When I reminisce on some of the things His Excellency Alhaji Aliu Mahama used to tell us in our personal interactions. It was as if he knew his days were nearing.

I was with him at the Jubilee Park in Tamale for what have become his very last Eid prayers before his death. I was equally with him on the same day at the North Star FM in Tamale with the Late Alhaji Idris Mustapha Ali when he presented his very last Eid message to the people of Northern region.

His message that day was centred on forgiveness and the urgent need for us to love one another and live together in unity and peace. I still can visualise his lips when he said; “poverty was our number one enemy and what we should fight as Dagombas but not ourselves”. He prayed for the dead and said it could be him to join our ancestors in the next World.

After the radio interview on North Star FM, I met him again and he counselled me a great deal. As a young politician he told me, humility was very critical if I was to succeed. Money, he added, cannot buy the love of the people. I still remember when he told me those of us who had the opportunity of having lived and studied abroad were too argumentative.

He warned me to eschew those traits if any in me. He counselled me to let the people know I was from a very humble background and one of them who had the opportunity of education and wanted to give back to society.

The reason his counsel took this dimension was that I was the NPP parliamentary Candidate for Tamale North for election 2012 and needed the votes of the people. Even though he didn't live to see the elections as he died on the 16th November 2012, he did his utmost best for me. He introduced me to some persons both inside and outside the country who supported my campaign to the end. It was only unfortunate that death didn’t allow him to do a door-to-door campaign he had agreed to do with me 10 days to the elections.

It is my belief that His Excellency Alhaji Aliu Mahama is resting peacefully in his grave with God’s favour and mercy on him. It is not only Akilu Sayibu who has indeed missed him dearly and deeply, others do as well.

I was in Tamale for this year’s Eid-ul-Adha celebration. Some of the aged came to my house and asked me, “So we won’t have Sala meat and rice at Aliu’s house?” He always organised a party for the people every year in his house in Tamale. Alhaji Aliu Mahama was an excellent, humble and perfect gentleman. He was very firm and upright most times. Even as Vice President of the Republic of Ghana he never felt big to apologise to those of us who were his political children any time he felt he was wrong or spoke to us harshly.

I still remember the day he said he was to blacklist me from his political children because I had spoken to him in a way no one could have spoken to him over the employment status of another political child. It didn’t take him three hours for him to call me again and ask me to come over to the AU Village for a discussion.

This was somebody who will get angry at 1pm and get over the anger at 2pm! He spoke his mind most times and never harboured any ill-feelings against us. He was readily available when we needed him most. He offered to be a father to me when I lost my dad much earlier. He never failed me. He never let me down. He was the first person I contacted anytime I needed an advice or wanted monetary support.

He understood me very well and NEVER feared telling me the hard truth most times. “Look up to me. I wore one school uniform throughout my primary education. My parents were not rich. It was my dream when I was growing up that my late father could buy even a bicycle for the family errands. This was not achieved when my dad died at the time I was in Six-Form”. He told me. He had strong belief in God. He was a devout and committed Muslim. He was extremely generous. He inspired a lot of Northerners and it was for these virtues that I proposed in my very first tribute to him when he died that an Aliu Mahama Memorial Lectures be instituted in his honour.

Currently arrangements are underway for the 1st anniversary celebration of the late Alhaji Aliu Mahama in Accra and Tamale between 9th and 16th November of this year. The organisers of the week-long celebration will make the announcements of the programme schedule of the celebration on both the electronic and print media. Do support this celebration the best way that you can.

Rest In Peace His Excellency Alhaji Aliu Mahama. We still do miss you!

By Akilu Sayibu

Email: Akilu.Sayibu@live.uwe.ac.uk