When I learnt of the sad news of the passing of my big brother, Prof. Tom Adaba, about a fortnight ago, I quickly put a call to his younger sibling, Chief Patrick Adaba. I got no response. He was the only immediate family member I could reach to express my condolences. Then, I followed up with Whatsapp chats a day later. I also wanted to know what the burial arrangement would be like so I could go and pay my last respect. Yet, there was no response.
Unknown to me, Patrick had been down for close to two years. You can imagine the shock I got some six or so nights ago when I saw a post on the ever busy social media announcing the demise of a former governor of Kogi state. Initially, Chief Adaba did not come to my mind. There is a handful of ex-deputy governors of the state on the card.
“Not again!” was my reaction when, out of curiosity, I scrolled further down and it turned out that the former deputy governor was Chief Adaba. And my jaw dropped. He was said to have collapsed when the news of the elder Adaba hit him. He was rushed to the hospital for medical attention and was discharged only for him to give up the ghost a day after the burial of his brother. Nothing can be more devastating than this.
I got to know Chief Adaba through Prof. Adaba. He was not entirely a Jos man like his elder brother but we interacted closely any time he came around. Unlike his elder brother, who was of an average height, Chief Adaba was a towering figure who made his mark as a technocrat and politician. When he shed the toga as an administrator, he veered into the political terrain and became the Secretary to the Kogi State Government (SSG) in the first stint of the late Prince Abubakar Audu as Governor in the 1990s under the banner of All Peoples Party (APP). In 1999, he was chosen as the Deputy Governor to Prince Audu based on his sterling performance as the SSG. His tenure was marked by stability, transparency and infrastructure development efforts. He later became a member of the Board of Trustees of the ruling People Democratic Party (PDP) at a stage.
I was opportune to visit him in Lokoja when he was the No. 2 man at his residence where I was warmly received his amiable spouse and I had a dinner with them. I was also in his office the next day. When he sighted me waiting for him, he beckoned at me to come over. He held my hand as we climbed up the stairs to his office.
Chief Adaba’s friendly disposition could be deceptive. Behind the calm façade is a tough, no nonsense personality. While his elder brother would calmly fend off a (pestering) fly, Chief Adaba would pull an AK 47 rifle on the insect.
For me, the death of the two prominent Nigerians is a double loss. And I feel rather diminished.
May the good Lord grant the duo eternal rest and their families in particular as well as the entire Egbira nation in general, the fortitude to bear the irreparable losses.