Yakowa Nakowa: One year after

I remember vividly, that day, one cool evening in your office, while analyzing some newspaper contents, you looked at me and said, “remain strong in what you have set out to do, believe you can do it and identify the benefit to the people, then do your best. That is what will propel you to […]

I remember vividly, that day, one cool evening in your office, while analyzing some newspaper contents, you looked at me and said, “remain strong in what you have set out to do, believe you can do it and identify the benefit to the people, then do your best. That is what will propel you to excel and that is what is propelling me now.” It was a poignant message that still reverberates today with us in the absence of your physical presence.
Your stoic comportment and mental calm in the face of  the intricacies and fickleness that come with governing a cosmopolitan state like Kaduna State, bring to our mind the fact that “…we should be remembered for the things we do. The things we do are the most important things of all. They are more important than what we say or what we look like. The things we do outlast our mortality. The things we do are like monuments that people build to honour heroes after they’ve died. They’re like the pyramids that the Egyptians built to honour the Pharaohs. Only instead of being made out of stone, they’re made out of the memories people have of you. That’s why your deeds are like your monuments. Built with memories instead of with stone,” noted R. J. Palacio.
These memories have immortalized you in our minds because you chose to be different. You dared to stand out. Contrary to trends where some issues are analyzed through ethnic or religious prism, you were known to invoke ethics and morality as a basis for conversation and interaction with all in life.
Raised by your parents in an austere and bucolic environment, you never allowed the trance of immediate wealth, which you saw all the times later in life, to shackle your perception and reality of life. Indeed, your life was a stark reminder of the vanity of earthly riches that strangulate the senses of some and erroneously give hints to them that the (fleeting feeling) of power is it that will ensure their immortality in our minds, their hearts and on earth.
An attestation of your pervasive and contagious humility and loyalty, zeal for peace and development, one year later, still resonate within us.   Like a soaring eagle, you were free from all, while life’s burden still wrapped our feet, pending when death, with unhurried steps will knock at their doors or ours – be it a hut or a palace. Alas, yours is an attestation of the transient nature of life.
But why do we miss you this much ?Maybe, it was because you tenaciously guided yourself from committing aggression against good reasoning, your zest for justice and fairness to all, and the prevalent practice of inclusiveness that left us bewildered. But you had to go for the lull that followed to further make us realize your worth was more than we appreciated. You had to go for us to realize that ‘walking the talk’ with your memories has become difficult for some.
But today, tomorrow and always, will always be ripe in looking back and sifting through the myriads of thought, wondering in amazement how it would have been and why it had to be. An attempt to make a futile sense out of why God will love you more than us.  But in our minds, you will only die when we stop remembering you, what you stand for, what you believed in and the passion you deployed in trying to accomplished them.
Those modest accomplishments still stand today, even though you were racing against time, against those who initially didn’t understand you, against those who understood you but decided otherwise, and indeed, against those who never wanted to give you any chance. But finally you have gone and in the process metamorphosed into a hero, in the minds of some, even among those who initially didn’t see you as one.
Apart from being a peace advocate per excellence, premised on the fact that peace is that requisite fulcrum upon which development depends on to flourish, you were also passionate on that development and the unity of the people. A definitive attestation of that foundation could be seen today where they have continued to flourish.
You also never shirked in erecting bridges of friendship across the sky, irrespective of ethnic or religious differences. That explains why you never hesitated in responding to the invitation to be in Bayelsa on 15th December, 2012 where the sunset heralded your transition into the heavenly abode of the saints.
Everyone must leave something behind when they died, good or bad, beautiful or ugly. But the fact remains that every step of ours through this life deposits a little of something in people’s heart, which sums up the substance of their remembrance when they are gone.
We know what you have deposited in our hearts and we know why we are remembering you today. Even though you are a mortal like us, prone to all foibles of humanity, striving to rise above those foibles makes you that exemplary man.
However, you are shining even more brightly where you are now,assured in our thoughts that you did the best and left the rest to posterity, the unbiased judge. We keep wishing you are still here with us, that you didn’t have to go when you did.  That you shouldn’t have gone to Bayelsa that day, that you should have waited for another chopper, that you should have….. But who are we to dictate to God?
Who are we to question His decision? Who are we to think that you left when it wasn’t your appointed time? Even Cicero, perplexed by such wishful thinking from us said “Some men make a womanish complaint that it is a great misfortune to die before our time. I would ask what time? Is it that of Nature? But she, indeed, has lent us life, as we do a sum of money, only no certain day is fixed for payment. What reason then to complain if she demands it at pleasure, since it was on this condition that you received it?”
Admonished by that, we take solace in the words of John in Rev. 21:3 – 4 which said “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”  
Continue to rest in peace my dearest Father, Uncle, Governor and Mentor. Your candle has finally burnt out but the glow still persists and inspires.
Reuben Buhari was late Governor Yakowa’s media aide