 1930. Musa was among the five Borno Middle School pupils admitted into Katsina Higher College in 1934.
In 1937 after completing Katsina Higher College, Musa and five of his colleagues were selected for training in forestry. Musa Daggash and his colleagues were thus registered as the first set of forestry students at the Samaru Agricultural School on 1 May 1938. During the second part of his technical training, Musa was attached to the Kano-Katsina Desiccation Survey, situated at Katsina. He was placed on a salary of £36 per annum. A month after starting work in katsina, he accompanied Messers W.A. Fairbairn and Ian W.G. Cameron on a fact-finding journey to Agades, Tahaoua and Sokoto. Musa later mentioned that the reason for the trip was a publication in 1937, which indicated that the Sahara Desert was encroaching, the author of the publication was Professor Stebbing of Edinburgh University.
In 1950 Musa was nominated to attend a course at the imperial Forestry Institute (now the Department of Plant Sciences) University of Oxford. On 2 March 1950 Musa was interviewed by the Departmental Selection Board, and upon the Board's strong recommendation a more Central Board screened him again. Musa's admission to this prestigious institution of learning was approved by the end of July 1950. Daggash arrived in the United Kingdom on 14 September 1950, in good time to attend the Colonial Office Summer School, Pembroke College in the University of Cambridge from 18 to 28 September. Daggash completed his studies at oxford and returned to work in November 1951.
Later, in 1960 Daggash decided to pursue a diploma in Public Administration from the University of Manchester, in order to equip himself for a career in Administration. He enrolled in the Department of Overseas Administration at The University of Manchester which was just established in 1960, to run short courses in public administration to civil servants from newly independent former colonies.
May the Almighty ALLAH grant you with a place in JANNATUL FIRDOUSSI...Ameen
