File photograph of Late Mallam Funtua
By Editor
Breaking news reaching our newsroom has it that the founding Managing Director of the defunct Democrat newspaper and former President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Mallam Ismaila Isa Funtua, has passed on.
The news report said he suffered cardiac arrest on Monday night before succumbing to the cold hands of death. He was life patron of Newspaper’s Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), an umbrella body of all newspaper publishes in the country. He was also the Chairman of Bulet Construction company.
He was born on January 1942. He received Islamic education, where he learnt the Qur’an, Islamic jurisprudence and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. He later attended the Commercial College in Zaria, Federal Training Centre in Kaduna and the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria. He also attended the University of Manchester and was the Monitor-General of Course 9 of the Senior Executive Course at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies.
A respected administrator, Funtua started his career in the Katsina Native Authority, where he eventually rose through the ranks working in the defunct North Central State. He later joined the United Textiles Limited in Kaduna, working as a personnel manager where he showcased great managerial finesse. Isa Funtua later became the Federal Minister of Water Resources in the Second Nigerian Republic. He was a member of the 1994 Constitutional Conference under the late General Sani Abacha was listed as a target by the regime.
He then retired into private business where he became a director of several companies. He was the founder of Funtua Textiles Limited and managing director of the Democrat Newspaper. He was also the founder and Chairman of Bulet Construction Company (one of the largest indigenous construction companies in Nigeria), responsible for building several federal buildings. He was a Life Patron and the President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria.
The late businessman who is said to be one of the closest allies of Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari according to the news will be buried on Tuesday according to Islamic rites.
