By Eric Teniola
BETWEEN 1988 and 1993, Alhaji Hamzat Rafindandi Zayyad (1937-2002) dominated the headlines in this country. He was in the news not because he was the first chartered accountant from the old Northern Nigeria. He became an accountant in 1963. He was in the news not because he was a mentor and godfather to many public officers, especially from Northern states, including the current governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, a surveyor who has been elected twice as the governor.
Alhaji Hamzat was in the news because he was appointed by General Ibrahim Babangida in 1988 as head of the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation in Nigeria. He studied accountancy in Leeds. While in Leeds he was very close to another Nigerian who also studied accountancy in Leeds at that time, Olu Christopher Akindolire, 85, the former managing director of Tate and Lyle sugar company who is now the Lisa of Idanre in Ondo State.
In the early ‘60s, Alhaji Zayyad…
Source: Vanguard Newspaper
