THE death on September 19, 2021 of development economist, international polymath, Central Bank of Nigeria’s ex-Deputy Governor, statesman and 2019 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, was a huge shock. Mailafia died fighting for a better Nigeria, an awesome candle lit in Nigeria’s wind. Born on December 24, 1956 in Randa village in Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna State to Baba Mailafia Gambo Galadima, an evangelist of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Central Nigeria (ERCC), Mailafia had the upbringing of a missionary child, steeped in the dynamics of his environment. From elementary education at Musha Sudan United Mission School in 1964, he enrolled at the Mada Hills Secondary School in 1969, before heading to the famous Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he schooled from 1974 and 1975 and came out with a Bachelor’s degree in politics, economics and sociology. He was later to obtain a Master’s degree from the prestigious university. He topped it all off with a DPhil from the University of Oxford in 1995.
Mailafia thereafter worked with the African Development Bank Group as the Chief of Staff of the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), the 79-nation multilateral development institution with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. He was chief economist in the Strategic Planning and Budgeting Department, among many others. He also worked as a Fellow and Acting Research Director of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS). He served as resident tutor and lecturer in the economics and politics of developing areas at Plater College, an associate college of the University of Oxford. Mailafia’s uncommon depth and luxurious mind came to the fore when he indicated interest in becoming the president of Nigeria in the 2019 presidential election. This interest was expressed on the platform of the ADC following the famous coalition of the Middle Belt Forum (MDF), Afenifere, Niger Delta’s PANDEF and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo. During interface with the people of Nigeria while asking for their votes, Mailafia’s fecund mind, depth and genuine love for the progress of the country were unveiled to the world.
As an engaging Tribune columnist and public commentator on issues of contemporary society, Mailafia was fearless and assertive. He had a methodical understanding of the ills that plague Nigeria. On a weekly basis, Mailafia dissected issues from political and economic to the social, armed with profound intelligence. On September 14, 2020, he wrote a passionate piece lamenting how he had been subjected to degrading treatment on account of his comments on the state of violence and banditry in the country. He had earlier been “invited” by men of the Department of State Security (DSS) over his allegation that some top politicians had a hand in what had become a violence industry in the country. He was hounded by the state for his views.
Throughout his public engagements, Mailafia never hid his clearly divergent but vociferous positions on how Nigeria should be run, most times in sharp and unsparing criticism of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. He touched on the sloppiness of the administration and its poor governance capacity. He wrote in the said September 14, 2020 piece: “I have received serious warnings that my revelations have angered some members of the political class to the extent that they want me physically eliminated. I have been warned to beware of polonium poisoning and sharp objects concealed in chairs. I know that killer squads have been paid undisclosed sums to hunt me down and to have me dispatched to Elysium. I have been told that some dark forces want me in their net so that I would be poisoned by gas administered through an air conditioner. When I am getting weak and delirious, a fake doctor would be brought in to administer an injection. That injection would be my death sentence. The other day, shadowy creatures turned up at midnight at my hide-out. I had to scale the back fence and disappear.”
He added: “I am a writer, intellectual and international consultant. Every minute of my working day is committed to doing serious work. Hours spent running up and down with the security agencies constitute a painful waste of my precious time. I am obsessive about cleanliness and personal hygiene. Hell, for me, is a room full of dirt, muck, bedbugs, mosquitoes, cockroaches, rats and wall geckos; without a reading lantern and without my precious collection of books and Mozart playing in the background. I am not normally given to fear. My wife accuses me of being her greatest security nightmare with my total indifference to the threat of death. I love life and I cherish my family and friends dearly. But I fear no man – not even those who can take my physical life. God helping me, I shall live to be more than 100 like my forebears before me.”
Mailafia’s death provoked a gossamer of allegations. While the Middle Belt Forum (MDF), an ethno-regional group, raised concerns, the hospital where he breathed his last claimed that he died as a result of complications from the dreaded COVID-19. Mailafia was a great advocate for justice, equity and good governance in Nigeria. Although the climate of civil resistance seems to have dimmed across the country, he was a distinguished voice of justice. He could have joined the silent crowd judging by the level of his accomplishments in the society, but he did not. He will be remembered as a freedom fighter and advocate of a restructured Nigeria. May his soul rest in sweet repose.