Presidential candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC) in the 1993 presidential election, Bashir Tofa, is dead.
Mr Tofa died at 74 at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital in the early hours of Monday.
Mr Tofa, a Kanuri who hails from Kano State, contested against MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 1993 presidential election adjudged to have been won by Abiola, but was annulled by the Ibrahim Babangida regime.
He was born in Kano, Northwest Nigeria, to a Kanuri family on June 20, 1947and had his primary education at Shahuci Junior Primary, Kano before moving to continue his studies at 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 Royal Exchange Insurance company from 1967 to 1968. From 1970 to 1973, he attended City of London College.
Tofa joined politics in 1976 when he was a councilor of Dawakin Tofa Local Government Council. A year later in 1977, he was elected into the Constituent Assembly.
During the Nigerian Second Republic, he was at various times the secretary of the Kano branch of NPN, and later became the party’s national financial secretary.
During the Third Republic, he was part of the Liberal Movement which metamorphosed to Liberal Convention when it was not registered as a political party.
Tofa joined NRC in 1990 and 1993, when the Babangida administration introduced the Option A4 system, Tofa was elected the presidential candidate.
During the party primaries, he defeated Pere Ajunwa, Joe Nwodo and Dalhatu Tafida to clinch the NRC ticket. His running mate in the election was Sylvester Ugoh, a former governor of the now defunct central bank of Biafra.
