The death of Ishaq, popularly known as SK, and Ismaila in a fatal motor accident that occurred on Saturday afternoon around Ilesha, Osun State has once again thrown my country home, Ajobe in Ankpa local government of Kogi State, into mourning.
Though death has become the usual meal on Nigeria’s menu, but the death of SK and Ismaila, as well as those in the bus shocked the community to the marrows.
However, like every human being, the moment we leave the graveyard, the life that we felt was not worth living upon sighting the dead lying still, is suddenly mollified and we continue to assume our individual mortality.
As the holy writ counseled, moments like this present eternal lessons of our human existence and should be more desired. When we see the dead lying inside their lonely coffin rest homes, we should substitute ourselves for them. In other words, the question is, what if I was the one inside that coffin? Most of the atrocities in high and low places are committed because we assume our immortality and magisterially divine that our own death is farther down the alley.
“It will not happen to me” or “May Allah forbid!” Are the words that come out of our subconscious mind whenever we see our friends, colleagues and fellow travelers on life’s lonely road being lowered into the sepulchre. But, why should Allah forbid a process that is the culmination of our humanity?
Like Ishaq and Ismaila and our brothers and sisters who paid the supreme price on Saturday, July 16, 2021, we will die our own deaths at the intersection when the final whistle is blown.
I extend my condolences to the families of the bereaved.
– Abubakar Yunusa writes from Abuja.
