President Muhammadu Buhari has described the death of Kano State Islamic scholar and billionaire businessman, Alhaji Isyaku Rabiu, as a colossal loss not only not to the field of learning, but also the business sector.
The President said, “No tribute can do justice to the amazing virtues of Isyaku Rabiu in view of his vast contributions to scholarship, industrial investments and development in the country.”
The presidential reaction to the death of the leader of Jama’atu Tijaniyyah Sufism in Nigeria was contained in a statement issued on Thursday by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu.
According to the statement, President Buhari said, “The late Rabiu had the remarkable qualities of combining scholarship and vast business investments that created job opportunities for hundreds of people.”
He noted that “the deceased had attained success through honest labour and resourcefulness which helped him achieve fame in life, and such virtues are not common in the context of today’s realities where many resort to some other means to gain success.”
President Buhari urged the children of the deceased to build on the remarkable legacy of their father, adding that the best honour they could do to him is to live by his good examples.
While condoling the family, the government and the people of Kano State over this great loss, the President prayed to Allah to bless and forgive the soul of the deceased.
Isiyaku Rabiu was born to the family of Muhammadu Rabiu Dan Tinki, a Quranic preacher from the Bichi area of Kano State who led his own Quranic school.
From 1936 to 1942, Rabiu’s attended his father’s school learning the Quran and Arabic. He then moved to Maiduguri, Borno for further Islamic education. After spending four years in Maiduguri, he returned to Kano prepared to be an Islamic scholar. In 1949, Rabiu became an independent teacher of Arabic and the Qur’an who had among his audience, Ibrahim Musa Gashash.
In the early 1950s while still a teacher, Rabiu began to engage in private enterprise and established Isyaku Rabiu & Sons in 1952. Originally the firm acted as an agent of UAC and was trading in sewing machines, religious books and bicycles.
In 1958, the firm had a breakthrough when Kaduna Textile Limited was established and it became one of the early distributors.
Rabiu emerged as the leading distributor of the company in Northern Nigeria.[2] In 1963, he joined a consortium of businessmen from Kano who came together to form the Kano Merchants Trading Company.[3] The establishments continued to survive withstanding competition from foreign products. In 1970, he established a suit and packing factory.
Rabiu was a supporter of National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and likely benefited from sate patronage as a result.
Isyaku Rabiu & Sons founded by Rabiu is a family operated holding company with a history of investment in manufacturing, insurance, banking and real estate. In the 1970s, the group invested in manufacturing with its first investment being the Kano Suit and Packing Cases company, a factory producing suit cases and handbags, the firm was a joint venture with Lebanese investors.
In 1972, he formed the Bagauda Textile Mill, manufacturing woven cloths for uniforms.[4] From then on he established a series of ventures in different segments of the economy including frozen food service, real estate, sugar and a motor vehicle and parts distribution company specialized in Daihatsu products.
However, unfavorable exchange rates and economic conditions forced the company to scale back on manufacturing and returning to its trading roots.
