One year after, Sam Nda-Isaiah still larger than life

“Chairman is gone; Brother Sam is gone!” That was my elder brother, Emma, on the other side of the phone breaking the news to me on that fateful night of December 11, 2020. I still remember those words vividly as if it was just yesterday.

The day started like any other day and late at night, I was watching the popular programme, Journalist Hangout, on TVC. I got a series of calls that night asking what was happening in my brother’s house and oblivious to what was going on, I kept saying nothing.

To confirm my fears about the calls I was getting at that unholy hour of the night, I called my brother, Emma, demanding to know what was going on. Initially, he told me nothing was happening only but he called me back some minutes later with those words. And things have not remained the same since then. From that day, till the wake keep and subsequent burial, it all seemed like a horror movie – a bad dream I desperately wanted to wake up from. Even at the burial ground, as I stared at the casket, it looked so surreal. ‘That can’t be my brother in the casket. Impossible!’ I told myself.

According to a popular maxim, death is one appointment everyone must keep. But linking this adage with my brother who appeared to be larger than life, one would have expected his type was created to live for many years on earth. He had a million and one dreams as well as projects to complete, so you expect him to accomplish a significant amount of them. He was dogged, ambitious, a go-getter; the word, ‘impossible’, was just nowhere close to his dictum.

Naturally, it was expected he would live up to at least 80 like our father and enjoy the fruits of his labour, play with his grandkids, but life had other plans for the family. Only God knows tomorrow.

After his death, we heard countless stories of his philanthropic gestures – how he paid school fees of a significant number of people, paid rents and medical bills of lots of people who are not even members of our family. Such was his desire to help others.

Indeed, it has been a tough year. From seconds, minutes, hours, days, to weeks and months, the family has been wobbling through the year. How time flies and like they say, ‘time heals all wounds’ but this particular wound is different for the Nda-Isaiah family. Almost all the family members are yet to come to terms with the demise of our elder brother. Sometimes I feel he would just appear from nowhere and tell us it was a prank; that he was just putting all of us to test to see how we will act if he was no longer with us. I still hear his voice every day and still have dreams of him.

Last week, I was looking for a document and stumbled on a note he wrote two years ago when we embarked on a trip to China. We went on a tour in that country to get a first-hand glimpse of pharmaceutical plants and companies for one of his entrepreneurial ventures, Graham Foggs Ltd. The company was meant to be a game-changer in the pharmaceutical business in Nigeria. It sought to make essential medicines and livestock drugs available to the public at significantly reduced prices. Graham Foggs planned to bring down the prices of most of the commonly used medicines by up to 60 percent, producing only generic medicines as against patented ones.

I was to write a news feature on the trip, so he wrote an outline of what he wanted from me on a sheet of paper. As I saw the paper recently with his famous handwriting, it brought back memories of him. In the office, his image still looms large. No day passes by without his name being mentioned in the office. “If the late chairman were to be around, this would have happened; if the late chairman was around, we would not have missed this advert; if the late chairman were to be around, this person would have been sacked since yesterday; if the late chairman was around, this story would never have made the front page.” Most members of staff still refer to him in the present tense. Such was his personality.

No doubt, the office can never remain the same again. I remember earlier in the year when we launched our podcast studio and it was low key. I know if my brother, the man of “Big Ideas” were to be around, he would have launched the studio with pomp and pageantry.

It is the same story with my aged mum; anytime I visit her, she still talks about her first son all the time with tears in her eyes. I don’t think she will ever get over his death as long as she lives.

However, there was some good news in the year; we welcomed another addition to the family. My younger sister, Grace, gave birth to a baby girl and the baby was named after her uncle. She was christened Samuella, the female version of the name, Sam.

As the country moves toward the electioneering season beginning from next year, I always wonder if my late brother, Sam, would have been in the thick of the action. I think of some trending national issues and I also wonder, he would have written blistering front-page editorials.
Just recently, we had a meeting in the office to decide the awards for outstanding personalities for the year 2021 and my mind flashed back to last year when he presided over the meeting. We usually hold the meeting in December but last year he called for the meeting in November as if he had a premonition of what would happen. Less than two weeks later, he held another meeting where he inaugurated the advisory board of NATIONAL ECONOMY. Those were his last two major engagements in the office.

December 11 will for a long time remain a dark day in the Nda-Isaiah family. Although he died in his prime, he lived a life of impact. His name travelled every nook and cranny of this country, and even beyond. He was living testimony of the saying that it is not how long you live but how well.

As we mark his one-year remembrance, we pray that the family remains stronger. And as we go the breadth and length of every circumstance to ensure his legacies never die, we will never forget the mission statement, ‘For God and Country’.