Sadiq Ibrahim Dasin
Sometimes I wonder what life would be like, if we do not encounter life’s heartbreaks. Just like others, I have encountered many. However one heartbreaking moment that continue to remind me that I am inching closer to my grave is the death of one of the most intimate persons with whom I had a mutual bond of affection during and after our university days till the day he died. That was the late Daibu Mahmud Jada.
Daibu was true and faithful to friendship. He was my companion, my confidant and my classmate at the University of Maiduguri where we met at Remedial College in 1981. At that time, most times not even sleep separated us. We often shared same bed in each other’s hostel.
I still remember why we became friends. It was for the love of one of our subjects of study. Literature in English, a favourite subject in which we competed against each other in and outside class.
Oftentimes Daibu and I would go out of sight to the gardens around the campus and hold Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar for one another to see who memorised more Acts and Scenes. He often beats me to it.
Daibu had retentive memory. He had committed Shakespeare’s Macbeth to memory, a novel we studied at GCE O level in 1981. During our remedial, we studied another Shakespeare’s novel, Julius Caesar. He also committed it to memory.
The first phase of our friendship lasted from 1981-1986 when we were in the same class until something happened that prevented us from graduating the same year. Yet during holidays, Daibu would visit and spend some days in Dasin and I would do the same in his house at Jada. We were that close.
The second phase of our friendship was after graduation when we met in Lagos. After my Law School I was posted to the Federal Ministry of Justice, at Marina, Lagos as a Youth Corps member. That was when Daibu arrived the Nigerian Law School. At that time there was only one Law school in Nigeria which was in Lagos. And there were no students hostel in the school. We stayed in other people’s houses.
In Lagos, Daibu and I stayed in the same neighbourhood. While he stayed with the family of Alh. Kwairanga Jada, then Mutawalli Adamawa, in Parkview Estate off Gerrard road Ikoyi, I stayed with the family of Shuhuru Ibrahim Tambuwal at Reeve Towers, Reeve road, Ikoyi, Lagos. So we were close again and sleeping in each other’s residences.
We explored Lagos together as Alhaji Kwairanga Jada’s wife, Hajja Asmau Hassanu Girei (a very kind and hospitable woman) graciously allowed us the use of the family Peugeot 504 salon car but with Tunde, the driver, on the driver’s wheel, always.
The third phase of our relationship was at our common work place with Habib Nigeria bank. Daibu joined Habib Bank in 1989 in Jos. Then I was in Kaduna with Bells Holdings Ltd. We exchanged visits as regularly as our work schedule permitted. In May, 1990 I also joined the same bank at the headquarters, Kaduna while Daibu was in Jos branch.
In 1992 I was posted to Kano. In the same year Daibu was posted from Jos to Kaduna Head Office in the office of the Company Secretary/Legal Adviser under the Managing Director (MD’s) office. Kaduna was not far from Kano. With about 230 kilometres separating us, Daibu and I continued our mutual visits.
Unfortunately in 1995, after 14 years of being friends from 1981-1999, an incident happened that almost ended our friendship.
What actually happened was that after my wedding in December, 1994 in Yola, I returned to Kano. One week after I resumed work, I received a transfer letter from to Kaduna Head Office to take over from Daibu at the office of the Company Secretary/Legal Adviser under the MD’s office.
I put a call to Daibu and informed him of the content of the letter. Having heard that I was taking over from him, I asked him what happened that necessitated his transfer out of the MD’s office to the Kaduna South branch of the bank at Kakuri, Kaduna. He informed me that he had an issue with both the Company Secretary and the MD which he would tell me when I arrive.
It was after I resumed in Kaduna that I heard from our mutual friends that some people were insinuating that I lobbied for Daibu’s seat and succeeded in getting him transferred from the Company Secretary’s office. This was far from the truth. Daibu was one of my best friends in the world. I couldn’t have done such a thing to him. Besides, for me at that time, Kano was better than Kaduna.
Thank God when we settled down and resumed work in our respective offices in Kaduna, we both dismissed the insinuation and continued as the very good friends we had always been.
Not long after he resumed work at the Kaduna South branch of the bank at Kakuri, I noticed some sort of mood disorder in Daibu. When I asked if there was any problem, he told me that the branch management had posted him to Cash Department. Daibu, like me, was a lawyer that was not good with figures. I wondered how Daibu could function effectively as a Cash Officer. I tried to encourage him though. Problem number one.
Then the second problem which caused Daibu’s hidden mood disorder appeared. His father, late Modibbo Mahmud Dajami Jada who was the younger brother of late Modibbo Hamidu Jada took ill and was admitted at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH).
Daibu had to be travelling to and from Maiduguri almost every weekend thus spending what he did not have. Habib Bank now Keystone bank, was one of the least paying banks in Nigeria then.
Another problem that caused Daibu’s mood disorder was that his house was like a school hostel. Always full with visitors. Daibu was very hospitable and generous. Being from a very large family, his relatives were all over him. He told me that his grandfather had 39 children including his father and Modibbo Hamidu. So he had multitude of cousins who visited every day. Daibu never discriminated smong his brothers; full brothers or consanguine brothers. All were welcomed in his house.
This, coupled with his father’s sickness in far away Maiduguri where he had to go regularly from Kaduna on a rather lean purse, put serious strain on Daibu’s finances and of course, contributed to his mood disorders.
As a result, Daibu was increasingly becoming less sociable and more moody. I hated seeing him in that condition. I therefore kept frequenting his house to take him out and cheered him up.
Then the worse happened.
It was during the month of Ramadan. I returned home from Tarawih prayer at Jabi road, Kaduna and met Daibu in my house. As soon as my wife got out of the way, Daibu told me that he came to inform me that he would resign from work. His voice was strained. In spite of my knowledge of his predicament, I asked him to stay on. He agreed.
The next day Daibu came again. In our discussion, he informed tme that there was a particular lady-customer of his branch who was a fresh fish dealer. That the lady often brought cash deposits late in the evening from the market after the branch had closed cash-counter. That every day she brought cash late, it had to be bundle-counted, boxed and counted the next day. He also said to me that most times her sales girls delivered the cash which was smelling fish and that each time they opened the cash, he would feel like throwing up. That he had asked to be transferred from the cash department for these reasons, but the branch management had refused. Yet, I still urged him not to resign until he has another job in hand. At that time, it was easy.
Meanwhile as Secretary of the bank’s Management Committee and the Board Audit Committee, I was taking minutes of meetings of both committees of the bank. I was therefore privileged to see both the bank’s Board and Management papers before the date of any meeting.
One day I saw a paper recommending giving Daibu last warning. When I read the paper, I saw the allegations against him as refusing to obey lawful orders and missing cash boxed overnight. I knew then that it had to do with the fish smelling cash.
Cash Officer was the head of Cash Department, his duty was to supervise, not to count cash. Cash boxed overnight had double keys always, that no one person can open the box the next day alone. It had to be contemporaneous. Daibu was no thief. I can vouch for his character. He is from a good home. ‘O bi Modib’en’.
I quickly called and asked him to see me after work. When he came, we analysed the situation he was in, particularly the sickness of his father and psychological condition he was. We both agreed that it was time for him to resign from the bank. And he did so honourably.
The next 2 years was terrible for Daibu. He lost his father and lost his job. He was travelling from Kaduna – Abuja – Lagos by road in search of job. Many of our friends deserted him. He told me of many stories of how some of our friends that I know avoided him. But we remained close.
Then one day he called me up on phone and told me that he had secured a job as the Manager, Northern Operations, of a Swiss-Nigerian company, called Panalpina Nigeria, one of the world’s leading providers of supply chain solutions in Air Freight, Ocean Freight, and Logistics. He was sent to Kano.
Daibu became a big man. I was then in Lagos. He was frequenting Lagos. My friend rebuilt his life again and built a big house at Dorayi, in Kano. When I visited from Lagos, I actually shedded tears. The house was big. We both thought the storm was over.
Unfortunately in few months, Panalpina run into difficulties and was acquired by another investor. Daibu lost his job. He again lost all his fair weather friends that swarmed around when he became rich again.
Then, Daibu caught diabetes from which he never recovered. Luckily while he was ill, Gov. Bindo Jibrilla appointed him secretary to Jada local government council until his tenure ended in 2019. In 2018 before the end of his tenure as secretary to Jada local government council, Daibu aspired to represent Jada/Mbulo constituency in the state
House of Assembly in October, 2018 primaries under the APC. He lost to the incumbent.
Since the beginning of 2018, Daibu and I met frequently as if we both knew that the end for him was near or that he would soon depart this world.
I made a permanent accommodation for him in the guest wing in my house in Yola. I was in Abuja though as the 2019 elections drew near, I was frequently in Yola. But regardless of whether I was in Yola or not, Daibu came regularly from Jada. Anytime I was around, we talked until well past midnight. My wife knew him even before we got married. So he was at home anytime.
Daibu came around on 20th of January, 2019. It was close to my reelection for a second term in the House of Reps. We were together in Yola until February. We went round on campaign rallies together where he often addressed the rallies. He was eloquent as he was the president of Gamji Memorial Club in the university. Politics was in his blood but God had a different plan for him.
While in Panalpina, Daibu had European friends. He was engaged in one or two haulage businesses with them since the folding up of Panalpina.
One day Daibu left for Kano from where he travelled to Burkina Faso to meet his European business partner. He called me from Burkina and informed me that he went by road from Jada-Kano- Katsina-Niger Republic-Ouagadougou, the Burkina capital, and back, all by road.
When he returned, Daibu texted me on 13th February, 2018 me while in Kano thus-
“Assalam Hon. I am on my way to Abuja, coming back to sleep in Kano. I hope to set out for Adamawa tomorrow morning for the elections. I pray for your success”.
My friend had overworked himself. All this by road and within 48 hours by a diabetic patient.
Daibu arrived Ngurore late at night on that day, struggled into a bus to Jada. On reaching Jada he was told that the 2019 presidential, Senate and House of Reps. election were postponed. The fatigue Daibu went through exacerbated his diabetic condition. I asked him to come over to Yola to rest.
When he arrived, he looked really pale, his eyes were red and swollen. He was weak. After we had breakfast the next morning, he said he was going to take a rest. He retired to his room. In the evening while I was reading outside, he called my son, Modi and asked him to take him to the hospital. Modi rushed and told me that “uncle Daibu” was trembling. We rushed him to the Federal Medical Centre, Yola where he was stabilised and discharged after two days.
The elections earlier scheduled for 16th February were held on 23rd February, 2019. I lost. I went to Abuja on the 25th. When I called Daibu on the 1st of March, he told me that he was feeling dizzy and was in the hospital to see a doctor at the Federal Medical Centre, Yola. He was admitted that day. And then he went into coma.
I returned to Yola on Tuesday 5th March and was told that Daibu was out of coma on Wednesday 6th. Then I went to see him at the hospital on Thursday 7th. He was a little bit incoherent when we conversed. He however talked to me about “Hon. mu tsaida sallah.” He then said to me if one was sick, one must pray even while lying down on his deathbed. I encouraged him. We discussed and laughed.
At about 8am the next day, 10 March, 2019, my friend died peacefully in his sleep. He was a man of peace.
Daibu’s janaza took place at Modibbo Zailani mosque, Yola. The prayer was led by the Chief Imam, Modibbo Yahya Mustapha. His body was interred at the Damare cemetery, Yola. Many prominent Islamic clerics attended the funeral prayer, and one after the other, they prayed for repose of the soul of my bossom friend of many years.
At the funeral were Modibbo Hamma Seyo Jada, Modibbo Hassan Jada, Modibbo Murtala Gamu, Modibbo Sufyanu Iya Rumde (Chief Imam of Jimeta old market mosque), Modibbo Tijjani Yola (Deputy Chief Imam of Yola central mosque), one Sheriff from the Kingdom of Morocco, Modibbo Ahmad Nana and Modibbo Shehu Tahir among others.
With tears in my eyes as I edit this writing, I say Daibu, my friend, ‘sei to mi wari’.
Allah yaafu Daibu
Allah ya jikan shi da Rahama.
Mu kuma Allah shi kyautata karshen mu.
Dasin Write from Yola
