Hello,
No time
Use time well
Living in the service of others is a life worth living. Spurred by this mission, I waited to meet him – Obadiah Mailafia, to build friendship. It’s 17 July 2018 at the policy dialogue on job creation in Nigeria, organized by the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) in conjunction with the office of the Vice President (OVP) of Nigeria and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). He is one of the resource persons at the event. I am the moderator of the day.
It’s the first I time I am meeting him, having followed his writings, scholarship and politics. But I have to be patient to share from the animated conversation he is having with Professor Mabogunje.
I stand there listening, taking note of the logic, meanings and precision of their analyses.
It’s good to listen.
Mailafia’s transition is about going somewhere to be quiet, as a remedy to the chaos he tried to tame. Whatever the circumstances, we have to comfort ourselves. Take it as solace in trouble. By the way, what is living if it’s not for noble causes? I am not mourning his absence, for the direction of my dreams cannot accommodate it. I am celebrating his presence in the works of his mind.
At this point tears will not help as I endeavour to reach the heights of my dreams, expecting to meet success in uncommon hours. He understood it. That he was not patient enough is not me but the coward that death has become.
Death is not wise. How can it go for Obadiah?
Dr Obadiah Mailafia (24 December 1956 – 19 September 2021), presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Nigeria’s 2019 election was a development economist. He was a Deputy Governor at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and was a chief economist in the Strategic Planning and Budgeting Department of the African Development Bank Group. He was a Chief of Staff of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). He co-authored a report on the Maitasine Religious riots of the early 1980s. The report informed government’s action to decimate the extremists.