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On January 12, 2020, exactly 27 days after their wedding,
husband Najib Ahmad were at home in Jos when she
complained of toothache. At about 10:30pm she went to
the kitchen to brew some java pepper (a blend of coffee)
that would help alleviate her pains.
Najib waited in the bedroom but soon heard an explosion
from within the house. Most of the ceiling caved in, as did
most of their newly-minted lives in what the husband, Najib,
would describe as “a terrible moment.” A gas explosion in
the kitchen had left Sa’adatu badly burnt, crying for help.
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“I started hearing Sa’adatu from the room crying
“Inna liLlahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un,” (to God we belong and to
God we shall return.) I then concluded that something
dreadful had happened to my lovely wife,” Najib said.
He found his wife on the kitchen floor, writhing in pain, half
of her body covered in burns. He rushed her to the Jos
University Teaching Hospital where he hoped she could be
treated.
Wedding Day: Najib and late Sa'adatu on their wedding day,
26 days before the explosion
What he did not know at the time was that his wife had
began her journey to death, which would eventually end on
February 3rd when she died from the injuries she sustained
in the explosion.
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Most of her life after that explosion was spent in the
hospital, her body, apart from her face, wrapped in a gauze.
In those days, her relatives were optimistic she was going
to recover because she seemed to be responding to
treatment. She was even smiling at visitors.
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Her mother Hadiza Muhammad Babangida was so confident
of her daughter’s recovery that the last time she saw her,
she assured her daughter of that.
“My last moment with Sa’adatu was on Saturday, February
1, when I visited her in the hospital. We looked at each
other smiling. I prayed and blessed her. I rubbed her head,
encouraging and condoling her that she would, by the grace
of Allah, survive to recount the story of her tragedy of
suffering and celebrate her good health,” she said.
Sa’adat asked her mother if she was sure.
“Yes, of course, you will survive the injuries because myself
and other well-wishers have been praying for your recovery
and are never worried,” she said.
Two days later, she received calls that her daughter was
gone for good.
Sa’adatu was 30 at the time of her death. A graduate of
Micro Biology from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, she
was enlisted into the N-Power programme and was
attached to a Jos North Local Government Primary
Healthcare as lab assistant.
Asia Muhammad Babangida, Sa’adatu’s sister said her
sister would be missed
From her stipend, her mother said, her daughter was
generous and supported her family.
“Sa’adat lived a life worthy of emulation,” he mother said,
speaking softly. “She was a genius, a God-sent person and
heroine of Babangida’s family, who often understood your
problems before you shared them with her. She was
relentless towards giving out her best to the family from the
little she earned as an N-power beneficiary. To my
knowledge, nobody has ever said anything bad about her.
Her deeds would continue to be remembered.”
Her generosity of spirit was testified to by her husband, who
said that despite her obvious pain during her time in the
hospital, his wife expressed joy that he was safe from the
disaster.
For him, the 26 days of bliss he spent with his wife before
the accident would remain something he would treasure as
he recalled how they met and fell in love.
“Within just one year of courtship, we fell in love and
became engaged because of the understanding we had, not
knowing that our marriage was going to be intercepted by
such an unfortunate incident,” he said.
He would remember those 26 days for the love and care his
wife showed him and the mutual respect and appreciation
they had for each other. He described her as a God-fearing
woman who would often commit to prayers and spent time
reciting the Holy Qur’an.
If there was any regret, it was that he was not there the
moment she breathed her last.
“I left her on the sickbed with the doctors for Asr prayers
without knowing I would not return to meet her alive,” the
grief-stricken husband said.
She died a few minutes after he left the room, with doctors
trying and failing to save her life.
Her sister Asia, 27, described the life her sister shared with
Najib as “adorable”
“Her adorable married life that was cut short by this
unfortunate incident shall remain pitiful to all of us, her
relations as her demise came to us with huge sorrow,” Asia
said. “We shall continue to share the pain of her
irreplaceable loss for as long as we live.”
Her mother, Hadiza, echoed the sentiment.
“The Almighty Allah knows why He took her at the moment
we enjoyed her presence. I will live to remember Sa’adat for
everything she used to do,” she said.
“Sa’adat would always give us good advice. In fact, she
handled everything. Her loss is indeed touching,” her sister,
Asia, added.
One of the advice she gave her husband Najib on her
deathbed would stay with him forever.
In one of their last moments together, Najib said his wife
left a verbal will to him asking him to maintain good
relations with her family, saying, “I should not allow anything
to break my relationship with members of her family and
live peacefully with whoever I relate with.”
With both families united in a short-lived marriage, they
have a life of mutual mourning to share going forward.
Najib now knows that on the night of January 12 when the
ceiling caved in on him from that explosion, it was a whole
world that fell on him and the short life he lived with
Sa’adatu.
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