In any case Mallam Isa Funtua is among the few, whose inputs are still valuable in Nigeria’s current story. Born in Funtua, Katsina State, he was a pioneer student of the Federal Training Centre, Kaduna. He trained as an administrative officer at the Institute of Administration, Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria, and also as an administrator at Manchester University in the UK.
He was the Monitor General of Course 9 of the prestigious National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru. Funtua served the Katsina Native Authority for seven years as an Administrative Officer. He later served in various ministries in the defunct Northern Region before being appointed as the Personnel Manager of the 10,500 strong United Nigerian Textile Company, Kaduna by the Northern Region government.
Funtua was the Founder of Bullet International Nigeria Limited (the largest wholly-owned indigenous construction company) which built most of the iconic public buildings in Abuja. He was the founding Managing Director of the New Africa Holdings (publishers of the defunct Democrat newspapers).
He was elected Vice President to the late MKO Abiola as President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, NPAN. He declined to succeed MKO as President while the latter being incarcerated by General Sani Abacha though he later became the President of the NPAN.
Mallam Isa Funtua was the youngest minister in the Shagari administration, was a staunch defender of a free press and free speech, philanthropist, humanist, chairman, and director of many successful companies. Until his death on Monday, Funtua was a life patron of the NPAN.
As a member of the 1994-1995 Constitutional Conference, the statesman was on the committee that came up with models in key areas of Nigeria’s existence. One of such was a special committee of 37 people on zoning and rotational presidency, which resolved that rotation of power between the North and South be entrenched in the Constitution.
He died in Abuja while undergoing a routine medical check-up. He was 78 years old. He reportedly suffered a massive heart attack during the medical check-up.
