Comrade Paschal Bafyau as I knew him
On the appointed day I was ushered into his office effortlessly. No sooner had I sat down than I was greeted in Bachama language. It was the late Godfrey Garba, a former President -General of the Nigeria Union of Railwaymen, NUR. He was of the Mbula stock from Demsa local government area of Adamawa state […]
On the appointed day I was ushered into his office effortlessly. No sooner had I sat down than I was greeted in Bachama language. It was the late Godfrey Garba, a former President -General of the Nigeria Union of Railwaymen, NUR. He was of the Mbula stock from Demsa local government area of Adamawa state and understood Bachama very well. Upon hearing me and the late Garba exchanging pleasantries right in his office, Bafyau whispered loudly to his friend, Chief Pwavidon Jaule who was seated at a corner: “A journalist has come to interview me in Bachama language”. We all laughed over it. Straight, we went into the business of the day with me asking questions and he answering with no holds barred.
That interview was one any editor would be delighted to publish. But when I turned in the manuscript for typing, mid-way, my attention was drawn by one of the editors who complained that since I had no Comrade Bafyau’s voice on tape, I must go back and conduct a fresh interview with him and get him on tape. I refused because I had earlier requested the office to provide a tape recorder and a camera- man but the office failed to provide any. I left the Peoples Express with my script. When, later in September, I found myself in Punch newspaper as a Proof Reader, I submitted the script to Mr Azu Ishiekwene who then was coordinating the Sunday Punch. He found it worthy and published it with the headline: “I’m poorer than most people think” – Bafyau. In that interview I asked questions no reporter had ever asked the former NLC President because of the background information I had on him since we came from the same area. That story was my first as a journalist with The Punch. In fact the story was a subject for Omo Oba cartoon who sarcastically asked: “Comrade, can we see your bank account?
Ever since that encounter with Comrade Paschal Bafyau, I became close to him and he became one of my news sources to the extent that hardly would a week pass by without his story appearing either on front page or back page of Sunday Punch then edited by Mr. Godwin Nzeakah during and after the events of June 12 saga. In fact it was the Sunday Punch that started the story of who would be Chief M.K.O Abiola’s running mate after the late business mogul had picked his party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP)’s presidential ticket. Bafyau was a front runner for the position. I recall that on May 2, 1993 a day after Abiola had announced Ambassador Babagana Kingibe as his choice for the slot, I was at Bafyau’s No. 29 Ilesanmi Street, Surulere – residence. When he emerged from his bed room to the sitting room where I was seated, he said “Garus, the first thought that I had after Abiola picked Kingibe was your name “Yedimakudonkapwa, which means one should not be angry with the will of God”.
At some point in time, my relationship with Bafyau waxed stronger than one between a reporter and news source. The relationship, one must confess, metamorphosed into one between a son and a father, a mentor and a disciple, a beneficiary and a benefactor and a friend and friend. That remained so up to the time he breathed his last on Thursday May, 2012.
I cannot possibly enumerate the gains of my relationship with the Comrade as they are just too numerous. But suffice it to say that, in Bafyau I found a leader worthy of trust, a leader who gives the followers a sense of belonging, a leader with an uncommon forgiving- heart and a leader who made me know the true meaning of the saying that “an injury to one is an injury to all”. I also found in Bafyau a selfless leader, a true servant of the people who would give it all. Indeed, a leader who saw his followers’ problem as his and could go to any length to ensure that those problems were solved. He was a leader who never regarded material things as worth dying for. An encounter with Bafyau would give one an understanding of the sayings of the Biblical King Solomon about the vanity of life. He lived for others. He built a 10-storey building for the NLC and an Estate for the NLC workers in Abuja, but died without even a piece of land. He died while living in a rented house. He made many build mansions, but left this world at a time his rents were almost due. Bafyau acquired shares worth N80 Million from Urban Development Bank of Nigeria for the working class in the early 1990s, but died without any shares in any company. What an irony you may say. He was a man of the people, a peoples Comrade. He was a man of simple disposition, who never saw himself up there on top of the mountain and looked at others as those who should belong in the valley. He was at home with the high and the mighty. He was equally in the valley with the less privileged and the peasants. He was a dogged fighter, a lover of his people and race and above all a de-tribalised Nigerian.
He lived for others, worked for others without considering himself first as a beneficiary of his struggles. While answering a question on whether he was a rich man, Bafyau told me he had only one functional car and another one and that he believed there would come a time when he would not have any. It was like a prophecy for in 1994 his car was stolen at gun point at James Robertson Street Surulere. I was in the car with him. He had to hire a taxi to take us back to Ikoyi. He said, while on our way that: “Garus you have seen what has happened and tomorrow some people would say Bafyau has fleet of cars.” The next day a friend, Barrister Mike Okoye made available his Peugeot 505 car for the use of the Comrade. His friend, Dr Sanusi Mohammed, sent a Volvo to Bafyau. What the Comrade lacked in material things he made up in friends and well wishers. The people remained his assets till he died
Adieu Comrade. While you are being mourned, may the God Almighty raise another Paschal Bafyau for the Bwatye race in particular and Nigeria in general, Amen.
Yedimakudon wrote from No. 1B Sukuta Street Wuse2, Abuja