A FORMER presidential candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC) in the 1993 election Bashir Othman Tofa is dead.
He reportedly died after a brief illness in the early hours of Monday at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital.
Here are a few things to know about Tofa.
He was born in Kano to a Kanuri family in 1947.
He had his primary education at Shahuci Junior Primary, Kano, and City Senior Primary School in Kano.
From 1962 to 1966, he attended Provincial College, Kano.
After completing his studies at the Provincial School, he worked for the Royal Exchange Insurance company from 1967 to 1968.
From 1970 to 1973, he attended City of London College.
Tofa was a businessman, an oil trader and an industrialist.
He was chairman of International Petro-Energy Company (IPEC) and Abba Othman and Sons Ltd.
He was also a board member in Impex Ventures, Century Merchant Bank and General Metal Products Ltd.
Tofa’s sojourn into politics started in 1976 when he was a councillor of Dawakin Tofa Local Government Council.
In 1977, he was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly.
During the Second Republic, Tofa was the secretary of the Kano branch of National Republican Convention (NPN).
During the Third Republic, he was part of the Liberal Movement, which metamorphosed into the Liberal Convention when it was not registered as a political party.
He was a former presidential candidate of the NRC in the 1993 election, one of the two parties created by the Ibrahim Babaginda administration.
During the NRC party primaries, he defeated Joe Nwodo, Dalhatu Tafida and Pere Ajunwato to clinch the party ticket.
In the June 12 election, the results announced by Humphrey Nwosu-led National Electoral Commission (NEC) before the military stopped the process indicated that Tofa had received 2.3 million votes while Abiola got 4.3 million.
Sylvester Ugoh, a former governor of the now-defunct Central Bank of Biafra, was his running mate during the election.
In the election, late Mashood Abiola, the Social Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, defeated Tofa in his home state, Kano.
However, the election was annulled by the former Nigeria Military Head of State Ibrahim Babangida, sparking nationwide protests.
Before June 12, he had a personal relationship with Abiola when the latter was Ogun State chairman of NPN while he was the party’s national financial secretary in the Second Republic.
Tofa, according to reports, died early Monday morning after suffering from a protracted illness.
A reporter with the ICIR
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