IMHOTEP: Requiem for the blind sage

By Obadiah Mailafia

March 20, 2011 11:30PMT

According to an ancient Jewish mystical teaching, at any time in the world there exist 36 Righteous Hidden Ones -- the Tzadikim Nistarim -- for whose sake God prevents the world from being utterly destroyed. Also known as ‘the lamed-vavnkis’, from the numerology of 30 (lamed) and six (vav), they are scattered all over the world and are not known to one another. But on rare occasions, one or two may be accidentally discovered. One of the signs by which they may be known is through the virtue of ‘anavah’ (humility), which St. Augustine of Hippo described as ‘the mark of Christ’.

This land of our forefathers is one of the most iniquitous nations on earth; a land where the rich and powerful engage in child sacrifice and the burying of young virgins to acquire wealth and power; a land desecrated by the blood of so many martyrs. Even in this latter-day Sodom and Gomorrah, I have come across one or two people who exhibit the virtues of the Hidden Righteous Ones.

One of such is the late Bitrus Gani-Ikilim, who recently passed into glory on the night of Sunday, February 20. Like the Tzadik Nistarim of Jewish lore, the late Gani was a quiet and rather very private individual.

If my memory serves me right, it was during the Easter of 1977 that I first met him. I was an undergraduate at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He was one of the speakers at a students’ retreat in Wusasa. I was completely awed by this blind man who was introduced to us as the Head of Department of Physiotherapy at the Faculty of Medicine. He was rather small in frame, but when he spoke his deep baritone voice seemed to tower even about the spires of St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral. His elocution was impeccable. The only other people I have ever known to speak English the way it should be spoken were Ishaya Shuaibu Audu, our former Vice-Chancellor, and one of my late teachers, Ibrahim Tahir.

After the retreat, I was privileged to take a ride in his car back to campus in Samaru. Gani sat in the front with his driver while two others and I sat at the back. In a conversation I shall never forget, I got to know him as an enormously gifted man who was also deeply spiritual. His mind was curious about everything. He was at home in science as he was in philosophy and literature. The aura around him was one of peace.

As the years passed by, I was made to understand that he followed my career with keen interest. Unfortunately, I never really kept in close touch the way I would have loved to. I always assumed he would be a permanent fixture in the Zaria landscape and that I could always see him any time I wanted.

Gani-Ikilama (OON, MCSP, FNSP), was born on February 25, 1944 in Donga, Taraba State. He became blind at age five, after contracting measles. He could easily have ended up as one the many blind beggars we see throughout the towns and villages of northern Nigeria were it not for the foresight of an uncle who noted his innate brilliance and took uncommon interest in the child’s education.

In 1955, he was the first to be enrolled at the new school that the missionaries built for visually handicapped children in Gindiri in the present Plateau State. He subsequently went on to the Boys’ Secondary School nearby. He was a classmate of an uncle of mine at the famous BSS Gindiri, where he was reputed to have scored all ‘A’s in the Cambridge Certificate examinations.

Gani later studied at the London School of Physiotherapy between 1963 and 1967. He worked briefly at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), as did the brilliant pediatrician Ishaya Audu, before transferring to ABU Zaria. An accomplished pianist, he was also a choirmaster and musician. He co-founded Hope for the Blind, an international NGO that has made a huge impact on the welfare of blind people throughout our country.

During his lifetime, Gani was not among the rich and powerful of the land. But true greatness does not lie in money, position or title. I believe this country has been saved from perishing because of sentinels like Gani.

During one of those recurring cycles of ritual bloodbaths that go by the name of ‘religious riots’ in the north, his home in GRA, Zaria was the scene of a minor miracle. Some murderous hordes had gone there at midnight, with machetes and guns. In those circumstances, what was a blind man to do? He knelt down and prayed. It was said that the hoodlums inexplicably fled in terror as though pursued by a fearful ogre. The story later emerged that, as they approached the gates, they saw a flaming wall of fire around the property.

Gani was buried on the holy grounds of St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Cathedral in Wusasa on Saturday, February 26. In our Age of Pentecost – even of the Paraclete – he shall be counted among the makers of what someone termed The Third Testament. His shall be the sleep of the righteous and the just.

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Quite interesting. Absolutely true that true greatness does not lie in wealth. Even though I had not heard of this gem from Northern Nigeria until now, I agree that people like this are the reason our dear fatherland has not been destroyed like the biblical sodom and gomorrah.