In this country, the ember months are notorious for road crashes. The phenomenon has always prompted the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to deploy its personnel to various parts of the country during the period to counter the menace of drivers who exploit the season as an opportunity to make quick money. Propelled by greed, they ignore road fatigue and risk the lives of their passengers. They do not care a hoot about their own lives, provided the bucks are tumbling into their pockets.

I know I will be accused of exaggeration if I say that Nigeria records a significant percentage of its citizens slaughtered on the highways through reckless driving between September and December yearly than from January to August put together! Or how does one explain the recent frequency of deaths that have occurred between October to date involving some notable Nigerians in the comfort of their homes… far, far away from the sprawling abattoirs which our highways have become?

Within the outgoing month alone, I have written tributes to seven Nigerians, including the two who are the latest additions. The first to feature in this column was General Abdullahi Mohammed, the second Military Governor of Benue-Plateau state during the regime of General Murtala Mohammed, published on November 8, 2025. The ultimate terminator was not done. The following week, I did another one on the passing of Chief Joseph Aderibigbe, a Provincial Secretary in the Sir Ahmadu Bello administration. He was in charge of Sokoto Province and a pioneer Secretary to the Military Government (SMG), Kwara state. His passing was followed by the death of Professor Sandra Ladi Adamu, the first female professor of broadcast media in the north.

I thought I was going to have a respite. Then came the sad tidings of the death of my role model, Chief Dan Ochima Agbese, also immediately followed by the passing of a colleague and management staff of this paper, Alhaji Yahaya Adamu, whose tributes I published last Saturday.

As if this is a month of tributes, on Monday, I received the news of the death of General Abu Ali, who governed Bauchi state during the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. As if death was not done, a couple of hours after I was hit by Gen. Ali’s passing, a colleague came to announce the demise of Bayo Osiyemi.

My relationship with the late Gen. Abu Ali dates back to the early 90s when he governed Bauchi state. A test of his leadership was witnessed during the Tafawa Balewa upheaval that later engulfed the whole of Bauchi state, leading to the massive killings and wanton destruction of properties. The catastrophe caught up with a National Sports Festival being held in the state, and the governor had to tap into his military experience to ensure that all the athletes came to no harm. He showed courage by personally monitoring the security situation across the state, putting his life at risk.

The Jos-based Sun weekly newspaper I co-founded with Col. William Walbe (rtd) of blessed memory, was already gaining ground in Bauchi, which was also the zonal headquarters of the paper. During one of the governor’s tours of Bauchi town as the dust was settling down, his eyes fell on a copy of the paper with a headline so bold that he who runs can read. The state government had been battling with negative coverage by some southern papers. As curiosity began to eat him up, he asked his Director of Press Affairs, Bashir Bello Akko, what his relationship was with the paper, because the state was getting objective coverage from it. Bashir told his principal that he had no special relationship with the paper. All he knew was its publisher was a retired military officer and that yours truly, the Editor-in-Chief/CEO, was a friend. A few days later, I got a verbal invitation from the Government House, Bauchi: the governor wanted to see me. It was not unusual for a governor to seek to meet with a media chief. Nevertheless, I put my publisher in the picture before I drove to Bauchi almost immediately.

Bashir was on hand to receive me when I arrived at the Government House, and he chaperoned me to the office of the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Mohammed Alkaleri. I had to wait for a short while because the governor had a visitor who turned out to be Alhaji Mohammed Ndimi, the oil and gas magnate. I was warmly received by the governor, who expressed his appreciation for our effort at dousing the fire fanned by most of the media outfits. I told him we were just doing our job as professionally as we could.

A couple of months after normalcy had returned to the state, the Sun Management, led by Col. Walbe, decided that we should organise a public presentation of the paper in Bauchi to deepen our relationship with the government and create more awareness. The governor welcomed the idea. After all, the state-owned paper, The Trumpeter, was not blowing enough noise in terms of coverage of the government’s activities beyond the state.

The governor moblised support from all the local government areas of the state. Some Bauchi indigenes objected to the idea of a “foreign” paper coming to organise such an event in the state. However, the governor stuck to his guns. The Chief of Dass, Alhaji Bilyaminu Othman of blessed memory, accepted to be the Father of the Day after my insistence. The presentation was a howling success, with the venue of the event, the Sharanda Hotel, bursting at the seams with dignitaries. The crowd was unprecedented.

Our relationship with Gen. Ali continued long after his duty tour in Bauchi until he retired from service. He, however, went out of our radar after he was appointed as the Etsu Bassa Nge in Kogi state in 2000. I remember penning a tribute in this column after the death of his soldier son, Lt. Col. Muhammad Abu Ali. Abu Ali Jr. died in the line of duty on November 4, 2016, at Mallam Fotori, Borno state, at the hands of Boko Haram fighters.

May Allah grant the soul of the Etsu Bassa Nge Aljannah Firdausi and his family, as well as his people, the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

Adieu, Bayo Osiyemi

The passing of Bayo Osiyemi also came to me as a shock. Bayo was a member of Set 78 in the print media that covered the 11th Afcon in Accra, Ghana, as sports editor of the Nigerian Tide, owned by the Rivers state Government. He was a gangling fellow, perhaps the tallest among us. In the set were veteran Babatunde Oshuntolu, Group Sports Editor of the Daily Times; Kayode Ojo, Sports Editor (Daily Sketch); Ndanusa Alao, Sports Editor, New Nigerian; Owolabi Ilori (our own Owoblo) and Sports Editor, Punch; Philip Ohiare, Sports Editor, Nigerian Herald; Isaac Ibhafidon, Sports Editor, Nigerian Observer; Alhaji Ajibade Balogun, another gangler but with more muscles than Bayo. He was the Sports Editor, Nigerian Express, and yours truly, Sports Editor, The Nigeria Standard. The set was the most vibrant team of sports journalists to cover the Afcon I have known so far.

For two weeks, we operated as a squad, sharing information, comparing facts and figures among ourselves as the tournament progressed. The tournament also gave me an opportunity to visit my birthplace, Kumasi, to cover some of the matches, but I had no time to explore the sprawling city you can compare to Ibadan in terms of size and population.

The Green Eagles, as the defending bronze medalists at the previous Afcon hosted by Ethiopia, struggled against the Ugandan Cranes, who knocked us out in the quarter-finals. In our post-mortem, all of us agreed that pride went before the dreaded Eagles’ downfall at the tournament. The head coach, Father Tiko, had suddenly gone under the weather, leaving his assistants, Gentleman Carl O’Dwyer and Willy Bazuaye, to hold the fort. However, some of the players denigrated the duo because they were local gaffers and openly questioned their pedigrees. The haughty Eagles faced the well-organised Cranes that took them to the cleaners.

Just last Monday, Ndanusa returned a call I made to him. We both went down memory lane and spoke about Set 78 and those who have been shown the red card. At the time of our conversation, we had no idea about Bayo’s passing. Those who have also answered their final summons were Babatunde Oshuntolu, Kayode Ojo, Philip Ohiare, Owolabi Ilori, and Alhaji Ajibade Balogun. The Methuselahs among the set are Ndanusa Alao, Isaac Ibhafidon, and yours truly.

May the good Lord rest Bayo’s lively soul and grant his family and colleagues the courage to cope with his painful passing.