There is no shock absorber for death news whenever the ultimate terminator decides to issue the final summons to whomever it chooses. In other words, no matter how strongly engineered your body is, the passage of a loved one has a way of sidestepping the shock absorber just to get at you. In this life journey, summons digs every step we take, inch by inch and second by second. Some have been fortunate not to answer calls. When that happens, it is said that the person has cheated death.
Answering the final summons has nothing to do with age. Some answer theirs when they are young, others in their adulthood, while the lucky ones dodge the summoner until old age. Then, there are those that are called while in the womb, the stillbirths. This life is, indeed, an enigma.
After offering a late lunch sacrifice to the god of throat last Tuesday, I picked my cellphone to surf through the social media while the meal settled in. Then, my eyes fell on a Facebook post announcing the death of a senior colleague and brother, Barr. Solomon Ewuga. His photograph first caught my attention and I leapt into conclusion that my former boss had finally landed the stool of the Aren Eggon. Recently, a friend speculated that he might land the vacant stool. There was nothing to suggest he was sick lately… as such his passing was sudden to me and many others close to him.
However, my heart gathered speed as I scrolled up only for the organ to end up in my mouth literally, and I did not like the taste at all: Barr. Solomon Ewuga is dead! The news hit me like a thunderbolt. My face must have turned to stone in shock. I opened my mouth to say something but no word came out of it. My mind only raced back to the encounter he had with kidnappers some years back. I feared for his life. However, God was with him during the captivity; he came back home in one piece and I got off the tenterhooks. We spoke a couple of times after he regained his freedom. We also spoke briefly after the demise of his pilot daughter in an air crash in Cameroon about three or so years ago.
Like me, Barr. Ewuga was a Jos man. While I worked with The Nigeria Standard Newspapers, he was running a thriving public relations outfit located at the West of Mines, a whistling distance from the imposing J.D. Gomwalk House. Named Adpure, an amalgam of advertising and public relations, it set the pace in the industry. I was a regular caller at the office where I also forged a close friendship with one of his mentees, now a barrister, Haroun Harry Audu. Barr. Haroun stands out for his suavity.
In 1988, Ewuga was sucked into the Plateau Publishing Company Ltd., as the General Manager to oversee the Standard Group of Newspapers. I was on the verge of leaving the organisation when he took up the appointment. One afternoon, he invited me to his office to discuss my exit. He spoke to me plainly, “You know you cannot leave when I have just been appointed. I had looked forward to working with you as a pioneer staff who can walk around the complex with his eyes closed. We can discuss whatever is pushing you to leave and I will meet your demands.”
I felt highly honoured and flattered at the same time. A disturbing silence hovered around his expansive, tastefully furnished office. Breaking the quietness, he said he would give me a day or two to ruminate over his plea. However, I told him that I had spent a year ruminating over the decision and that there was nothing left on the plate for me to chew!
In the short period that I worked with Barr. Ewuga, and having been good friends and professional colleagues for close to a decade, we got along well. A PR guru, he was a good manager of men and resources. He was also a man of honour and integrity, and reservoir of knowledge who knew how to drive his personnel to achieve the goals he set for the company. I rued why he did not come early. At one point, I nearly changed my mind. I enjoyed working with him as I did with Chief David Attah and Malam Samuila Makama, two iconic technocrats, before him. Pioneer General Manager of the company, Mr. Ian Relf, an Irishman, completed the trio of leaders that I enjoyed working with. In appraising my performance, Attah once described me as an asset to the company. Attah and Ewuga had the same personality traits and qualities: tall, brilliant, altruistic, urbane and indefatigable. And they were good dressers to boot. What separated them was their complexions. While Attah was light-skinned, Ewuga was ebony black. The duo fit into the definition of ladies’ men! I tell you.
Barr. Ewuga also followed Attah’s footsteps. When the latter exited the Standard in 1978, he veered into politics and ended up in the House of Representatives in 1979. After his GMship in the PPC, Ewuga also entered into politics ahead of the 1999 gubernatorial election in Nasarawa state. He was the deputy governorship candidate to Barr. Abdullahi Adamu on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). They eventually won the race. However, Barr. Ewuga was just two years in the saddle when President Olusegun Obasanjo sucked him into his cabinet and made him the Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, where his performance was impactful.
After his tenure in the FCT, he returned to his Nasarawa base. In 2007, he ran for the Senate seat representing Nasarawa North Senatorial District. He won, making it the third voyage: Deputy Governor, FCT Minister of State and Senator. In all these three political expeditions, Barr. Ewuga gave a good account of himself, leaving behind legacies that were difficult to match, let alone surpass.
The last time I met Sen. Ewuga was in 2010 or thereabouts in the office of our mutual friend, Mr. Chris Iyimoga, at the Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) where he was a Federal Commissioner. It was a happy reunion for both of us. We pumped hands, hugged each other and shimmied for a long while. He was surprised that I had relocated to Abuja after living in Jos for so long I could easily pass as the Alternate Gbom Gwom Jos. We all roared with laughter. Then, we relived the good old days in Jos and what had become of our beloved city after the rash of religious and ethnic upheavals that were tormenting the Home of Peace and Tourism.
Born on June 19, 1955 in Nasarawa Eggon, Barr. Ewuga attended St. Joseph’s College, Akwanga, and did his Higher School Certificate (HSC) at the famous St. Louis College, Jos. He later proceeded to the University of Jos to pursue a Degree in Political Science, and consequently got bitten by the political bug. Small wonder he ended up as a politician, where he carved a niche for himself. He later stooped to conquer by enrolling for a law degree programme in his alma mater and earned his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.). Barr. Ewuga was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1988, and it was so fascinating watching him juggling public relations with law. It was the reason why he excelled in politics, legislation and public service.
Although Barr. Ewuga had just spent three months on the 7th floor of life when he passed, he left his footprints on the rocks which was a near impossibility. He achieved a lot!
May the good Lord grant his soul eternal rest and his family the courage to bear the painful loss.
