By Aremu Lukman Umor
On the 25th of June, 2020, death breezed into the Lagos hospital where the ex-Oyo State governor, Senator Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi, was taking his treatment, and having breezed into the hospital on his usual mission, it squeezed the life out him anon. The news of his death would soon come to us like a bolt from the blue, and we would begin to mourn him— Nigeria has lost a great man. Ajimobi was a conciliator and courteous Nigerian. The ‘Constituted Authority’ as he was fondly called, later died, a friend and aficionado of his bluntness said.
You’ll recall that a few days ago, the untrue news of his death was going round in circles, particularly among netizens. They had flooded their timelines with his pictures and scribbled grieving words beneath and atop in mourning him. Some mainstream media also joined the trend— instead of them to fact-check it, they went on copy and paste journalism trip: Ajimobi dies at 70. Senator Ajimobi gives up the ghost. And when the tiding of his purported death got to his aides and immediate family, it was refuted straightaway. Our dad is alive, his daughter-in-law muttered.
The earlier misinformation that he had given up the ghost and up to June 25th he later bade this world goodbye points at a particular phenomenon which I would want us to discern. It’s time. Why didn’t he die the day he was announced dead? It wasn’t his time. We mustn’t call his death untimely because he died when his All Progressives Congress (APC), party, needed him the most. Maybe if he was alive and healthy, the imbroglio within his party would’ve been minimal with him as the acting national chairman. Death from time immemorial is timely. This is where destiny comes to play. You can’t leave before your time as you can’t live beyond time. Once death opens its book and sees one as the next, no Oyeku intervention can waive it. Oyeku means death waiver.
Whether we like it or not, Senator Ajimobi had gone to his Creator. He had gone on a journey of no return. He had gone to his new home, where you and I would go someday. Who’s going next? Is a question no man has answered since Adam. Inasmuch as we are not the owner of the next seconds of our life, when, where and how death will squeeze the life out of every one of us are reserved for God.
However, this is a reminder for every one of us, particularly our greedy, corrupt and fighting leaders, that life is ephemeral. None of us as I aforesaid owns not the next seconds of his or her life. Let’s retrospect our losses COVID-19 alone. Did Abba Kyari know he would leave so soon? What about Senator Adebayo Osinowo? Senator Osinowo, who was seen in the legislative house on June 12, educating his colleagues how God doesn’t promise anyone the next seconds of his or her life, and on June 15, three days after, he was reportedly dead of COVID-19 complications. Senator Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi would soon bow to death ten days after Osinowo left. So, what is the aggrandisement for?
Do I need to tell our political leaders that they are the major stakeholders of Nigeria’s backwardness? Their greediness and the syphoning of public funds are the reasons why this part of the world development is unachievable and epileptic. You stash the billions of naira which are budgeted for the growth of the country in your coffers at the expense of the masses, who queue under the scorching sun to vote you. Imagine, people who do not own the next seconds of their lives embezzling public funds for future use. Where is the former dictator, General Sani Abacha, who almost looted Nigeria to the bone, today? Life is too ephemeral to be afflicting others to comfort oneself!
Lastly, it is not too late for every one of us to recognise the lesson in death, and amend our ways to make Nigeria a better place for all. Whatever we do today would be said after we leave. May God forgive Senator Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi and other Nigerians who gave up the ghost while fighting the novel Coronavirus. Plus, Nigerians who were decimated by the men of the underworld, Boko Haram, and other deviant sects, amin.
Aremu writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Email: [email protected] or Phone Number: 07032291480
