Exactly a year ago, at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Kasimu Alu Kigbu gave up the ghost. It was rather a painful death whose circumstances have remained mysterious. A teacher at the department of History at the University of Jos, Kigbu died a rather painful death. Painful, not simply because he was brutally hit “ even if the police characteristic of its true self has been unable (or have decided not) to unravel the circumstances of his death, but because almost a year after, no one has known further what caused his death, and that seems to have been the end of it all.
How did death come about the young man whose often quoted ambition before his death was the completion of his Ph.D thesis before he turned thirty?
It was at the heat of retrenchment last year at the Plateau Publishing Company (PPC) that I knew him. The scorching heat at Maiduguri had almost dissipated me “ and I had almost thrown in the towel. Malaria “ and the buzzing of mosquitoes almost cowed me. Then the retrenchment. And there I found myself in Jos, at the house of Akolo Audu, editor of Community concord. It was there that we went out. My posting from Maiduguri, to Jos “ only further cemented the new relationship.
As I came to know him, Kasimu represented all there was in a young man which he unquestionably was. Married to Mrs Rhoda Kigbu, a reporter with the Plateau Radio Television Corporation, he had two kids. A female and male. The third child, a female was lost. And so, he was family man. Not simply because he had a wife and children, but because, for most time, he always sought to go back home. In fact, he made it a duty each day to pick his kid from the school and would not let anything dissuade him from so doing. He was also as far as I know ambitious. For beside the zeal to complete his thesis and get a Ph.D before he turned 30, he did not see himself as one who would stay on the lower rungs of the ladder.
Further, he believed in a society that is useful to its citizens, and not one full of rogues such as the stuff Nigeria is made of. This, perhaps, was why he participated in the Students Union at the ABU, Zaria and even won elections to become a member of the Student Representative Assembly (SRA). And, of course, the editorials of The Standard newspapers did not miss his attention. Each day, he commented. And was full of praise “ and suggestions fro improvement.
Shakespeare, the literary guru, in one of his writings “ As You Like It “ said that the good parts of someone would be his undoing, so it was for Kasimu whose good parts, that cheerfulness he always had eventually undid him.
But as with all other poor people, the circumstances of the death were not thoroughly investigated by the police, even if investigations were carried out, such were done in such a way as to cover up. This is perhaps why, till today, the charges brought to court by the police are not seriously pursued by the police as to ensure prosecution of those involved. A year has gone. Justice delayed is justice denied. Besides, it would seem that at the rate things are going, nothing will come out of the prosecution.
But did Kasimu have to die? Was he given the proper attention at JUTH? And could the accident have been prevented? If, as it is believed, he was killed “ who killed him and what was the motive?
But who was Kasimu anyway? Born on the first of March 1959 at Barkin Abdullahi in Lafia Local Government Area, Kasimu Alu Kigbu attended the Adogi Primary School from 1965 to 1971 and proceeded to the Government Secondary School Lafia, from 1976 to 1977, he did his School Certificate at Gindiri, and was at the School of Preliminary Studies, Keffi. Thereafter, he proceeded to the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, where in 1981, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History. He worked from 1982 to 1986 with the School of Preliminary Studies, Keffi, during which period he studied and obtained a Masters of Arts degree in History from Bayero University Kano. He took up an appointment with the University of Jos, History Department as an assistant lecturer and was working on his Ph.D thesis when he gave up the ghost.
By Rima Shawulu
The Standard, Wednesday, November 2, 1988