Sa’adatu Muhammad Babangida
and her husband Najib Ahmad, a newly wed couple were still in tiher honeymoon
phase of their marriage, when tragedy struck in their home.
On January 12, 2020,
exactly 27 days after their wedding, they were at home in Jos when Sa’adatu
complained of toothache. At about 10:30pm she went to the kitchen to brew some
java pepper (a blend of coffee) that would help alleviate her pains.
Najib waited in the bedroom
but soon heard an explosion from within the house. Most of the ceiling caved
in, as did most of their newly-minted lives in what the husband, Najib, would
describe as “a terrible moment.” A gas explosion in the kitchen had left
Sa’adatu badly burnt, crying for help.
“I started hearing Sa’adatu
from the room crying “Inna liLlahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un,” (to God we belong and to God we shall
return.) I then concluded that something dreadful had happened to my lovely
wife,” Najib told Daily Trust.
He found his wife on the
kitchen floor, writhing in pain, half of her body covered in burns. He rushed
her to the Jos University Teaching Hospital where he hoped she could be
treated.
What he did not know at the
time was that his wife had begun her journey to death, which would eventually
end on February 3rd when she died from the injuries she sustained in the
explosion.
Sa’adatu was 30
at the time of her death. A graduate of Micro Biology from the Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria, she was enlisted into the N-Power programme and was attached
to a Jos North Local Government Primary Healthcare as lab assistant.
From her stipend, her mother said, her daughter
was generous and supported her family.
“Sa’adat
lived a life worthy of emulation,” he mother said, speaking softly. “She was a
genius, a God-sent person and heroine of Babangida’s family, who often
understood your problems before you shared them with her. She was relentless
towards giving out her best to the family from the little she earned as an
N-power beneficiary. To my knowledge, nobody has ever said anything bad about
her. Her deeds would continue to be remembered.”
Her
generosity of spirit was testified to by her husband, who said that despite her
obvious pain during her time in the hospital, his wife expressed joy that he
was safe from the disaster.
For him, the
26 days of bliss he spent with his wife before the accident would remain
something he would treasure as he recalled how they met and fell in love.
“Within just
one year of courtship, we fell in love and became engaged because of the understanding
we had, not knowing that our marriage was going to be intercepted by such an
unfortunate incident,” he said.
He would
remember those 26 days for the love and care his wife showed him and the mutual
respect and appreciation they had for each other. He described her as a
God-fearing woman who would often commit to prayers and spent time reciting the
Holy Qur’an.
If there was
any regret, it was that he was not there the moment she breathed her last.
“I left her
on the sickbed with the doctors for Asr prayers without knowing I would not
return to meet her alive,” the grief-stricken husband said.
She died a
few minutes after he left the room, with doctors trying and failing to save her
life.
One of the
advice she gave her husband Najib on her deathbed would stay with him forever.
In one of
their last moments together, Najib said his wife left a verbal will to him
asking him to maintain good relations with her family, saying, “I should not
allow anything to break my relationship with members of her family and live
peacefully with whoever I relate with.”
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