Junaid  Salik Muhammed, native of Kano city in Dala local government area of Kano State, is a man of uncommon quality. Born of noble background, from a clan that traces its roots to Usman Dan Fodio, the Jihadist, Muhammed, 62, is a surgeon, academic, politician, administrator and campaigner for social justice. Presently, he is the convener and group chairman, Coalition of Concerned Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen, a group that is in the forefront of advocacy for change in Northern Nigeria.

Tall, fair complexioned and of average body build, he readily comes across as a man that is simple and patriotic. Impressions about him nearly misled reporters from Newswatch who met him for an interview in Abuja, last week.  Muhammed had emerged from a residential building within a private school premises in Wuse, Abuja, unaccompanied by any aide or security guard. Dressed in casual apparel, he was mistaken for a driver who was sent to usher in the reporters for the interview. The reporters were still in wonder, if the casually dressed man was, indeed, the much talked about   leader of the new elite group from the North when he introduced himself.

Muhammed is no ordinary Nigerian. He is the symbol of a new generation of Northerners, who are angry that the region  has not much to show for its political domination of the country since Nigeria’s independence in 1960. In the past six months, he has been in the forefront of the agitation for change, and how best the North can be turned around, away from the region’s present state of poverty, illiteracy, insecurity, underdevelopment and bad leadership.

The group he is leading believes that leadership change is central to its programme of turning around the North. It sees the Arewa Consultative Forum as part of the problem of the North and wants it out of the way now. “We found that the so-called ACF while well meant at the beginning, they are terribly misguided and are not living with the times.  Since the death of Sunday Awoniyi, the ACF has become comatose. All they do, most of them in their seventies, is sit down and reminisce about the past with nostalgia, about what happened when Sardauna was alive, when they formed NPC and so on. The NPC was formed in the early 1950s; you cannot transpose the experience of the 1950s into the 3rd millennium. It’s unrealistic.”

Mohammed is a practical man. In leading his group on a voyage of change, he readily demonstrates a lot of knowledge of warfare tactics: when to push forward and when to withdraw. He did this in the allocation of roles to present crop of governors in the states carved out from the old Northern region. Although the governors are widely perceived as part of the Northern leadership problems at present, Mohammed sees them as useful tools for the battle to turn around the North.

 Born April 12, 1950, Muhammed had his first level of education at Kuka and Gwammaja Primary Schools in Kano city. From there, he moved to Government College, Birnin Kudu, from where he passed out in 1968, with a Division One in West African School Certificate examination.

He also excelled overseas where he enrolled to study medicine at the Kharkov State University, Ukraine, in 1969. He came out with a First Class in Doctor of Medicine, M.D, degree. He later obtained a Post Graduate certificate in 1978, from the London University Institute of Neurology.

Given his resolve to contribute to the development of his society, Muhammed joined politics in 1979, upon his return from studies overseas, and became a founding member of the People’s Redemption Party, PRP, led then by the late Aminu Kano. He was made national director, Research and Party Education, and later secretary of the party, from 1980-1984.

Through PRP, he contested and won election into the House of Representatives in 1979 and later in 1983. In the House, he was made PRP Chief Whip and Parliamentary Party leader, 1979-1984. He also served in various committees of the House till 1983 when the military struck, and overthrew democratic rule in the country.

Muhammed has also served his fatherland in various other capacities. He was a commissioner in the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC, now Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. He was also chairman of the National Orientation Agency, NOA, from 1993-1994. He is married with five children.