Salihu Okino 1960-2013: Fare thee well Oyivo!

Oyivo, as he was fondly called, who was the only child of his mother, was not only a close friend, but was like a younger brother to me. I got to know him way back in the late 80s when he and Zainab S. Okino, the Executive Editor of Blueprint newspaper, were courting. My wife […]

Oyivo, as he was fondly called, who was the only child of his mother, was not only a close friend, but was like a younger brother to me.
I got to know him way back in the late 80s when he and Zainab S. Okino, the Executive Editor of Blueprint newspaper, were courting. My wife and I were among those who encouraged the relationship until the duo got married. So, in all modesty, I can say I have been part of their lives from the beginning as it were, and can authoritatively talk about them, because as it has been since then, the Okinos and the Enesis have so integrated, we are all now like a family.
What people do not know is that Oyivo, Aristotle attested to the fact that we are political animals. Oyivo was not an exception; he was a politician in mind, albeit an un-accomplished and not active one. Around 1999, he approached me to put in a word or two though to the late Musa Owuri who was somehow influential in the nomination of the prospective candidates to the Adavi Local Government chairmanship. My worry was, considering his quiet nature, how he would mount the soap box to campaign for a public post. Unfortunately the idea never materialized.
When his spouse eventually relocated to Abuja from Kaduna, I was not happy with that. Oyivo remained in Kaduna. Happily the distance between them neither affected the marriage nor the children’s upbringing as I had earlier envisaged, hence he settled down in Kaduna to build a career in teaching.
Oyivo naturally was a very humble and unassuming man. He hardly talked but his amiable character; he was disarming and contagious, which made him a good husband and a father. He was particularly close to his only daughter – Nabila.
He made friends easily with everyone.
He was overly concerned about people’s welfare and always eager to please everyone. Once when I travelled to Kaduna, I paid him an unexpected visit, he suspended all I met him doing and insisted on driving me to every nook and cranny I had to visit. He was always eager to ensure my children’s welfare whenever they were with him in Abuja for the summer holidays.
As a devoted Muslim, he imbibed the dictum I so much cherished among the Hausas.  The idea of ‘Ikon Allah’ for whatever happens. When his son, Iman died not too long ago after a protracted illness, he accepted everything as the will of God. When he was sick, and hospitalized to be given an implantable cardio-verter defibrillator ICD, he was full of cheers, and warmth with absolute faith in God. He was still struggling to say his regular prayers right there on hospital bed.
Immediately after the first operation in February this year, Oyivo by his body language seemed to agree with Socrates the ancient philosopher who in dialectical conversation with Crito asked “is life worth living with the body corrupted and crippled by disease”?
We love Oyivo, but God loves him best and determines what is best for him and us at any point in time. God has done the best by calling him as Martin Heidegger said “Death is a way to be… As soon as a man is born he is old enough to die.”
In spite this, God who has the final say will console and comfort Hajiya Zainab, the children and his aged mother. Thank God Oyivo found an indomitable good wife, his treasure who no doubt will remain a daughter to mama perfectly performing Oyivo’s role.
Socrates said in the ‘Dialogue of Plato’ “The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways. I to die and you to live. Which is better God only knows.”
Fare thee well Oyivo! Requiescat in pace!
You have paid your dues.  
Enesi wrote in from St. Albert the Great Institute, Kagom, Kafanchan.