The pioneer Director, Information Technology Department, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Alhaji Mohammed Danjuma Usman, is dead.
He was rushed to the hospital late in the afternoon where he died yesterday night, Monday 20th April, after a brief illness.
Born in Mubi, Adamawa State, in 1958, Danjuma grew up in Numan where he commenced primary education at Numan III Primary School in 1971 and completed it in 1976.
He thereafter gained admission into the Comprehensive Secondary School, Numan, in 1976.
He spent only two years before proceeding to Government Technical Secondary School in 1978.
Brilliant and unrelenting, the young Danjuma finished from Technical Secondary School in record time – 1981 and worked briefly with the former Gongola Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Yola.
Ever eager to pursue his academics, he left the shores of the country to United Kingdom where he attended the London School of Radio Television Studies from 1983 to 1984.
He returned home in 1984 and joined GBC Yola as a producer III heading Hausa and Fulfulde Languages.
That was the position he held until 1987 when he was awarded a scholarship to study Broadcasting and Cinema at Columbia College, Hollywood by the defunct Gongola State Government.
While still at the London School of Radio Television Studies, Danjuma also joined, Columbia College, Hollywood, Los Angeles California, USA in 1988.
He was in the college between 1988-1992 where he studied and graduated with Bachelor of Arts in Broadcasting and Cinema and majored in Cinema.
At the time of his graduation from CCHW, he had reached the exemption age from National Youth Corp Service (NYSC) programme. Resting only for a few months, in 1993 Danjuma resumed at the University of La Verne, La Verne, California, where in 1995 he graduated with a Master of Arts degree in Communications.
With a first degree in broadcasting and cinema, a second degree in communications, two years later, he decided to explore other areas of study by attending the Strayer University, Washington DC where he enrolled in 1997 and graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Networking Engineering.
He joined the former Gongola Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Yola in 1981 where he worked as a producer for seven years before proceeding for further education.
After one and half years of study in the United Kingdom, he joined the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), London in 1990 as its Correspondent in Los Angeles, United States of America. He was with BBC until 1994 when he moved over to the Hausa Service of Voice of America (VOA) as an international broadcaster in the Hausa Service.
The time spent working for VOA has accorded him greater experience in Information Technology and media convergence.
There he gained experience in the use of Dalet Professional Recording Software.
He used that opportunity to acquire skills in Information Technology and media convergence.
By 1997, he had to briefly devote time to academics until 2001 when he returned to McDonald Douglas Technical Services as Assistant Network Administrator.
His stay with McDonald was brief as he joined Verizon ADSL Network Provisions in 2002 as a Network provision Engineer.
While engaged in various jobs in the USA, Mohammed Danjuma Usman was also in touch with Nigeria as he helped facilitate development of Information Technology in some institutions like the Federal University of Technology, Yola, Sokoto State Polytechnic, and Sokoto State College of Education, where in 2007, he helped set up Local Area Networks for the two institutions of higher learning.
In 2007, he decided to return fully to Nigeria to become the pioneer Director Information Technology (D.IT) in the Voice of Nigeria and later Executive Director Information Technology, retiring in 2015.
Happily married with children, Muhammad Danjuma Usman was member of the Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria, COREN.
The Director-General, VON, Osita Okechukwu in a condolence message, asked God to grant him eternal rest and his family the fortitude to bear the loss.
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