KWANDALA4RUQAYYA IBRAHIM
Miss Ruqayya was not just an ordinary person, but a unique young woman who has injected purposefulness into the infant life of the Kwandala Foundation. Where, when and how did the case of Ruqayya Ibrahim reach the Foundation and what is the significance of the case to The K. Foundation?
It was a Monday morning; I was just preparing to go to the office when I heard my phone blip, notifying that I had a text message. When I checked, it was Miss Khadijah Sunusi Kabir, a colleague on the radio and a member of The Kwandala Foundation, who informed that she has a very important and urgent matter, she would like to discuss with me. My curiosity was turned on, I called her to find out what’s so important. While we were talking the line disconnected, discovering it was not a matter of life or death, I was relieved.
About an hour later, at about 9:00 - 10:00 am, she called and wanted to know where to locate me. By now I was at the office and told her so, and became kind of worried when she wanted directions of how she can come over to my office. I asked her what could be making her behave in such a manner and she told me it couldn’t be discussed on the phone. 30 minutes later, our secretary informed me about her arrival. I came to usher her into my office but she told me she not there to stay. Without wasting another second, she introduced me to two young men Bashir Muhammad and Sadiq (Too short)
She then excused us from the guys, out into our office premises under a neem tree, Khadijah gave me a letter of assistance from Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano on behalf of a young 24 year old woman. Her name is RUQAYYA IBRAHIM. That was how Ruqayya’s case got introduced to us for the first time.
Ruqayya Ibrahim’s family wanted Khadijah to help them announce on the radio their need for assistance for the proposed kidney transplant operation, at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) Kano, the specialist hospital located along Zaria road in the city of Kano. The surgery would require the sum of N2, 500, 000 :00 and a donor. But first the money. Though she was scheduled to travel that morning, she had to postpone the trip to facilitate the meeting between Ruqayya’s brother and me. It was her hoped that The Kwandala Foundation would take up the project as time is fast running out on the young woman, unless something is done about her situation and very urgently too, she might loose her life.
“Boooooom!” was the explosive sound that hit me inside my head. What! 2.5 million? Thinking quickly of a response, it occurred to me that for Khadijah to reach out to The Foundation with this project, knowing fully well our handicap, it is either she has a strong faith and conviction about our mission or else she must have no choice at all. Well, choice or no choice, we must not let her or the patient down. We will give it a shot with all that we’ve got. Its either we succeed or we fail. If we do succeed, then “kool”, but if we don’t, at least we’ve tried and whatever comes out of it will still be helpful one way or another.
So I came out to confess that the Foundation is yet to be registered officially and so might face a little set back, just like our experience with the Tsunami case, but we can’t but take Ruqayya Ibrahim’s case as it fits perfectly our purpose of coming into existence as an NGO. And so I scheduled a meeting for that evening, where I hope to better understand what is really going on. I then gave them the name and address of our Foundation and requested that they should go back to AKTH and ask that a similar letter be addressed to us, so that we will use it together with our own letter of solicitation to reach out to all well-meaning souls that might be willing to help.
By 5:00 pm, I was at the meeting place waiting for them to turn up. They were about 30 minutes late and when they finally showed up, it was only the guys that arrived. Khadijah, knowing fully well that they are in safe hands had excused herself and embarked upon her very crucial journey. When we had all settled down and I had offered them some drinks, I requested for the letter from AKTH to The K. Foundation, but was told by Bashir that nothing of such is available as all efforts to get the officers responsible to write a similar letter to the K. Foundation has proved abortive. Reason? They are awaiting response from 4 earlier letters sent out in that regard, as such they don’t intend to write new ones.
So I demanded that a copy of the letter shown to me earlier in the day be given to me. The young men left to make the photocopy. Before they were back I had already started telling my colleague about the case and that I would want him to donate something to the appeal fund when eventually launched. And after hearing my briefing, he out rightly promised to give something. When Bashir and his friend finally came back, I collected the copy and promised to present the matter during our next weekly K. Foundation meeting on Saturday. We then exchange GSM phone numbers and called it a day.
One amazing thing about the whole episode was that I couldn’t boast of N50, 000: 00 in my account, but here I was feeling confident that I was going to get N2.5 million for Ruqayya. All I wanted to do is to meet my common folks, members of the infant Kwandala Foundation at the meeting and I could feel it that we would turn the tide, God Willing.
At the weekly meeting, the next Saturday, I presented the project to the attendance. I can remember that at first some of us rolled their eyes when they first heard the amount to be sourced. So I said to the small congress of about 15 persons “Well, any one who has been thinking this is all child’s play, should now wake up to the reality. This is serious business that would require every thing we’ve got, most especially belief in our selves and our purpose of starting this Foundation. This is it ladies and gentlemen, the “Zakaran gwajin dafi” (“this is the acid test”). If we can do this, we can do them all, but if this proves beyond us then it is best for us to stop the journey now, for it wont last. The one trillion-naira question is, Can we do it?” I challenged.
Carefully observing their faces for any sign of fear or uncertainty. There was none, instead what I saw was determination and the conviction as each person seem to be lost in deep thought, and then one by one they swam back to the surface. And then there were nods, right, left and center and eventually the answer came forth. It was unanimous. “Can we do this?” I repeated with emphasis on the “THIS?” and then “Yes! We can do it” All of a sudden everybody seem to have found himself or herself. Voices and smiles were all over the place, expressing their brief trip into themselves, unconsciously discovering that compassionate soul within.
Thus we launched “Kwandala 4 Ruqayya”. And one single member Nasiru Sa’idu Adhama was the lucky person to find one other single person Sharu Sidi Al-Alawi, 6 days later (April 1st, 2005) who pledged to give the whole N2.5 Million Naira, much to the joy, relief and pleasure of the K. Foundation and to the gratitude and gratefulness to Allah of Miss Ruqayya Ibrahim.
Haj. Khadijah Muhammad (Ruqayya's Auntie)
Sadly, before the kidney transplant could be performed at Nasser Institute in Egypt, where Medical experts from Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) Kano referred the young woman, she was transported to her hometown in Kogi State, Nigeria to bid her parents farewell, but upon arrival there Miss Ruqayya Ibrahim died. Her last message to The Kwandala Foundation before she left Kano for Kogi, according to her Auntie Haj. Khadijah Muhammad (now a full fledge and very active member), whom had raised her from when she was just 2 years old was “Please don’t tell members of The Kwandala Foundation that I have gone away, it is just to see my Father and will be back, in sha Allah (God Willing)” With that she left, never to return.
What a loss, what a great loss for all those who cared for and cherished her from her toddling days to the bright future she has left behind, for a brighter tranquility, God Willing. As for us members of The Kwandala Foundation, Ruqayya Ibrahim was a unique soul, a corner-stone. Why? The young woman and her case have given us a purpose for existence. And she could not have come at a better time. But for her sake, we probably would still be searching for our true reason to exist, for our real mission. Now we know what and who we are. Why we are where we are. And from where we are coming and to where we are going.
Though Ruqayya Ibrahim is gone, but we still feel her presence in our hearts and her smile, when we paid her a visit is permanently impressed in our memory. So we pray that she is in absolute peace wherever she may be at this particular moment in time and may God Almighty forgive and admit her into His Eternal Bliss, Amen
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