On Saturday, March, 17th 2018 the sun set on distinguished Senator Mallam Ali Wakili, the then Senator representing Bauchi South Senatorial District on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC). Born in 1960, Senator Mallam Ali Wakili lived a rather short but eventful life that can hardly be forgotten by both his admirers and detractors alike.
Even though, by my Christian faith, I know that death can come knocking at any time hence our resolve to be assured of life in the hereafter which only Jesus Christ can guarantee, I naively did not know that death was so close to you hence my shock.
Few days after his death, the overwhelming feeling of grief for everybody who knew him remains mutual. It didn’t matter what you were to him. What was important was that you made his acquaintance.
Senator Mallam Ali Wakili believed in friendship. He celebrated friendship. He was a faithful devotee to the cult of humanity. His love for fellow human beings was extra-ordinary. He had passion for life and lived it to the fullest. He believed in fairness, equity and justice. He never believed in coveting anything that was not his. A friend’s problem automatically became his and all his life, he strove to be a friend in need. He would plead to lend a helping hand even when you were reluctant to involve him in your personal problems.
It is one of the supreme ironies of life that good men, most times, die young.
Doctrinaire Catholicism explains that it is so because God wouldn’t want such people to be corrupted in this evil world and would, therefore, recall them to rest eternally in His bosom, while evil men are given a longer time on earth to repent. I don’t know how true this is, but if, indeed, it is true, then, it is a very unfair reward for goodness. Shouldn’t long life be a reward, a natural consequence of good life predicated on service to humanity?
But we can neither question God’s infinite wisdom nor pick quarrels with death since that would amount to an exercise in futility. But truth be told, the death of Senator Mallam Ali Wakili really hurts, and badly too.
Senator Mallam Ali Wakili was a charismatic politician and political leader with panache, passion and fervour that traversed the political spectrum, appealing to all social strata. He was at home with the grassroots as he was with the elite.
Senator Mallam Ali Wakili was a very generous man who gave his all to the needy, friends and constituents, without favour to ethnicity, religion and background. Thousands benefitted from his social empowerment programmes.
He was a loyal party member and a team player who was determined to help realise the progressive agenda of the party, through legislation, not just in the whole country but in the State of Bauchi and Bauchi South Senatorial District as well.
His death is very painful and a big blow to us all. He is leaving a void in us, the Senate of the Federal Republic, Bauchi politics and his community in Lere that will be hard to fill. We give thanks to the Almighty God for the fruitful and exemplary life that Senator Mallam Ali Wakili lived. All mortal come from him and to him shall they return.
It is perhaps apt to share the passion of Apostle Paul who in his epistle to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:7) rhapsodized in ecstasy: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith”. It is appropriate to say that Senator Ali Wakili has indeed fought a good fight and finished his earthly course and kept abiding faith in the goodness of the Lord.
Adieu, Senator Mallam Ali Wakili, till hereafter.
May Allah SWT grant you Aljanatu fridaus and give your family the strength to bear your passage.
Citizen John Akevi, writes from Bauchi.
