By Saleh Bature
The death of 26-year-old Salma Ibrahim Babani in Edmonton, Canada, is deeply saddening. I received the news of her passing to the great beyond with rude shock. The story of Salma is an admixture of both happiness and sorrow. Her life, viewed from these two extremes, serves as a potent lesson to parents, the girl child, and the youths in Nigeria.
She was born on July 26th, 1997. Even though she was afflicted by Sickle cell anemia, the physique of Ummu Salma did not show any signs of a body suffering from a life-threatening illness. The last time I saw her on a hospital bed in 2023 in Abuja, she was as calm as a millpond. Hours before she died in Edmonton, Canada, she was in her usual calm mood, looking bright and healthy.
Indeed, we witnessed both the mystery of death and life in the last hours of Salma’s demise. The health worker who attended to her and from whom her father confirmed her death said, Salma was stable and her vital signs were within normal limits before she died. Allah decreed for her to leave the world on that fateful Monday, May 27th, 2024. This is another lesson in her last moments that confirms the truism that there is indeed a sharp and thin line between life and death.
The deceased exemplified rare brain power and exceptional intelligence in her academic trajectory. She was enrolled in nursery class at the Community School, Abuja, where she had her first experience with formal education. She did her primary and secondary education at the College Horizon, Republic of Mali, Lead British International School in Abuja, and Gandhi Memorial International School, Jakarta, Indonesia. Salma had always been a high scorer in the class in all subjects in the schools she attended.
It was at the Nile University Abuja that Salma proved her intellect when she graduated with a first-class degree in BSC Biology, as well as the recipient of the best student in the Department and second overall best in the 2019 academic year of the University.
She was pure in heart and sound in mind, smart in thinking, beautiful in appearance, courteous, soft-spoken, and respectful. She persevered and didn’t give up on her resolve to prove that sickle cell disease could not be an obstruction to her academic pursuits.
Strangely enough, the many days she spent in the hospital, many times during exam periods, and the excruciating pains she went through at home or on the hospital bed did not in any way affect her education because she was too focused and determined to achieve her goals against all the odds.
I sympathized with her parents. Dr. Ibrahim Babani and Barrister Hadiza Abubakar, who suffered anticipatory anxiety because of the health challenges of their daughter, whom they nurtured and trained for many years to be an achiever and change agent in our country. Before her death, Salma was a MSc student of Molecular Biology and genetics by research. Not only that, she was a teaching assistant (what we call graduate Assistant in Nigeria) at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. The University paid her a fat salary. Sadly, she died at the time she was happy and working in earnest to impact on humanity.
Much as I know that it is difficult for her parents to recover from the death of their beloved Salmata, especially at the time she was preoccupied with the pursuit of beneficial knowledge to impact on our country and people, they should take solace in the quality of life she spent on earth. Even though her life was short-lived, Still, it was well spent. She has left a legacy of scholarship and good character worthy of emulation. Moreover, the sickness she suffered will be a purification for her on the day of reckoning, Insha Allah.
The multitude of people who thronged the deceased family house in Abuja in the wake of her death was instructive. It was a testament that the late Salma was easygoing and at peace with her loved ones, relatives, friends, and colleagues. This was heartening and comforting to the family.
To her father, Dr. Ibrahim Babani, May 27th, the day she was buried, exactly seven days after her actual death, was the day she died. It was on that fateful day of May 27th that he saw the stark reality of the lifeless body of his daughter, shrouded in a white shroud in a coffin, awaiting to be laid to rest. That was the saddest moment in his life.
When I looked at the grave of the late Salmata and the tombstone carrying her name, date of birth and date of death, from a photo sent to us from Edmonton by her father, I could not withhold my tears.
My heart bleeds for the late Salma. I grieved by her final journey to eternity and I also pray to Allah to “forgive her and have mercy on her, protect her and pardon her. Grant her an honorable reception and widen her entrance. Wash her with water, snow, and ice, and purify her from sin as a white garment is purified of dirt. Exchange her home for a better home, her family for a better family, and her spouse for a better spouse. Admit her into Paradise and protect her from the punishment of the grave and the punishment of hellfire.”
Saleh Bature, the author who wrote in this piece from Limpopo Street, Maitama, Abuja. can be reached via baturesuba@yahoo.co.uk
