A Tribute to Alhaja Alarape Mustapha, Mother of Lawmaker and Lawyer
By Ahmed Ladan Gobir
Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaehi Rajiun.
Our late mother Alhaja Alarape Mustapha was as much my mother as she was to our brothers Moshood Mustapha (MM), a former federal lawmaker and Abdulhakeem Mustapha, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). I spoke to her last week when she went visiting my mother at our family house at Awodi. That was the norm. Whenever she visited my mum she would insist that she calls so she could speak with me. Nothing from the way we spoke and from all of her prayers could have given one the premonition that death was lurking in the corner.
I grew up knowing both late Alhaja Alarape Mustapha and late Alhaja Amope Edun as my mother’s closest friends. Their other friends were/are the late Alhaja Habu Kawu (Modibbo Kawu’s mother), Alhaja Asiata “UAC” Daibu (mother of Lanre Daibu) and Alhaja Mero Ajanaku (mother of Hon. Justice Salihu Saidu Ajanaku).
My mother’s account was that they all first met at the Okesuna Primary School and again at the Baboko Senior Primary School in the late 40s and they had remained very close friends since then.
Like Raji said, Alhaja Alarape Mustapha later became our Matron at Government High School, Ilorin and those times as a student in the hostel were blissful for me.
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When a few years back Alhaja Amope Edun died, both Alhaja Alarape Mustapha and my mother were shattered and almost inconsolable and the few times I was in their presence all I heard them talk about was their times together with their friend and how it will soon be their turn. My intervention was always “Olohun yio je ka riyin pe, Olohun yio bawa seyin ni pelepele” and they will both chorus “Amin”.
Alhamdulillah Rabbil Al’amin for Alhaja’s life for she was a mother in a million and in every true sense of the word to her biological children, children of her friends and all those she met in the course of her career in the school system and elsewhere. She was a devout muslimah and great mother of the community.
May Allah SWT forgive all her mistakes and shortcomings and grant her a very special place in Aljannah Firdaus. Ameen?
To my brothers Moshood, Abdulhakeem, Alfanla and to Alhaja Kehinde and others, while we pray to Allah to comfort and console you, be with you and grant you and all of us the fortitude to bear this very sad and painful loss, we should give gratitude to HIM that our mother lived a worthy abd fulfilled life in the service of Islam, the community and the education system.
Olohun jeki odun o jina sira won kosi je ki awon omo re o gbeyin gbogbo wa na. Ameen.?
Alhamdulillah Rabbil Al’amin.
Ahmed Ladan Gobir
A Member of Third-Estate writes from Abuja
