Alhaji, as I fondly called you, you’ll have clocked 74 years today being March 5, 2024, but because of your creator’s divine call, you left this world that is today becoming more and more uncertain so soon to receive the call in the evening of Monday August 17, 2020. Indeed, it is vanity upon vanity – Kullu nafsi za’ikatul mauti (all living things must taste death).
As believers, we accepted and mourned your peaceful departure, and since that day when you left us, we keep praying for your very gentle soul to remain in Aljannah Firdaus permanently by Allah’s grace. You were humane, a mentor to many, a provider of succour, and philanthropist to the core. In fact, the shades you provided to many people out of magnanimity and, for Allah’s sake, are still there.
Your name was and is still synonymous with the News Agency of Nigeria; this is because anywhere you go, Wada Maida is NAN, and NAN is Wada Maida. You were NAN Editor-in-Chief of the Africa’s largest news content provider for nine years, Managing Director for nine years, and its Chairman board of directors for three years. Perhaps that was why the almost 50-year Agency’s headquarters was renamed after your humble name. You deserved it!
You were shy, gentle, and a man of few words—I can attest to this, because I recall when you clocked 70 years on March 5, 2020, I called you while you were in Vienna, Austria participating in International Press Institute (lPI) meeting, and informed you that I had started writing a tribute on your 70th birthday, you outrightly rejected it…you told me, Lawal, there was no need for that, let it just come and pass. I obeyed and laid down my pen.
Alhaji, as you are peacefully resting in your permanent abode, know that the many good deeds you’ve done to humanity while you were alive are still being appreciated, we, the beneficiaries will continue to pray to Allah SWT to reward you immensely and rest your gentle soul permanently in Aljannah Firdaus. Ameen!
Lawal Sale writes from Abuja
