A wedding Fatiha took place on Saturday 28 December, 2024 at the town of Yalleman, in Jigawa state and a death occurred in Abuja on the same day. Ordinarily there ought not be a story out of these occurrences because incidents of deaths and weddings taking place on same day are indeed very common in life. As some people marry, others die on the same day.
What made this wedding and death unique however is that the person who died and the person who wedded on that same day were cousins, they were also friends who promised each other that they would attend each other’s wedding ceremony and neither of them thought he would die on the other’s wedding day. But as God willed it, one wedded and the other died minutes before the other’s wedding Fatiha.
Dahiru Bamanga Yahya Nuhu Fufore and Dr. Mustapha Muh’d Ibrahim Dasin were the cousins involved. Dahiru, born 1998 studied BSc. Information Systems in the American University, Yola from where he graduated in 2022. He was initially going to marry on Friday December 27, 2024 while Dr. Mustapha born 1996, graduated from Shenyang Medical College, China in 2020 and now works with National Orthopedic Hospital Dala, Kano and was also to marry late December but no date was fixed as at the time late Dahiru’s initial wedding date was fixed.
Later, the date for Dr. Mustapha’s wedding was fixed for December 28 at Yalleman a place where they conduct mass weddings once a year usually at year’s end during holiday season in December because they have a huge diaspora population that comes home in the holiday season.
It was for this, that Alhaji Bamanga Yahya Nuhu (late Dahiru’s father) agreed with his sister Fadima, (wife of my elder brother Dr. Muhammed and Dr. Mustapha’s mother) that late Dahiru’s wedding be shifted to 31 January, 2025 for Dr. Mustapha, to marry first in adherence to Yalleman’s tradition. Unfortunately however, Dahiru died on 28 in a ghastly motor accident in Abuja.
Dr. Mustapha Moh’d Ibrahim Dasin who is my nephew was in a convoy of cars just ahead of me on our way to Yalleman on Saturday the 28 when the news of Dahiru’sr death was broken to him. He and his convoy of friends and relatives parked by the road side. He was crying profusely. I consoled him prayed for the deceased and told him to carry on, for death, as William Shakespeare said in Julius Caeser, is a necessary end which will come when it will come.
I was Alwali for Dr. Mustapha at his wedding Fatiha at Yalleman where I witnessed the Yalleman tradition. At the venue inside the Yalleman central Mosque, a total of 80 weddings were conducted same day, same venue, same time after Zhuhr prayer. Nobody, no matter who he was, was awaited even for a second. We got done and returned to Kano safely.
Dr. Mustapha, my son, I know it is a mixture of sadness and joy for you. You have lost a cousin, friend and confidant on your wedding day. Please accept my heartfelt condolences. With tears in my eyes, I wish you a blissful married life on a most special but sad day. A day of joy and a day of sadness for you and your wife.
My special condolences also to Alhaji Bamaga Yahya Nuhu. I can only imagine what you are going through. I know how close late Dahiru was to you. May Allah console you, your family and friends of late Dahiru. For late Dahiru’s would-be amarya, I know no words can confort you. Only Allah and your faith in Him can give you solace.
Allah yaafu Dahiru Bamanga Yahya Nuhu. Jaumirawo feunanmo. Allah Lamido nadumo aljanna firdausi albarka nulado mako.
