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Former NIMC DG Extols Abubakar at 90
The immediate past Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Aliyu Aziz, has paid glowing tributes to a former Minister of Defence, Prof. Iya Abubakar, as he clocks 90 years on December 13.
In a statement he titled ‘Celebrating a Visionary at 90’, Aziz said it was with immense pride and gratitude that he joined the celebration of an extraordinary milestone in the life of an exceptional leader and trailblazer – Senator Prof. Iya Abubakar.
According to Aziz, himself an ID4Africa Emeritus Ambassador, at 90, Prof.
Abubakar’s legacy stands tall “as a symbol of intellectual brilliance, visionary leadership, and boundless dedication to the advancement of education, technology, and nation-building.”
Recalling his encounter with Prof. Abubakar, Aziz stated: “I am particularly privileged to be one of the greatest beneficiaries of the Iya Abubakar Computer Center – an incredible institution that was far ahead of its time. It is astonishing to recall how he procured and established what was then the largest computer in Africa, a CDC Cyber 72 series with a remarkable 64 kilobytes of memory.
“This technological marvel was accompanied by a line printer capable of printing 1,200 lines per minute, a digital plotter, and a suite of high-level programming languages such as FORTRAN, COBOL, PASCAL, BASIC, and APL, among others. His foresight and determination revolutionized computational capacity in the region and inspired countless minds, including mine.”