Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un! One of my old friends, Ali Alkali, has passed on today. He died at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital in Kano. The funeral prayer will be conducted at 2 pm.
Ɗayyib (his real name, Ali Alkali being his father’s name) was one of the leading Nigerian journalists. He held several positions at different media houses. I facilitated his coming to Nasiha, the vernacular version of Kaduna-based The Reporter, where I was the deputy editor, in 1991; the New Nigerian where I was Features Editor, in 1996; Leadership newspaper in Abuja where I was the Editor, in 2004 and again in 2008, and Public Agenda where I was the Editor-in-Chief, in 2006. He was also at the Peoples Daily. Some of the positions he held included the Editor of Public Agenda and the Group Political Editor of Leadership.
Ali was my boon-companion, for a long time being my closest friend. He was erudite, well-read both in secular and religious matters and had an uncanny grasp of issues. We relied on each to understand many of the intricate issues swirling around us in the web of life.
Ali was a bilingual writer like me, and he always wrote with an amazing combination of style, gusto and depth rarely found in others. And, like me, he made serious mistakes that reminded us that he was human and therefore fallible, after all.
However, we lost touch with and cut off from each other from 2011 when we both left Leadership – his decision entirely (still unexplainable to me). I used to hear about him from some of our friends, who told me about his illness from a debilitating stroke that happened to him some years back. I never knew that I would never see him again.
I pray for his soul. May Allah forgive him his shortcomings and grant his soul eternal rest, amen.
