Professor Aminu Mohammed Dorayi is a renowned educationist, an elder statesman, distinguished Abusite, and respected professor of Chemistry. He is a former president of the ABU Students Union Government (SUG) for 1966/1967 and the man who set up the Sharada Industrial Estate in Kano and organize the first trade fair in Nigeria.
He is also a record-breaker who broke a world record when he drove his Peugeot 504 from London to Kano, a distance of about 4,000miles, in 24 days.
Born in Kano in 1942, his father was an educated and trained medical personnel, who interacted with doctors and nurses of British origin. Aminu Mohammed Dorayi is a professor of Chemistry and a distinguished alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria. He is known to be the first organizer of a trade fair in Nigeria and once doubled as the Student Union Government (SUG) president of ABU for the year 1966/1967.
Professor Dorayi is usually referred to as the “Adventurous Chemist” because he has so much passion for anything adventure generally. Sources claim that Professor Dorayi’s epic London to Kano journey was inspired by the various adventure books he read such as the Mungo Parks, Marcopolos, and many others. While speaking about his wonderful adventure, Professor Dorayi once revealed that he bought his Peugeot 504 car for about 1000 pounds back then. Below is an interesting excerpt from Professor Dorayi’s narration about his life, epic journey and more in his words:
“England is an Island. So when you reach Southampton you have to take a boat, you and your car, to Calais, France. I drove through Paris and so on through Madrid, Gibraltar. So when you reach Gibraltar, you reach the Mediterranean Sea, where you also take a ferry to Algeria.
”From there you enter the road all through, though there is no road, in the desert, you’re guided by your compass, your map.”
“I became very keen during my PhD in the US. I had a Volkswagen which I bought for about 600 dollars at that time. I used it to drive across the desert over there.”
”I was assisted by the British Automobile Association (AA). They gave me the guidelines, the map, the route. They told me what to do in crossing the desert, and what not to do. So, I was quite prepared.”
The professor recalled that because he attended a secondary technical school, and so was technically inclined, he was able to service the car. When he got to Algeria, the rain was falling heavily. He saw kids of ages 13 years downward very agitated and weeping. His inquiries revealed that it had not rained for 14 years, and since that as the first time the kids were seeing rain, they were really scared.
