[Daily Trust] Many have often wondered how Malam Ahmadu got the surname Coomassie, which was distinctly alien to Katsina. When Western education arrived in the North, in the early 1900s, students were registered mononymously, with only their first names. Later, towns of origin were added as their surnames, reflecting the Hausa culture of avoiding direct reference to their parents' names. That can explain why, during that period, we had notable figures with names such as Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Aminu Kano, Isa Kaita,