Another National Conference Member Dies

Muhammad Nur Alkali, a former professor and a delegate at the ongoing National Conference in Abuja, has died, according to a statement released by the confab’s secretariat.

A prominent Islamic voice, ...Mr. Alkali was one of six delegates chosen to represent the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (SCIA) at the conference which is charged with outlining the terms for Nigeria’s political future.

Mr. Alkali’s death brings to four the number of delegates who have died since the conference was inaugurated earlier this year.

According to the statement released by the confab’s secretariat and signed by Akpandem James, Mr. Alkali died in his home in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, on the night of Friday, August 1, 2014. He was 68.

The deceased delegate was a professor of history at the University of Maiduguri where he also served two terms as the vice chancellor, from 1985 to 1992. In addition to his teaching and administrative career at the University of Maiduguri, Mr. Alkali worked as the director general of the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru, near Jos, the capital of Plateau State. He was also the chairman of a presidential advisory committee appointed by the late Nigerian dictator, General Sani Abacha. More recently, he was a member of a committee on insecurity in the northeast, exploring ways of addressing the growing atmosphere of sectarian terrorism that has made much of Nigeria’s northeast a zone of violence and instability.

Hamma Misau
A prominent Muslim, Mr. Alkali is expected to be buried later today in Maiduguri in accordance with Islamic practices.

Chairman of the national confab, retired Justice Idris Kutigi, expressed his deep distress at the passing of Mr. Alkali. Mr. Kutigi has conveyed his condolences to the family of the late delegate as well as to the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs.

Other delegates who have died were Hamma Misau, a lawyer who represented retired police officers, from Bauchi State, Mohammed Jumare, who represented Kaduna State, and Dora Akunyili, a former minister who represented Anambra State