Recently I reported in a post how I found on Facebook, my principal/provost, a Briton, Mr. Paul Turton, at the then Advanced Teachers' College, Kafanchan, which later became College of Education, Kafanchan, and now Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan-Waya.
Well, today, I stumbled on my Literature teacher in the same school, Malam Yahaya Lawal Rafindaɗi, in a mosque in Rafindaɗi area, Katsina.
I had gone there to pray and while looking around for kettle to use in performing ablution and not finding any, somebody who had just finished offered me his kettle. As I made to take it, I suddenly came face to face with my teacher, Malam Yahaya Lawal Rafindaɗi...
I instantly recognized him and as he was sitting down, I went down on my knees, El-Rufai style, to greet him. Of course, he didn't recognize me at first until I told him. I hadn't seen him since 1982 when I graduated from that school and went for NYSC (NCE graduates participated in the scheme at that time).
To say that Malam Yahaya was the best Literature teacher that ever taught me that subject is to put it mildly. Soft spoken, ever so humble, he deepened my appreciation for the subject since the time I became a passionate student of the subject in my secondary school days, even though I was a science student. He taught us prose and made me see, "Things Fall Apart", from a different perspective I read about it in secondary school. And this later stood me in good stead in my undergraduate days at ABU Zaria.
Everybody, including the lecturers, respected Malam Yahaya Lawal. He was the Coordinator of Machok Campus of the school. As a matter of fact, he got me supplementary admission into the school after admission had closed in 1979, together with Lawal Dauda Mani and late Tukur Ibrahim Nabature Funtua.
Malam Yahaya was every inch a gentleman to the core. He never allowed himself to break any law or rule, not even traffic law. He used to drive his brand new Peugeot 504 GR at 100 kilometres per hour all the way from Manchok to Katsina, a distance of about 500 kilometres. He exuded confidence and professionalism, a seasoned administrator who everybody believed would one day become the provost of the college.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Malam Yahaya Lawal Rafindaɗi, still alive, still as intelligent and as sharp as they come. And make no mistake about that.
Kassim Kankia, Uba Sule, Aminu Shehu Kogo Faskari, Bayei Joseph, Musa Zubairu, Kabir Yar'adua, Ibrahim Abubakar, remember him?