A professor at the Bayero University Kano (BUK), Monsuru Lasun-Emiola, is dead.
Mr Lasun-Emiola, a professor of Physical Health Education, died on Wednesday at the university clinic after a brief illness.
Mr Lasun-Emiola, an indigene of Oyo State, until his death was a senior lecturer with the Department of Physical and Health Education, Faculty of Education of the university.
Announcing the death in the early hours of Thursday, a senior lecturer at the institution, Garba Sheka, described the late professor as a devoted Muslim.
The cause of his death was not disclosed.
However, Kano has recorded dozens of high profile deaths many described as mysterious especially as the deadly coronavirus continues to ravage the nation.
These deaths include that of six professors, a former Grand Khadi, a former state chairman of State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB), former commissioner of education, former editor of state owned Triumph Newspapers in addition to several others.
String of deaths
The first professor to die in this sequence was Aliyu Dikko of Bayero University Kano, who died on Saturday April 25.
Before his demise, Mr Dikko, a professor of physiology, was a lecturer at the Department of Human Physiology, College of Health Sciences, Bayero University, Kano. He was also a former Deputy Vice Chancellor at the same institution.
He was involved in the opening of three faculties of Medicine/Basic Medical Sciences in Bayero University, Kaduna State University and Yusuf Maitama Sule University.
Another professor who died on the same day is Ibrahim Ayagi. A renowned professor of economics, Mr Ayagi attended Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, 1963 -70 and proceeded to University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the USA from 1970 – 74.
As Kano State Commissioner of Education in the 1970s, Mr Ayagi had set up Kano’s celebrated Twin Science Secondary Schools at Dawakin Kudu and Dawakin Tofa.
Some analysts believed the graduates of these two schools became the crème de la crème of medicine and science in the Northern states.
Mr Ayagi was also the chairman of the National Economic Intelligence Committee (NEIC) of the Obasanjo administration and proprietor of Hassan Ibrahim Gwarzo Secondary School.
On April 26, Balarabe Maikaba of the Department of Mass Communication, BUK, died after an illness.
A professor, Mr Maikaba was the former head of Mass Communication Department, BUK, and a visiting lecturer to Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, and Kaduna State University (KASU).
On the same day, Sabo Kurawa of Department of Sociology passed on after a protracted illness.
The academic held positions of deputy vice chancellor, administration and subsequently deputy vice chancellor, academics at the Bayero university.
He is survived by his wife, Dije Kurawa, a professor of Accounting at Bayero University and many children including Najib Kurawa, a lecturer at the Federal University Dutse.
On Monday April 27, Uba Adamu, a retired academic with Kano State Polytechnic died as a result of age-related complications at the age of 85.
Born in the old quarters of Daneji in Kano in December, 1935, Mr Adamu obtained a BSc in political history in 1968 at Abdullahi Bayero College, now Bayero University.
He also attended the University of Ife, (today’s Obafemi Awolowo University) for a short course in public administration.
He is survived by two wives, 17 children and 54 grandchildren. His eldest son is Abdalla Uba-Adamu, the Vice-Chancellor of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).
Also on Monday 27, Ghali Umar, another lecturer, died.
The late Umar was a former head of department and a senior lecturer at the Department of Architecture, Kano University of Science and Technology.
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