VICE President Yemi Osinbajo’s outrider, Ali Gomina, died in March 2020. He died in accident while on Osinbajo’s convoy. A few weeks to the second anniversary, The ICIR reporter, Marcus Fatunmole visited Gomina’s village, Gui which is along airport road in Abuja and captured how his death affected the community.
BULUS Jessica is one of the students of Government Junior Secondary School, (JSS) Gui. She walks from her house, located a few metres from her school, to class.
Two years earlier, Jessica would have needed to trek for at least 10 kilometres to Gbese or Gosa to attend secondary School.
Gui had a single public primary school built in 1976. The community leaders made pleas to get a secondary school with no success.
After waiting for decades, respite came the village’s way on March 14, 2020, when Vice President Yemi Osinbajo paid a condolence visit to the community.
Osinbajo had on March 13 lost his outrider, Ali Gomina, to an accident while enroute Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. Gomina was on Osinbajo’s convoy to the airport. The accident halted the journey to Lagos. The next day the Vice President paid a condolence visit to Gomina’s family at Gui community.
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The District Head of the village, Alhassan Yusuf, who was a teacher told The ICIR that he used the opportunity of Osinbajo’s visit to inform him of the community’s needs, especially the pleas with the government for a junior secondary school.
Photo credit: The ICIR/Marcus Fatunmole
This time around they got a response. Not only a junior secondary but a senior secondary was also approved.
The school also came with two blocks of staff quarters, while the deceased family got a three-bedroom flat.
The community leader said the Vice President sent his entourage to Gui a day after his visit with some engineers to meet him to provide a site for the buildings.
The contract which was awarded through the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals to Messrs Ernies Logistic Services Ltd was completed within a few weeks.
Photo credit: The ICIR/Marcus Fatunmole
The schools opened in January 2021 with JSS One and Two and an SSS One class with 260 students; with 140 at the junior level and 120 at the senior level.
Pupils in the junior classes are part of 261,060 pupils in Abuja’s 202 junior secondary schools for the 2021/2022 academic session.
The enrolment notwithstanding, Nigeria has the world’s most populous out-of-school children.
Photo credit: The ICIR and Marcus Fatunmole
Both the junior and senior secondary schools in Gui are within the same location, with the eight blocks of classrooms consisting of six classes facing each other.
The schools also have 16 “VIP toilets.”
Photo credit: The ICIR/Marcus Fatunmole
The principal for the senior classes declined to speak when our reporter met him in his office.
He needed approval from the FCT Secondary Education Board before speaking with the media.
He noted that school authorities in the FCT must seek approval before speaking with journalists.
Speaking with our reporter, Yusuf, who became the village head in 2002, before his elevation to a District Head in 2010, said “Our son’s death made us sorrowful, but it brought joy to us. May his soul rest in perfect peace.”
He also commended Osinbajo’s effort.
New schools, new challenges
Finding by our reporter showed that the schools lack teachers for some subjects.
Agriculture, Geography, Literature, Languages, Home Economics and Security have no teachers.
Meanwhile, the school does not have water and light yet. The District Head said the government would provide water for the school.
Gui is one of the wards in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).
Commercial motorcyclists charge between N200 and N300 to and from the village, depending on weather conditions. It is a border community to the Kuje Area Council.
Photo credit: The ICIR/Marcus Fatunmole
The community needs
Aside teachers, portable water, a bridge to link the community to Kuje, tarred road are some of their needs, in addition to personnel and equipment for the health facility.
Photo credit: The ICIR/Marcus Fatunmole
“If the government constructs the road from Sauka, close to the Airport Junction, it will not take more than 10 minutes to get to Kuje” says the District head.
Our reporter saw an abandoned health facility in the village, which residents said had been there for years.
The deceased family speak
The Chief Imam of Gui, Abubakar Jubril, spoke with The ICIR on behalf of the Gomina’s family.
Photo credit: The ICIR/Marcus Fatunmole
He said apart from the house built by Osinbajo for the family, the Vice President also bought a tricycle and built a small shop for the deceased’s wife.
Gomina’s wife, Hasia Ali, led our reporter to Jubril, who addressed the reporter in her presence.
Jubril said the late 45-year-old officer served Osinbajo for six years between 2015 and 2020 and that he worked for 20 years in service of the Nigerian government.
He had two wives and 11 children.
His first wife had died before the officer was involved in the accident. The late wife had five children.
Photo credit: The ICIR/Marcus Fatunmole
Gomina’s surviving wife, Hasia, bore him six children. The 35-year-old married her late husband in 2003.
An aged father also survives the late officer.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2022. Contact him via email @ [email protected].