Tribute to Dr Militus Joseph Vahbakke

 

I am devastated by the news of the recent Boko Haram attack on soldiers and civilians involved in the Chad basin hydrocarbon exploration program. That unfortunate incident devastates me because apart from the humanity that binds us all together, amongst those who lost their lives were some of whom I knew personally through my undergraduate education at the University of Maiduguri. Amongst those who lost their lives were Dr Militus Joseph Vahbakke of the Department of Geology, University of Maiduguri. The death of Militus devastates me more than I can describe.

I came across Militus when I was registering as a 300-level undergraduate student in the geology department. In that year, students in our class needed him to append his signature on our registration forms to complete the registration. Thus, I was in his office for the completion of my registration, and he immediately signed off my form. Just when I was about to take my form and leave, he told me to show him my tuition fee receipt of payment; which he was supposed to have sighted before appending a signature on my form. But because I left the receipt at home, he swiftly held back my registration form and told me to go get the receipt and show it to him before I could collect the form.

While I rushed home to pick up the receipt, Militus read through the details entered on my form. On it, my father’s name was written as sponsor of my education and as next of kin. Upon my return to his office hours later with my receipt in hand, he didn’t bother to see the receipt any longer, but instead asked me: “Are you Dr Raji’s son?” Then I answered in the affirmative, but he emphatically asked again: “I mean are you his biological son?” Again, I answered in the affirmative. And it was that moment we got talking at length and he told me that my father taught him biology at the College of Education, Jalingo. He asked where my father was, and I told him although my father worked in Niger state at the time, he would be visiting Maiduguri soon, and I could invite him to our department so they could meet. Militus was glad about my suggestion and we exchanged phone numbers so we could keep in touch regularly. Having taught several generations of students, when I informed my father about him (before he would later meet with Militus), he neither could remember the name nor could he put a face to such name.

Soon we got more closer and while I always preferred to simply go by as an unnoticed student in every undergraduate class I took, as I often sat down on the back benches to receive lectures, and I didn’t ask questions, neither was I interested in answering same, Militus began asking me questions at the end of his lectures each time he taught us. Much later when my father visited Maiduguri on official work, I took him to see Militus in his office where they conversed for over an hour. He said my father taught him the subject of ‘evolution’ in 1989/90 in COE, Jalingo. He said after he received his NCE, he proceeded to the University of Maiduguri hoping to study biochemistry, microbiology or anatomy, but was instead admitted to study geology, from where he later graduated with a First Class Honours degree in 1997. He told my dad he received his masters’ degree in mineral exploration from Ahmadu Bello University, and was seeking opportunities to do a PhD abroad, but could not secure funding for the study yet. He then said that he was going to start his PhD in Nigeria in the next academic year if he couldn’t still secure funding by then. As they got talking further with my father, he said he was originally from Karim Lamido local government area of Taraba state, and my father told him that was the only local government area he didn’t visit during his 12-year work life in Jalingo. Before we left his office, my father told Militus that as his former teacher, he was proud to see him succeeding, and wished him even more success in the future.

My father and me would meet again with Militus several months later when we attended my mother’s graduation from the University of Maiduguri with her two masters’ degrees. That was possibly the last time I saw Militus in person, and I took a picture of him and my father as they discussed around the University’s convocation area. On the same day, he told me to send him a text message of my University matriculation/identity number, so that he could check and forward to me the details of my final semester examination results which was soon to be made available. Though I no longer lived in Maiduguri at the time since my parents had relocated away from there, nonetheless, I had friends who would check and send me details of my results whenever it was pasted on the department’s notice boards. In any event, I still sent my matric number to Militus as he requested. He sent me some results a few days later via text message, and the grades were not impressive at all. At once, I called him to say that I did not agree with what he sent to me as the grades did not reflect the effort I had put into my studies for that semester. From his response, he was a bit unhappy by my confrontation, and told me it could be that they (he and others who helped him check my results) did not have good enough eyes to see the results. When a friend later confirmed my true results for me, expectedly, I got better grades than those sent to me by Militus. I then replied his earlier text message with my true results. In the seven courses that I took in the final semester of my undergraduate study, I got one A, five Bs and a C. Militus then sent me a text message to apologize for sending wrong results to me. He also commended my efforts and said he was proud of me. And that was perhaps the last direct communication I had with him.

Years later, we reconnected on Facebook, and although we never discussed (to catch up over some period that we must have lost contact with each other) at all over Facebook either via private or open communication, I still followed his posts with some interest. For example, I remember reading his post, perhaps some time last year, informing his friends that he had completed his PhD. I was very happy for him. Evidently a wonderful family man, he occasionally celebrated his family on Facebook by posting their pictures: of his wife, two sons and a daughter. As recently as July 18, 2017, just about a week or so to his death, he posted a picture of his eldest son where he wrote that the “big boy of the house”, who just completed medical education, was only a few days away from taking the oath of medical practice. It pains that he didn’t live to see his son’s official admission to the medical profession. May his soul rest in peace.

Mohammed Dahiru Aminu ([email protected]), writes from Abuja, Nigeria.