Yakowa: When Great Men Refuse To Die -By Reuben Buhari

When Quintus Ennius, the Roman poet and satirist died in 169 bc. He had already established himself as the founder of Roman literature due to his epic Annales, a narrative poem on the story of Rome and its people. However, a telling reference to his quest for literary immortality surfaces when he wrote that “Let no one weep for me, or celebrate my funeral with mourning; for I still live, as I pass to and fro through the mouths of men.”

He buttressed this by introducing himself as a reincarnated Homer, in apparent exultation and recognition of the literary genius of the Greek poet, presumed to have authored the classical Odyssey and Iliad. With the liberty of analogy as my defence and the intrusion of modernity at my disposal, I can tentatively stretch his poetic expression to say that Ennius had late governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa in mind when he scribbled those words centuries ago.

Even though it’s been three years now that Yakowa – who would have been 67 years now – died in that ill-fated helicopter in Bayelsa, he lives in our heart and like Ennius said, he lives as he passes to and fro through the mouths of men – our mouths that daily muse and celebrate his life among us

This is because late Yakowa’s passage through Kaduna state has become a mirror hanging on our neck through which we, including them, take a peep in our attempt to answer the knotty question of transcending geopolitical differences and ethnicity in our country. It was that selfless act of transcending those barriers that took him to Bayelsa where his transition to eternity begun in the forest of Okoroba, Nembe Local Government, shortly after take-off around 3:30 pm on 15th December 2012.

Agreed, the nature of my mentor’s transition in that burning chopper wasn’t what I would have wish for a gentle and godly soul like Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, but like the mythical phoenix in ancient mythology, he has risen from the burning navy Helicopter that ineffectually tried to contained him, to freely soar into the heavens and our consciousness where he has achieved immortality through our continuous existence.

With a sometimes self-effacing demeanor that doesn’t stop him from his often compelling hearty laugh, my late governor exuded an unyielding non-conformism to the languid pattern that some states are governed. He didn’t deliberately adopt a populist stance through his governance in the vain sense of it, but one that sought to make a statement in defiance of mediocrity in governance.

From when he became conscious of himself on this earth, he walked purposely with an idea of where he was going and what he wants to achieve and so he didn’t falter when fate bestowed on him the leadership of Kaduna state. From his resolute declaration of being a governor for all at his inauguration on 10th March 2010 to 15 December 2012 when he died, he kept faith with his conviction to be fair to all within the context of his humanity. He couldn’t have satisfied all as that would have been a delusional expectation and an attempt to transmute and assign divine prowess to him, but he did what he could within the time allocated to him by God. That however didn’t stop him from being misunderstood by some, maligned by others and loved by the rest of the people.

And as expected, up to now, some still consider certain policy thrust of his administration as debatable, but what is not contestable is the fact that he did everything he did for the love of the state, its citizens and his conviction that he sought the best. He laid a developmental framework from what he met and when he died his successor was at liberty to build upon the equilibrium he sought. The action or inaction to consolidate upon his framework is a debatable issue that has remained topical to this day – depending upon which side one stands.

Yakowa was generally a quiet man who almost never engages in vainglorious pursuit of those mundane follies that usually turn out as abstract distraction in lives. His gentility however never stopped him from lacing his strives for perfection with firmness when saddled with a responsibility.

For example, when in 1962, with still the loss of his mother fresh in his heart, he went to St. Mary Catholic School, situated in Fadan Kaje and his gentle disposition, which was evident up till the day he died, made him a natural choice for quiet roles when he joined the school’s drama Society. One such role was during a play in 1965 ‘The Bishop’s Candlestick,’ where Patrick was given the role of the ‘Bishop’s sister’. As hilarious as it sounds to picture Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, strutting coyly in feminine apparels and mimicking a girl, it was however said later on that he played the role to perfection, aided by lots of chuckles and laughter from those in the school hall.

Also, he is one governor that has always been accused of working too much at the detriment of his health, family and friends. It however turned out well for the state because he left visible scars of development strewn all over the state. The impact he made when alive was great, the impact he left when he died was greater and that is assuring to us and his family.

Retrospectively, as a whiff of the great man he will turn out to be, the 1st December day Yakowa was born symbolically heralded the coming of one whose presence among inhabitants of Kaduna years later will mean smiles, when it coincided with the action of Rosa Parks, the 42-year-old African American seamstress who refused on, 1st December 1955, to vacate a seat for a white man in a Montgomery City bus. Her action that day, when Yakowa was celebrating his 5th birthday, initiated the beginning of a revolutionary era of non-violent mass protests in support of civil rights in the United States. Even though she was arrested for violating the laws of segregation, known as “Jim Crow laws,” Rosa Parks’ act on Yakowa’s birthday, unknown to us, might have cast a goodluck aura on the stellar leadership qualities he got imbued with when alive.

Today, I mourn Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa; the former National Security Adviser, General Andrew Owoye Azazi; Warrant Officer Kamal Mohammed; Elder Dauda Tsoho, the pilot, Commander Muritala Mohammed Daba; and co-pilot, Lt Col. Adeyemi O. Sowole. You all perished in that chopper, but your good names didn’t perish.

We still love you, continue rest in peace.

– Reuben Buhari, is a former special adviser, Media and Publicity to late Governor Yakowa.