ADIEU SULEIMAN MOHAMMED!

Thursday morning, as usual, we were all congregated at the Media Trust Garden for the weekly Editorial Board Meeting. The venue had been set – the seats were all arranged, and tea, coffee, water, banana, tomtom were generously distributed around the tables. It seemed Suleiman Mohammed (Trust Managing Editor and the Editorial Board’s ‘Permanent Secretary’ […]

Thursday morning, as usual, we were all congregated at the Media Trust Garden for the weekly Editorial Board Meeting. The venue had been set – the seats were all arranged, and tea, coffee, water, banana, tomtom were generously distributed around the tables. It seemed Suleiman Mohammed (Trust Managing Editor and the Editorial Board’s ‘Permanent Secretary’ and host) and his boys had done their bit to welcome us, as usual.
Just then, the bombshell was dropped on all of us: the very same Suleiman, whom we were expecting to appear for the meeting any minute with our agenda, had just died! Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un! It was as incredible, unbelievable, as it was unimaginable! Yet it was true! All around the Media Trust premises, everyone was saying Suleiman had been seen in his office just a few moments earlier, that very morning! Yes he was! But yet he was indeed gone! Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un!
The Qur’an (2:145) says:
“But no soul shall die save by Allah’s leave, neither shall anyone die before his appointed time. And no person can ever die except by Allah’s leave and at an appointed term…”
We intended to call off the Board Meeting as preparations were being made for Suleiman’s funeral janaza in his hometown of Keffi in Nasarawa State. But then members decided we held a short Valedictory Session (plus Prayers) in honour of Suleiman, considering that he had made all arrangements for that particular meeting only a few moments earlier.
All around the table we sat, sad, downcast, mournful! At the tail of the table sat Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Chairman of the Editorial Board Mahmud Jega and, going rightwards, Ibrahim Auduson (Editor Opinion Pages); Okello Oculi; Eugene Enahoro; and then Suleiman’s empty seat. Allahu Akbar!
Then there was Sanusi Abubakar (who, only last Tuesday, re-mourned his daughter Inna Kaltum and other Dana Crash Victims in his Column); then Umar Ndagi; Murtala Opoola; Bala Muhammad; Idang Alibi. Board Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Mannir Dan’Ali, who usually sat at the head of the table, was already on his way to Keffi. The other members – Kabir Mato, Ramatu Ohioma, Aisha Yusuf, Jideofor Adibe – were away. All around, the words used to describe the late Suleiman at that meeting were “Good person, religious person, gentle person, nice person, jovial person, easy-going person…”
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un! The Qur’an adds:
“Every person (nafs) shall taste of death; and We try you with evil and good as a test, then unto Us you shall be returned.”
Born 50 years ago (25th April 1963) in Loko, Nasarawa State, the late Suleiman Mohammed had been a journalist all his working life. Starting out as a student journalist in 1988 (as a student of Kaduna Polytechnic) late Suleiman worked at the Democrat in Kaduna. On graduation a year later, the Democrat gave him his first journalistic job. He was there until 1997 when he left for a short stint at the Abuja Mirror, before becoming one of the pioneer staff of the then Kaduna-based Weekly Trust, the forerunner of the Media Trust stables.
Leadership came naturally to Suleiman – he had been prefect in primary school and Secretary of the Muslim Students’ Society (MSS) at secondary school. He was for four years (1995-1999) Vice Chairman of the FCT Chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ as well as National Secretary of the Association of Political Correspondents, one of the most powerful journalism groupings, for three years from 1994 to 1997.
Suleiman and I come a long way. When in 2000 I became a press secretary in the office of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Suleiman was already in the Villa as Trust correspondent. His religiosity, simplicity and easy-going mien quickly endeared him to me particularly, and to the other correspondents covering State House for other media organisations in general. We became quite close, travelling together in-country and abroad.
We always wonder, don’t we, why at most times good people simply don’t last long. Of course some good people do last long, but that is usually the exception, not the rule. Good people just inexplicably die when needed most. It is sad how Suleiman died. He was said to have slumped and collapsed as he was locking a door, key in hand. He was rushed to a hospital all right, but – as usual with our emergency handling systems – he arrived the hospital too late.
Fifty is too young to die, but apparently not in Nigeria. Our life expectancy still hovers around 48 for males, 49 for females. Even Malawi is higher than Nigeria and, Good Lord, even Somalia! The UN World Population Prospects Report lists countries by life expectancy at birth, ranging from an average of 83 years in Japan to 39 years in Swaziland. In Japan, a man can expect to live for 79 years; a woman for 86. Japan is followed by Hong Kong, Iceland and Switzerland. (What do these countries have in common? Basically they have sewage systems, 24-hour electricity, relative security, minimal corruption. In these countries with their developed medical care, you don’t die naturally, you don’t die unnaturally, in fact, you don’t die at all. Until, that is, you are ripe enough to die. Or you are caught up in a rare accident.)
One day, a group of companions (Sahaba) were sitting with Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, when a funeral passed. Some companions made nice comments about the dead person. The Prophet promptly said, “Confirmed!” (Wajabat!). Not long after, another funeral passed and the same people made unsavoury remarks about this second dead person. The Prophet similarly said, “Confirmed!” (Wajabat!). The companions asked the Prophet for explanation. He said that in the case of the first person, his entry into Paradise was confirmed by their comments about him, and in the case of the second, Hellfire was confirmed. The Prophet further explained the significance of the comments that people usually make about the dead. “You are the witnesses of Allah on earth”, he concluded.
As clearly denoted in the Hadith, mentioning the virtuous character of the dead adds to their records of good deeds and elevates their position in Heaven. So O Allah! We bear witness that Suleiman was a “good person, a religious person, a gentle person, a nice person, a jovial person, an easy-going person…” And may it be wajabat for him, too!
Because of our affinity to him, we would see Suleiman as gone too soon. But bearing in mind the verses above about the inevitability of death, it will not take long till we all join him. Much as the late Mamman Shata said in his dirge on the late Ciroman Gombe back in the 1970s:
“Kowa yam mutu bai sauri ba…!
Mu da mu ke nan ba mu dade ba…!
Sai mun zo Ciroman Gombe!”
At the end of the Valedictory Session of the Trust Editorial Board this Thursday, Ustaz Umar Ndagi was invited to offer a special prayer for the soul of Suleiman. Ndagi recited the prayer Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, used to recite on the dead:
“Allahummaghfir lahu, warhamhu, wa’afihi, wa’fu ‘anhu, wa akrim nuzulahu, wa wassi’ mudkhalahu, waghsilhu bil-ma’i wath-thalji wal-baradi, wa naqqihi minal-khataya kama naqqaytath-thawbal-abyada minad-danas…”
(O Allah! Forgive him, bestow mercy upon him, pardon him, accord him a noble provision and make his grave spacious, wash him with water, snow and hail, purify him from sins as You have purified the white garment from soiling…”
Amin for Suleiman. Adieu Good Friend! Sai mun zo Suleiman!