Abuah: One death that shook Aso Rock
It was a black Sunday for staff of the State House, Abuja last week. What initially appeared as a rumour later became a reality. Death had snatched the Director of Information in the Presidency, Mr Justin Onuorah Abuah.
The news came to many in the State House as a rude shock, and curiously, everyone raised the posers: how and what happened? It was then we were told that Abuah, whom we had thought was on vacation all that while, had been bedridden for weeks before he was snatched by the cold hands of death on August 14.
Abuah, fondly called O.J. by many, was the man behind several presidential statements and speeches. From the News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN), Abuah, a Mass Communication graduate of the University of Lagos, joined the State House Media Office in 1986 and had served seven presidents.
The 57-year-old was a personality of many parts and could therefore be described from several perspectives. He was generally seen as a man who never wanted his pains shared. Though a public servant, Abuah was a private personality to the core.
Those of us privileged to be reporting activities at the nation’s seat of power had close encounters with Abuah. And we could, with all sense of responsibility and commitment, attest to his enigmatic nature and exemplary character.
Abuah fairly personified humility; the attribute believed to have obviously endeared him to many. A thoroughbred professional, Abuah recognised hard-work and admired reporters who could demonstrate courage and dexterity.
He was not in the habit of accusing reporters of writing stories which the authorities sometimes considered “negative.” And even in the last dispensation when he was working under a presidential spokesman who tagged some reporters anti-government, journalists had no issue with Abuah.
He was widely regarded as a pillar of support to presidential spokesmen. Little wonder did the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, described his passage as a trauma to everyone in the State House.
Adesina, who led many staff to the bereaved family on Wednesday, said: “When he passed on, the first thing that came to mind was that a competent man has gone. He related well with many people. He was an excellent man and did his job excellently. His passage is trauma to us. We realise it is a road all mortals must pass through, but we would have felt better if it didn’t happen now. When we come and go are in the hands of God. At 57, he was not an old man; he lived a very quality life.” For the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, with Abuah’s demise, the Presidency has lost a pillar of support. Shehu, however, did not hide his anger at the manner in which O.J’s brief illness was kept secret.
According to Shehu, “We feel a sense of loss over a man who has served seven presidents with dedication. We lost a pillar of support: an icon of emulation. We were just learning about him. We felt angry we were not in the know of his ill-health, but we found out that he was a man who did not like to bother anybody with his pains.”
The chairman of the State House Press Corps, Mr Kehinde Amodu, described Abuah as a man of integrity that would be sorely missed. For him, O.J was a quiet and private personality who nonetheless knew everyone individually.
“We are 109 journalists in the State House, and he knew everyone individually. We will miss him. I don’t think he can be replaced,” Amodu submitted.
An Assistant Director of Information at the State House, Mr Abiodun Oladunjoye, worked closely with Abuah for several years. He said:”He had something in him which all the presidential spokesmen he worked with found irresistible. He was a good boss who was ready to impart knowledge to anyone who cared to learn. He could also be easily misunderstood in some of his actions.”
The confidential secretary in the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mrs Rosemary Ezeugoh, considers herself one of the luckiest persons to have met Abuah.
“Mr Abuah was the first person to welcome me when I came to this office in 1999. He was somebody who didn’t want people to feel his pains. He guided people professionally. He was a unique person; somebody you cannot predict because you wouldn’t know when he is angry or happy. He was so much a private person that you would not know when he is in pain. Even when his mother died, he didn’t tell anybody,” she said.
Mr. Peter Onwubuariri, an information officer at the State House believes that Abuah had “a calm disposition” which people might mistake for arrogance.
“For instance, if you greet him in the morning and he doesn’t respond, you would think he doesn’t care about you. The more we worked together, the more I came to understand him better. He had a fatherly figure. He had a finesse for getting out the story from very dry scripts or speeches. In terms of managerial capability, he was superb.”