Zainab Musa-Kperogi: One minute ago, she was here
Fast-forward many years after all that, and Zainab remained a consistent, hard-working and eagle-eyed editor. After a stint at the Daily Trust as the Editor, Features and Comments, she was promoted and transferred to the Weekly Trust, where I currently am Editor. I expected her trademark zeal, patience and experience and that’s what I got, […]
Fast-forward many years after all that, and Zainab remained a consistent, hard-working and eagle-eyed editor. After a stint at the Daily Trust as the Editor, Features and Comments, she was promoted and transferred to the Weekly Trust, where I currently am Editor. I expected her trademark zeal, patience and experience and that’s what I got, and more. Zainab would turn in page after page of perfect copy in no time and would even take work home, e-mailing it when done. Once she told me a badly-written story was “pure manure” just before she began to work on it. When she turned it in, I asked how she made it look so good. She smiled and said “Even manure can look good with a little glitter sprinkled over it.”
Now, Zainab always had a knack for human interest stories and she would receive a submission from a reporter, picking at it, fine-tuning it and making it emotionally resonant. She would also guide reporters on what word best-expressed something or the validity of a phrase. Zainab loved the written word, whether she was writing or especially when reading. Her column, Femme Point, had a large, loyal gathering, which constantly nudged her through e-mails, to continue. Written on issues from a female point of view, the weekly column’s readers ironically seemed to be made up more of males.
Zainab read. From Time to Newsweek to the Harry Potter books she would flit from one genre/style to the other, all with such impeccable taste. Zainab was also the first of my colleagues I would introduce to the brilliant American variety magazine Vanity Fair and we would discuss the latest edition like a national issue. If there was a periodical she loved and respected over all others, Vanity Fair was it. She particularly liked to read editor Graydon Carter’s opening shot and late Dominic Dunne’s deep, incisive reporting of various subjects.
Zainab was unapologetically straightforward and it surprisingly endeared her to many. She would let you know exactly how she felt about an issue and that’s that. She didn’t have time for pretense. What she did have time for, always, were her daily prayers. At a point she was my clock for prayer time, as she’d come to pick her prayer mat from my office, where most of our colleagues also stashed theirs then. After prayer, would come lunch-time. If she didn’t bring a meal from home (which she would share with colleagues), we (then Editor of Weekly Trust Zainab O. Suleiman, Crispin Oduobuk and I) would pile up in her car and dash to Calabar Kitchen for sumptuous meals of pounded yam and white soup, one of her favourites. Of course, the meal would be consumed amid very enjoyable conversation and we would all return to the office reinvigorated.
Zainab was also a great mum and shared a strong bond with Hauwa and Maryam, her first two children, before the last, Adam, came along. We used to tease her in the office, that her husband – also an excellent wordsmith – and she, were a perfect match. We’d top it off by joking that their kids would probably win a Pulitzer before they hit their teens.
Zainab died in an accident along the Abuja-Kaduna highway on her way to visit family. Her three beautiful children miraculously survived the crash. When I think of how we all will miss her smile, her sunny disposition and her quirky sense of humour, my heart goes out to her husband Farooq, who will no doubt always have a hole in his heart due to his beloved wife’s untimely departure. For him I pray for strength, knowing that while she lived, she was a wonderful individual, loved and respected by all.
Zainab was not a friend or colleague of mine. She was a sister, and that’s how I – and a whole bunch of other Media Trust staff who knew and loved her – will forever remember her fondly. May Allah grant her Aljannah Firdausi. Ameen.