Son of the Late Governor of Kaduna State, Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, Dr. Sagir, has declared that even as a son of a governor, he was once a taxi driver in Lagos State.
He said he was driving a taxi as part-time work when he went for the one-year mandatory National Youth Service in Ogun State when his father was then governor of Kaduna in early 1981.
Recall that the former governor died on November 11, 2020, in his residence in Kaduna, the state capital.
Sagir, in a chat with newsmen in Kaduna yesterday, recounted that being “independent” was part of the values instilled in him by his late father whom he described as “my good friend”.
According to him, one of the values his late father taught him was for him to be independent whenever he finds himself.
The late governor’s son, who said one of his wishes in life was to meet his father again, also recounted how he was a frequent visitor to the late Afrobeat Legend, Fela Anikulapo’s shrine in Lagos.
Sagir, a Permanent Secretary before he was relieved of the position six months before retirement age by ex-governor Nasir El-Rufa’i, noted that in order to make the late Afrobeat Legend truly believe that he (Sagir) was Balarabe Musa’s son, he personally took the responsibility of taking Fela to meet the then Lagos State Governor, the late Lateef Jakande.
According to him, “I didn’t take myself as the governor’s son or whatever. My father trained me not to look at myself as anything. I was as ordinary as anybody. I go anywhere I feel like going
“My father knew I was a taxi driver. He knew everything about me just as I knew everything about him. He was not only my father but a good friend”.
On his last conversation with his late father, Sagir said their discussion centred on the “ordinary Nigerians,” noting that the way things were going “governance was getting poorer and poorer and trust, values are no longer there.”
“We also discussed the troubling insecurity. He told me about the major causes of insecurity and how the government was doing nothing. Stealing public funds were a major issue he was emphasising before he died”, he added.
