‘Mother of the Yandang nation’ is what Prof Istifanus Zabadi called his late wife, Mairo Iliya Zabadi who died September 3rd and was buried September 18th, 2026. That nicknaming came about as a reward for the late Mairo who designed an attire that capture the cultural soul of personality of her ethnic category. Impressed, Prof Zabadi went poetic. When love strikes, most lovebirds – men and women – acquire poetic capability. No wonder, we are told that poetry can penetrate more than science.
A screen shot of husband and wife
Prof Zabadi adjusting his Yandang national attire the late Mairo created
Prof Zabadi poetic exertion for his wife many years ago is just one of the features of the good bye for and from the late wife at her burial September 18th, 2026, a two-week process which started immediately after her sudden death on September 3rd: condolence visits to the house and other contact points by people from different layers of her crisscrossing circles of the estate she dwelt; cultural, religious, business and other acquaintances by association with the husband. The climax was the requiem mass at St Mathews Military Church, Mambilla Barracks ahead of the internment.
Two senior academics, Prof Ode Ojowu and Prof W. O. Alli, friends of the Zabadis in the church
Cde John Odah deftly captured this rare opportunity of Adagbo Onoja sharing limelight with the eminent Economist and ex-presidential adviser, Prof Ode Ojowu at the burial
There was the attendance which spanned senators, former governors, retired Generals, a former SGF, Professors, members of the hierarchy of the clergy, Bingham University academics, Government House officials from a number of states, traditional rulers, journalists, civil society activists, serving paramilitary officials and heads of the Lutheran Church of Nigeria.
Yet, the other remarkable feature was the point in the course of the service when worshippers sang ‘Amazing Grace’. ‘Amazing Grace’ never fades in spite of the complexity of its message and the multiplicity of signifiers it references, spanning ‘seeing the light’, submission, wonder, God, the Heavenly, Heaven, soul, saviour, alienation, humanism, delivery, evil, powerlessness, alterity, Africans, exploitation, abolitionism, freedom, plainness, sophistication, grandeur, inhumanity, overcoming. It has acquired a religious character for much of humanity but it is also a message for every realm of social life about how wrong it is to see man (human beings) as the measure of all things. See how a storm humbled John Newton into writing the song that has acquired universal reckoning. Recognising agency in non-human entities is precisely what posthumanists are saying, many centuries after Newton made that point.
The parting moment!
So, souls like Mairo Iliya Zabadi got the message early in her life by being the person she was. How we know now who she was are in the testimonies. Throughout the service brochure, there is no contradiction or tension from the different tribute writers. It is remarkable because (English) language is so slippery that it is never possible to hide such contradictions by even the most skillful script managers.
Intervention is sure that image readers can produce a million interpretations of it, one of which must be “a fascinating good bye from someone who is saying to everyone else: I have done my bit. Carry on”
