Simplicity, humility, patience, compassion, community service and philanthropy are some of the attributes associated with late Dr. Zuwaira Hassan Ibrahim, who died on Monday, November 23, 2020, in a car crash on her way to Bauchi from Jos.
My first contact with Dr. Zuwaira was at Shifa Hospital, the first Islamic health facility set up in Jos by the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI). I was the secretary of the project from inception in 1985. By 2000, the project had grown into a full-fledged hospital.
Dr. Zuwaira, upon completion of her training as a medical doctor, volunteered to work in the hospital. Her stay in Shifa Hospital did not last long, but she left an impression on the management, staff and patients.
In 2013, when I moved to my present house at Dogon Dutse, Jos, she happened to be my neighbour. We shared the same gate and compound. We not only reignited our familiarity, she also became a bosom friend to my wife and my family – a friendship that turned out to be highly beneficial to my family.
Dr. Zuwaira was not only accessible to neighbours and friends with medical needs, she kept essential drugs at home for those that daily trooped to her house. She attended to indigent sick people. It was her practice to give such sick people money to buy drugs, as well as money to take them back home.
On a personal note, a day before my little daughter, Daiyibat, passed away on March 17, 2019, when I returned home in the evening of March 16, and saw her condition, I instantly called late Dr. Zuwaira. She came up in a jiffy and observed my daughter and advised we took her to the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) as soon as possible. Before we left, she rushed to her house and came back and thrust something to my wife. It was N10,000.
When Daiyibat died the following morning, immediately the funeral was over, late Dr. Zuwaira came in with provisions, including a bag of rice and cooking oil and dropped them in our kitchen.
That was not the beginning. While she was serving as the Bauchi State Commissioner for Health, she was aware of our effort to raise over N5m for the second heart surgery of late Daiyibat in India. One faithful morning, we heard a knock on our door. It was Dr. Zuwaira ready to leave for Bauchi having spent the weekend in Jos. She came in and we had our usual chat. She said she just popped in to say hello to us having not been around for a long time. She gave something in a leather bag to my wife and said, “It is just N1m, please bear with me, this is the much I could source for you.” She left without waiting for us to shower her with thanks. My wife and I cried that morning. That was Dr. Zuwaira for you.
The late Dr. Zuwaira was until her death an Associate Professor of Medicine, but her lifestyle was so simple that many would mistake her for a simple housewife.
She was blessed with three children, all of them well trained, numerous brothers and sisters, as well as many foster children who she was shouldering their educational development. I know of some that have already graduated and are gainfully employed.
Call Dr. Zuwaira to any community activity and rest assured that she would strive to be there. Her dual constituencies of Toro, her place of origin and birth, and Jos, where she studied and lived, were never a challenge to her. Both Plateau and Bauchi states benefitted immensely from her generosity. She served severally in the Plateau State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board medical team. Her tenure as Commissioner for Health during Gov. M. A. Abubakar’s administration saw a revolution in healthcare delivery in Bauchi. She once told me that she accepted to serve as commissioner to the detriment of her career, as she was pursuing a PhD at the time.
When JNI Jos was handed over to the Ambassador Yahaya Kwande Community Hospital – a giant effort by Hon. Suleman Yahaya Kwande, the immediate past House of Representatives Member for Bassa/Jos North, her name came first among the board of trustees. She did not disappoint as she came handy as usual and was made to head the new hospital’s management team. It was a task she could not say no to despite her tight schedule. Already, she had left a positive mark in the teething moment of the hospital’s take off. I am sure the best legacy other team members would have in her memory is to ensure her dream of a vibrant community hospital is realised.
No space will be enough to pay tribute to Dr. Zuwaira. Prayers for the repose of her soul will never dry from numerous people she positively touched.
Sleep on Dr. Zuwaira and continue to rest in peace. May Aljannat Firdausi be your final abode.
Barr. Lawal writes from Jos, Plateau State
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