Reflecting on Shehu’s sudden, painful exit

“Hello, Sir”, I picked the call. After greetings, he said, “Musa, we had a very great loss in the office”. I couldn’t utter a word, I was curious to know the great loss. He continued, “Shehu Gulubba died yesterday, Saturday, in a ghastly motor accident along Kaduna-Abuja highway”, he muttered in a solemn tone. “It […]

“Hello, Sir”, I picked the call. After greetings, he said, “Musa, we had a very great loss in the office”. I couldn’t utter a word, I was curious to know the great loss. He continued, “Shehu Gulubba died yesterday, Saturday, in a ghastly motor accident along Kaduna-Abuja highway”, he muttered in a solemn tone. “It happened in the night while it was raining heavily. A crazy trailer driver while trying to dodge armed robbers who mounted road block, swerved onto Shehu’s lane even with his trailer’s headlight off. It killed Shehu and four others”, Mallam Aliyu told me.

My nerves suddenly chilled and my eyes filled with tears such that I forgot I was driving until I heard a pedestrian voice shout, “Hey! Watch out, you want to kill us?” I had swerved off the road.

I reached my house with my eyes reddened. “What’s wrong dear?” my wife asked with fear in her voice. “You remember Shehu, the colleague I often tell you about?”, “Yes” she replied, “What about him?” she queried with eagerness. “He died yesterday”. She knew what Shehu meant to me, tears fell down her eyes. That was how I received the news of one of the most shocking deaths in my life yet.

On Monday, July 4, 2011, as I stepped into the office, I noticed an unusual sombreness in the office complex; the staff was looking really sad. It was as if the entire Commission was carrying an emotional load as a result of the death of a man with a large heart.

Shehu Muhammad Gulubba, a native of Gulubba village in Bungudu LGA of Zamfara state was my very close friend, confidant and colleague in the Federal Judicial Service Commission, Abuja. We became friends since I joined the Commission in 2009 and even closer as we subsequently interacted and rubbed minds on issues. He was zealous in discussing pressing issues regarding Nigeria and ardently believed in prayer for the country and our leaders with optimism.

Shehu was positively pious and never held any grudges; indeed a perfect gentleman. His immediate boss, Mr. Danjuma Randong, described him as “the most loyal subordinate” he ever worked with.

Mr. Patrick Tagbor Ogujiefor, was Shehu’s close colleague in the Protocol Unit of the Commission and equally close neighbour in the staff quarters. He described Shehu as, “deeply religious, a perfect gentleman who was far from being an extremist, a large-hearted and generous fellow”.

Hajiya Kaltume Shu’aib, was also Shehu’s close colleague and confidant. The trio of Shehu, Kaltume and I were best of colleagues and friends with many things in common. For many days after Shehu’s demise, Hajiya Kaltume couldn’t control the flood of tears gushing from her eyes. “Musa, see what God in His infinite mercy has done!” she told me, “What else can we do, Shehu’s time was due, his Creator had called him back”, she added and we both sobbed.

A colleague of Shehu, whom I noticed was still off balance over his death, was Mr. Churchill Unegbu. Mr. Unegbu shared the same office and the same office drawer with Shehu. As I went to commiserate with him, his testimony was touchy. “He was my closest colleague, dependable ally and very honest friend – we ran official errands for one another and outside official duties, Shehu was second to none character-wise.  He was a practicing Muslim to the core, who never discriminated against people of different faith from his”, said Mr. Unegbu. He added, “Whenever I open this drawer I see his face smiling at me, it’s shocking, you know, the departure of a close friend. I’m very proud of my association with him and will forever cherish his memory”.

Shehu’s colleagues who saw him on Friday, July 1, 2011, a day before his departure to the great beyond, later said they noticed some inexplicable changes in his physical outlook and actions. Mrs Mary Amaha told me in tears, “His complexion was extra-fair and was in a mad rush to a kind of tidy up, I don’t know”. This was the state in which many of his colleagues that saw him on that Friday, described him.

Shehu’s demise came few weeks after he returned from South Africa where he attended a capacity building workshop organised by his office. It is instructive to know that Shehu came back with gifts for nearly all of his colleagues in the Commission. Shehu Muhammad Gulubba lived a worthy life during which anyone that came across him must have benefitted one way or another from his positivity.

He is survived by an aged mother, a wife and three children. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace in Jannatul-Firdaus, amin!

Azare is a staff of Federal Judicial Service Commission, Abuja