Letter to late Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa

Sir, it is cheerful news I am breaking to you because six months after your transition to the world beyond, the people you had left behind are mourning you; a good sign that you were a good leader to them. Prayers were offered in mosques and churches in your favour. While in various homes good […]

Sir, it is cheerful news I am breaking to you because six months after your transition to the world beyond, the people you had left behind are mourning you; a good sign that you were a good leader to them. Prayers were offered in mosques and churches in your favour. While in various homes good prayers were being said in your remembrance. These, to me, are indications that you have lived a good life of service to not only the people of Kaduna State but humanity as a whole.
Some among those giving testimonies had served under you while you were head of Kaduna State Civil Service; they had said many good things too numerous for me to enumerate in this letter. While you served as a minister, according to them, you were the servant not master because they said your office was always accessible to the messenger as it was to the permanent secretary in the ministry.
The various commissioners in Kaduna State whom you had given a rare privilege to serve in your cabinet were not left out in singing your praises for the unrestricted latitude you gave them in discharging their duties in various ministries in the state.
We the 23 local government chairmen who served under you in interim capacity between 2011 and 2012 were not left out in eulogizing you sir because you deserve more from us. You picked some of us who were greenhorns in politics and leadership; you nurtured us into becoming leaders not rulers.
I still remember your homily to us whenever we erred in fulfilling our promises to the people – you would summon us to your office and you would tell us to remember death because death closes every and any plan to enjoy oneself in the world, you believed is the only tempting motivation that drove one to acquire wealth and properties.
You would tell us that we should know one day willingly or unwillingly we would leave everything we had acquired in the world. You would then throw the epilogue which is usually a puzzler question of “will any of you take money and properties to his grave?” You would then leave us in your characteristic manner to ponder the question and provide the answer for ourselves.
Sir, from you I learnt the rudiments of politics and people. Diplomacy, as you had always emphatically stressed, was the greatest weapon to win the heart of your perceived critics and even enemies who would see nothing good in any thing you do. You would echo in your admonition; don’t keep malice, always extend the proverbial olive branch to your enemy. By so doing, you would say, you may win their heart.
You believed in a simple philosophy of life that teaches calmness and happiness even in the face of provocation. You would say to me in confidence “try and be happy in any circumstance you find yourself that you will not live to regret”. Life without lamentations you believed is a fulfilling and merry one. While life of unnecessary jamboree with questionable wealth, to you, must be abhorred by all.
Sir, every member of your family is doing just fine though; they are still mourning your death 6 months after. I was in your Kaduna home to see how the family was fairing without you.
Sir, I must convey this to you, your absence is still very much felt; the vacuum you left is not filled. How can it be filled when you were unique? Can anyone be like a man who was consistently constant in his equal love for everyone in his family?
Your eldest son who is my bosom friend said he didn’t know how precious you were until you had gone. The reality of him not seeing you again in this world is really overwhelming for him.
I had in the best method I can to say soothing words of consolation and encouragement to him so that he can be as strong as possible to shoulder the fatherly responsibility fate has brought upon him.
Yes sir, I am optimistic he can do the job because he seems to have the touch of your responsibility, diplomacy and hospitality, which I believe are need ingredients in providing direction, guidance and leadership to the family.
My only regrets, the world you left behind is more unpredictable by each passing day where you will hear this and that which is unpleasant to the ears. We have failed to learn from lessons being taught by death. We seem to be forgetful in a hurry the lesson we claimed to have learned due to your departure. We seem to have prioritized worldly pleasure, merriment and jamboree above spiritual ecstasy and human virtue. Let me not bore you with our problems which I know will definitely bother you because you had always been bothered when people were in problems.
We will come sooner or later join you in that journey of the unseen that shall lead us to the day of reckoning when we shall all be judged on basis of what we had put forward, good or bad. I pray to our creator to magnify your good deed so that the good you had done will eventually secure you visa to abode of peace and tranquility which is the ultimate goal of every soul, amen.
Ibrahim (Sardaunan Badarawa) is former interim Chairman, Kaduna North Local Government Area of Kaduna State