Captain Jamilu Ali Hassan: A Tribute

When I saw the missed calls of our mutual student, Nanah Aisha Ibrahim, it did not occurred to me, even in my wildest imagination, that she will be telling me that you are gone. When I returned the call and she, after the usual greetings, asked me "sir wai an kashe Mallam Jamilu?", I felt the earth oscillating beneath my feet! I had to lean by the wall before I sat down. I just couldn't believe it. When I asked her "where?" , and she said in Zamfara, I felt a sense of relief because I knew your posting was Katsina not Zamfara. I told her it might not be you, that she should try and verify it, while I do the same thing.

Immediately I hung up, I tried all your lines, and, to my utter disappointment, all are switched off. I run to your Whatsapp, and your "last seen" was exactly 8:59pm yesterday. Then Aisha called again to inform me that she had confirmed it from a friend of hers who is a neighbor to your family house. She added that a military convoy carrying your body for burial, after taking it to your mother for prayers, had just passed their house. Thus, sad reality that you have actually left this sinful world descended on me. Innalillahi wa inna ilaihir raji'un!

It was exactly eleven years now since I first met you in Palmgrove International School where we shared the same office inside the school's "multipurpose biology/agric laboratory." I still remember when you walked into the laboratory holding a book, a packet of chalk and a cane. On noticing me inside, you said "salamu alaikum", to which I answered "waalaikumus salam" while you proceeded to the table opposite mine and dropped the items in your hands. After washing your hands in the sink, you approached me with a smile, offered your hand for a shake and say "sallamu alaikum, sabon malami ko?". We greeted and you introduced yourself as the school's chemistry/integrated science teacher. I later learned that you studied biochemistry in Bayero University, Kano, where you are a year behind me. You were also, just like me, a product of the Kano State Science Secondary Schools Board from Science College, Dawakin Tofa.

Within the less than six months we worked together in Palmgrove, we became very close friends as if we knew each other right from childhood. Even after working working hours, we are usually together either in your Badawa family house or you come to our house in the neighboring Yankaba area. When you left to Bauchi state for your national service later in the year, we remained constantly in touch and we will be together whenever you are in Kano. On completing your national service, you joined me again in Hannatu Memorial College, Kano where we teached together for another one year before you joined the Jigawa State service as a teacher while I returned to BUK. You later joined the army in the year 2011 where you served the country deligently and gallantly, from one flashpoint to another, until last Saturday when you paid the supreme price in the process of defending the innocent and armless people of Batsari against the deadly attack waged against them by criminal armed bandits.

Dear Jamilu, as I often told you and other mutual friends, you were too gentle and kind to be a soldier. In the three years I lived and worked closely with you, there was never a time when you were involved in a fight or even serious argument with anybody even in situations of intolerable provocation. I still remember how you calmly ignored a rowdy teacher colleague who went to the extent of removing your cap and pointing fingers on your face over a minor disagreement. Later, while discussing the issue on our way home, you simply told me "he is a madman, I can't descend to his level. If the two of us fight, what would that signify to the students we are supposed to be role models to?".

Dear Jamilu, may your gentle soul rest in Jannah Fidaursi

GMB's incompetence killed him

Another Christian gone

And Adadike wept. This is what I call a true officer. Rest in peace dear gallant soldier