By Bashir Uba Ibrahim, PhD
“I have learned that people forget what you said, people forget what you did, but people will never forget what you made them feel”, Maya Angelou (1928-2014).
Prof. Umma Abdulwahid Dabi is the kind of person captured by the above quote. Prof. was not just a scholar of high repute, but also an academic mentor to hundreds of academics. My last meeting with Prof. Umma was about two weeks ago, during our 3rd convocation speech-writing sub-committee meeting.
“Mommy”, as we fondly used to call her, would admonish us to always utilise our intellectual rigour in our academic engagements. She always used to tell me that Bashir, you still have time to be mentored on academic engagements, as you are very young. She was also always challenging us on community development services, especially in her dear state, Jigawa.
It is an understatement to say that Prof. Umma is one of the most patriotic indigenes of Jigawa State, and of her local community (Ringim) in particular. When I brought her the idea of reviving the moribund Ringim Indigenous Students Association (RISA) in SLUK and serving as its grand patron, she enthusiastically welcomed it.
Mommy is a humanist par excellence, as she is often called “Uwar Marayu” for her philanthropic gestures. Her home is heaven for the children of the have-nots who couldn’t afford to live during their school life. As a psychologist, she also used to offer counselling and psychological therapy to students, especially females.
I can remember the story of one of our brilliant female students in the Department of English and Literary Studies, SLUK, who had a first-class CGPA. When she moved on in her academic pursuit, her performance drastically reduced due to the depression she found herself overwhelmed by. So, her coordinator took her to Mommy. Mommy graciously offered her free accommodation in her house, along with free feeding and psychological therapy, until the student stabilised. Thus, Mommy was not only a scholar, but also a promoter of girl-child education, a mentor, a counsellor, and a psychological therapist.
Prof. Umma met her final days on her way back from Kaduna along the Kano-Kaduna Road in a fatal car accident. The death of Mommy is indeed an irreparable loss not only to Ringim but to SLUK and Jigawa State. We pray for Allah to forgive her shortcomings and grant her Jannatul Firdaus.
Postscript
The group picture was taken last year when I accompanied the EXCOS of the Ringim Indigenous Students Association (RISA) SLUK Chapter to her office to solicit her to serve as the grand patron of the union, which she gladly accepted.