THE State Government has acquired the residence of a late Nigerian diplomat, Yusuf Mataima-Sule, and converted it into a democratic centre, and museum.
The residence will now house the Yusuf Maitama-Sule Centre for Advancement of Democratic Politics and Good Governance.
In a statement today, Kano State Commissioner for Information, Muhammad Garba, said the government has started renovating the residence of Mr Maitama-Sule, who was once the country’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Maitama-Sule died in July 2017 of pneumonia and a chest infection at a hospital in Cairo, Egypt.
Garba said the state government had budgeted N621.6 million for the construction of the museum and the centre.
Garba explained that the government undertook the project due to the need to preserve the culture and history of the people of the state for future generations.
He said the centre will also aid tourism and be used for research purposes.
He said the centre will engage in capacity building, documentation, and digitisation of the cultural heritage of the Kano people, as well as a possible productive partnership with educational institutions and sister organisations within and outside the country.
Before he became a diplomat, Maitama-Sule was named the minister of mines and power in 1954 at the age of 29.
He supervised the establishment of the Nigeria Oil Company and nominated Nigerian businessmen on the Nigeria/Shell joint board.
Among Sule’s nominees were Louis Ojukwu, a prominent businessman and father of the late Biafran leader, Emeka Ojukwu, as well as Aliko Dangote’s maternal grandfather, Sanusi Dantata.
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