LIB reader writes touching tribute to his late girlfriend who died at 24

This is a tribute from a LIB reader to his late girlfriend who was also an ardent LIB reader. Wasilah died at age 24 in January. RIP, Wasilah. Read below..

"One of my favourite new age Nigerian writer recently said "we are all living to die, to know this is to live well"; such was the life of Wasilah Abdulrahman Akibu. The first time I saw Wasilah was at a “jambite welcome party”; she was elegant in a white skirt;
i remember and in my head; i wished i could ask her for a dance, but she was way above my League: i knew this or so I liked to assume; She was a big boys chick a friend whispered seeing how i admired her, we would rather avoid Senior Azoume’s wrath he added. The next six years of our lives after that night, is something story tellers would struggle to put into words. Things ultimately changed; for the first four, our relationship transformed from been just the usual hello-hi class mates to becoming friends, thereon confidants to each other and above all soul mates.

Before reaching quietus, Wasilah was a graduate student at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, studying Archaeology, she was also a Deputy Program officer for the Population and Reproductive Health Initiative (PRHI) in Zaria, Kaduna state; where she advocated girl child education, participating in community outreach with the initiative; she interacted with numerous adolescent girls during their Adolescent Girls Leadership Program (AGLP) and several other projects, she encouraged them to continue their education against the odds they were faced with; all in a bid to reduce maternal mortality and child bearing health related diseases especially amongst young girls. She was passionate about her job and always used to say “one day I am hopeful I would have a school and I would be able to mentor girls around the world to pursue their dreams”.

Wasilah was compassionate, dedicated and committed to causes beneficial to other people, she was a self-forgetter. Be it at work or at school, she was audacious and courageous. Wasilah Abdulrahman Akibu meant different things to those who knew her; to most she was nice, to some; dutiful, charismatic, sometimes seeming naive, but kindness was something no one could ever take away from her.

She supported her family and many friends in ways beyond comprehension; she sacrificed daily for many to have a better lives! She was a true reflection of the popular saying: “if you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a nation” It was her dream to become a professor, to teach archaeology and magnify the beauty of Africa’s Heritage to the world, In pursuit of that; plans of her obtaining a scholarship to study conservation for a doctorate degree was in the works… Alas those plans would never see the light.

Her academic and professional life were incomparable to the radiance her aura assumed and her adversaries to date cannot comprehend how she was serene, intelligent, stylish, compassionate, and yet so elegant. It was in this serenity that made many to nick name her Waceecul. We were optimistic of a future together, we would argued about the number of kids we would have, and I remember habbibi alby (as I called her) saying “I will not let you spoil my children, they would grow up to be respectful, diligent and God fearing, if they mess up I will flog them, I will not allow you to carry oyinboness to spoil my children.”

The beauty of this tragedy remains the very fact that Wasilah appreciated the tranquility of death, agreeing that death was easier than living. She had an unshakable belief in a blissful afterlife; and how any, could reach quietus at any given moment. She was a firm believer, free spirited, a lover of life, a go-getter and in the words of her boss" a rose amid thorns".

We love her enough not to question the creator as to why now? We love her enough to know that the goal isn’t to live forever but to live a live worthy of emulation and commemoration like hers. Wasilah was God’s Angel in human schema, a rare gem literature and history books would never fully grasp; and the words to describe her magnificence would always remain insufficient.

At twenty four, Wasilah meet eventual fate on the 6th of January 2016, after a brief illness, she was buried the next day according to Islamic rites. As numbness follow and numerous questions arise; despondence have become brethren as anguish, despair and grief are now companions. I continue to hear the phrase “good people don’t last” it leaves doubt in my mind as to whether all living beings are full of evil? That is a hoax I choose not to believe. All I can now do is to pray she finds peace with her creator, until we are reunited in the lush gardens of paradise. Everyone of us would eventually die, wasilah’s death and the death of many daily is a constant reminder of that reality, to comfort ourselves is to find solace in the words of Socrates when he said; “Death may be the greatest of all human blessings’’. I pray she finds eternal rest, wherever she is.