By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.
Bawan Allah (Servant of Allah) was the name I used to call him. I called him ‘Bawan Allah’ because of his love of Allah (God), country and peace, in that order. But his name, known to, and addressed, by everybody else, is Malam Dauda AbdulLahi, and he was a senior officer in one of the sought after security organisations in Nigeria.
I have worked in the same place with Bawan Allah for eight years and enjoyed a cordial and mutually beneficial relationship with him, although I am not a security man myself. In fact most people who worked with him in the same organisation, either as seniors, equals in rank or juniors, and at the same place, enjoyed being with him.
He was a very pious, very quiet, very attentive, very helpful, very self effacing and very friendly person who was hardly heard to be in a disagreement with anyone, regardless of their position in the society. He was thus friendly, and lived with almost everybody peacefully, as far as yours sincerely knew.
Known to rarely publicly display his anger, he was also very well known for his never tiring habit of bringing presents whenever he visited his home town in Niger state.
The last time I actively interacted with him was nearly three years ago, before yours sincerely was struck down by a stroke. But the last time I saw and spoke with Bawan Allah was one and a half years ago, a few weeks before the present Katsina state administration came on the stage.
He often led us in the obligatory prayer whenever we traveled outside the state, as an entourage in the company of our joint principal, the then Governor of Katsina State, Rt. Honourable Aminu Bello Masari, CFR, when neither of the ‘assigned’ Inams was in the mosque.
The Bawan Allah, was also almost all the time in the mosque before me, when we travelled out of town, for the ‘Walha’, a morning time nafilat prayer (non obligatory but a strong practice of our beloved Prophet and the final seal of prophethood, Muhammadu RasululLahi SallalLahu Alaihim Wa Sallama).
This recollection also reminds me of another important acquaintance, Dr. Nafi’u Funtua, whose memory came to me, whenever the Quranic Ayat of Al Bakrah (the cow) read by me or when I heard it being read. He most often read some verses (ayats) from that chapter whenever we travelled with Governor Aminu Bello Masari, CFR, and he led us in the regular prayers, when neither the regular Imam, Malam Hassan nor Malam Umar Abubakar Abukur were around.
He and the three others mentioned, left a very good impression with me and perhaps others, and I remember them with nostalgia very often as their generosity, simplicity and patience were legendary. Malam Dauda AbdulLahi, in particular.
May Allah be their guide and enabler wherever they may be, and may He also enrich us with the virtues of the foursome, and more, and lead us on His path, up to the time of our last breath in this world.
Malam Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.
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