Like every mortal, he was born to die but his came to us so sudden and heavy- cutting piercingly deep into our fragile hearts. Life indeed is vain, transient and ephemeral, for how can you explain the glaring fact that we all saw him that morning full of life, he was all zest and passion. No trace of anything to suggest he was even ill. He had breakfast with his family, the driver drove him to the office, greeted people as he walked to his office, but just as he strides to enter his office, the Almighty decided that it was indeed time for him to leave mother earth and Dr. Umar Imam fell to the cruel embrace of death.
A man many have come to identify as straight forward, humble, just, fair and detribalized has ceased to exist no more. For us at the MDGs office, it was a day we don’t want to remember for anything, for it was a day one of us, so blessed with hope, talent, determination, inspiration and excellence left us so hurriedly without even a mere goodbye.
Severally, Dr Imam had cheated death in all contest of survival defeating death to total submission, the last was the deadly accident that claimed the lives of all occupants in the car, but he came out unscathed. With every close shave with death, this man had a way of dusting himself up. Like Hajia Amina Az-Zubair succinctly put: “Dr Imam had always being living on borrowed time”, for he was a dogged fighter in all fronts of life.”
We are grieving for a man who played for people that can’t play, who gave hope to those at the brink of despair, a tall figure to aspiring persons. For Dr. Imam, there is no proof that his sun shall rise tomorrow, but behind his death lies an array of lasting legacies that would be hard and impossible to be dimmed by the shadow of death. He was a teacher and father to all. His life taught us the freedom of will and undeviating steadiness of purpose.
From this man, we learnt a benevolent dispositions, He was an example of a perfect family man who governed his household with respect, love and affection. He imbibed in his family the idea of living conformably to nature’s design. He was gifted with undeviating firmness in dealing with everyone. He never considered himself not more than any other person. Dr. Imam’s has a legendary habit of careful inquiry in all matters of deliberations. He never looked at things at face value and was never satisfied with appearances which present themselves.
To Dr Imam, we are all indebted for his fatherly role, mentoring, professionalism and good spirited leadership. For making us understand that it is possible for a man to live in a palace without the razzmatazz attached to the palace, may the almighty Allah provide you a befitting shelter in Aljannatul Firdausi.
Haruspice wrote in from Abuja
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