I weep for Balkisu Yusuf

SIR: This is to my mentor, season journalist and ombudsman, a versatile columnist and the first woman editor from the northern part of this country.When I read of the death of Hajiya Balkisu Yusuf in the social media at 2.am, I could not sleep any longer until I went for my subihi prayers, where I prayed for her soul.

I have been an ardent follower of the late Balkisu Yusuf when she was the editor of Triumph newspaper in Kano. I never knew she also took interest in my contributions in the media, until when she replied to one of my articles and said this is BALA NAYASHI MANDELA we listen to every Saturday in the much popular Radio Nigeria audience participation programmed Radio Link. Since then, we have been in touch through phone and never missed her column every Thursday in Daily Trust where she ran a weekly contribution.

Hajiya Balkisu Yusuf would be remembered as a human rights activist, women emancipator and above all religious woman that left a mark in the promotion of Islam in Nigeria and the outside the shores of this country.

We take solace in the Allah’s injunctions that “from him we come and to him we shall return.”

• Bala Nayashi, Lokoja, FCT