The life and legacies of Da DB Zang
Da DB Zang, a senior miner, politician, philanthropist, and community leader, died on May 29, 2008. The late Danboyi Gyel, as he was known at the dawn of his prominence, was born on October 7, 1927. He was one of three boys out of seven siblings. Coming from a modest family, he became a breadwinner at an early age hunting birds in the rocky hills and valleys of his Gyel home, which he sold, at the Bukuru market in present-day Jos South in Nigeria’s Plateau State. . It wasn’t long before he found work at the Amalgamated Tins Mines of Nigeria (ATMN). His natural inclination to hard work led him to become a mine supervisor in a very short period.
During the 1940s, the Prime Minister of the Northern Region, Sir Amadu Bello, introduced an initiative to empower the people of the Northern Region by providing financial support to selected individuals to start businesses. DB Zang’s experience of working in the mines marked him. Therefore, he benefited from the empowerment program. The resulting company, DB Zang Limited, started operations in the 1950s and was finally incorporated in 1962.
The company played a major role in boosting the popularity of the now-mining entrepreneur to the point where he considered running for a parliamentary seat. However, he lost. Parliament at the time was made up of elected and non-elected members. He was lucky enough to find his way into the Northern Region parliament in Kaduna as an unelected member of parliament. There he headed the Mining Commission of Parliament. He added that position to the one he held before becoming a parliamentarian, that of president of the African Miners’ Association.
Da Zang, who never had the privilege of formal education, looked around his community to discover that if nothing is done, generation after generation, his people will remain ignorant. This realization inspired the Gyel Commercial College, which he founded in 1966. The institution later evolved to become the Zang Secondary Commercial College in 1976.
The 1966 military coup ended his parliamentary responsibilities. He devoted all his attention to DB Zang Limited and the school he founded. In the twilight years of the military junta in the 1970s, he became chairman of the Nigerian People’s Party, NPP, in Plateau state. During the 1979 general election, the party won and established a government in Plateau State with Chief Solomon Lar as state governor. At the height of his mining business, it is said that he was so successful that he could be listed among the fifty richest Nigerians. However, the nation’s presidency was established by the Nigerian National Party (NPN) who viewed the NPP as a threat. States where NPP established the government were denied the grant. It was said that he had assumed the financial burden of the party in the state.
Da DB Zang’s relevance continued in successive governments. In 1995 he became a member of the National Board of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). When the Plateau regional branch of the PTF was inaugurated in 1997, he became president until 1999 when the government of the general. Olusegun Obasanjo put an end to the PTF and its activities.
Da DB Zang lived to make evident the fact that where there is a will, there is always a way. He remembered his modest education with a hint of regret, but it was never an insurmountable barrier on his path to greatness. He was undoubtedly one of the foremost Nigerians with four national honors to his name. Today’s generation of youth may learn that education facilitates success, but the lack of it doesn’t get in the way of big dreams.
When Sir Amadu Bello needed people to empower, he insisted that people with prior experience demonstrate that they can manage the resources of the empowerment program well. The deceased miner multiplied the resources in millions, benefiting many and the nation. This is a lesson that merit rather than nepotism works in the interest of the nation.
The high school he founded grew to become one of the most successful schools in size and quality of its products. The school’s products are found all over the world and have played a notable role in shaping not only Nigeria but the world at large. The school, mining, and other organizations she participated in created jobs for thousands of people.
Da DB Zang lived into his 80s in a country where the life expectancy of a mother is 45 years. This in itself is an achievement in life. It is a mirror of the discipline that characterizes his life. He married twelve wives with whom he had thirty-six children. He was able to support this large family with great-grandchildren and died of cancer in a London cancer clinic.