My state is serendipitous. My mind is a whirlpool of apprehension and agitation. All night long, I’ve been trying to get some sleep. Each time, I made an attempt, sleep would respond with wanton escapism. Then I took a journey into self. The experience was eerie. No chirruping of nocturnal beings. Even foliages of the trees in the neighborhood seemed not to be responding to nature’s normal movements of such hours.
When I got back, I tried to relate with my immediate physical environment. I activated my internet on my Android phone, got on Facebook and it was already ubiquitous – Prince (Alhaji, Engineer) Abdulazeez Momoh, the Daudu 1 of Auchi Sacred Kingdom has gone to the land of the silent ones!
Next, I got incredulous just the way I felt when my Father, Alhaji Saliu Oshiafi transited in 2003 and my Mother, Mrs Sametu Saliu Oshiafi, in 2006.
Daudu 1 bonded with me since my Principal and Mentor, Prince Tony Momoh directed me to meet him in Auchi 2006 for research material for a dialectal movie (Uzulumi) that I wrote and produced. He was as friendly as he was fatherly. He opened his doors to me at all times just like he was available to most people whose paths crossed with his.
Daudu 1 was as cosmopolitan as he was cerebral. As an electrical engineer who rose to become a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Engineers, he delivered on schedule several high profile briefs for several blue chip companies around Nigeria under his organization, Dulazee Engineering Company Nigeria Limited.
In Edo North, he supervised the electrification of such communities as Imoga, Iyuku, Imeke to mention but a few.
Alhaji Abdulazeez Momoh was an astute manager of men. This attribute was to quickly endear him to the people of Auchi when he became the second most powerful person in the Sacred Kingdom.
Be it land or matrimonial issue, Daudu 1 would calm frayed nerves and resolve the issues, no matter how teething they were.
This Prince was not only princely by birth, he was also princely by appearance. Surely, his masculine beauty was striking, arresting.
Above all, Daudu 1 was well schooled in Islamic theology and worshipped Allah conscientiously till his passage yesterday.
May Allah (SWT) forgive him his sins and grant him Aljana Firdaus. Amin.
