Sunday, December 22, 2019 emerged like a normal day until around 9 am when a call hit my cell phone. The caller turned out to be my Chief Operating Officer (COO), Malam Salisu Umar. Calls from him are normal and they could come at any time of the day and night. As a management staff of the Blueprint, the COO and I are open to calls from each other from time to time, mostly on official matters. It is also the practice with other management staff of the organisation.
Malam Umar’s tone was heavy at the other end as he announced that the Blueprint family has just lost another key hand.
“We have lost Thomas,” he dropped the bombshell.
“Which Thomas are you talking about?” I enquired and prepared for a shocker.
“Our Thomas,” he responded.
“No, it can’t be,” I screamed from my end.
My heart skipped and I found my jaw on the floor. A barrage of questions took charge of my lips. He told me Thomas gave up the ghost in the wee hours of the day at a private Kaduna hospital where he was being treated for pneumonic cold.
I had called him the Monday before his demise but it was his wife that picked the call, informing me that he had been admitted the previous day for pneumonia. I promised to call back and requested her to extend my get-well wishes to him.
Thomas had complained of some discomfort shortly after returning home from church service. He was immediately taken to the hospital after failing to respond to some medications.
After a couple of days, his condition seemed to be improving and by Thursday or so, the doctor asked that he be given gruel to take. Then, another dimension set in. He was said to be having some trouble in his throat and had to be referred to an ear, nose and throat or ENT doctor. After administering some treatment on him which stabilised his condition, everyone looked forward to his being discharged by that weekend. However, his health suddenly deteriorated by Saturday, culminating in his giving up the ghost the next day.
The news of his death soon spread among the staff, leaving all of us in shock. Thomas was the pioneer Deputy General Manager (DGM), Administration and Human Resources of the Blueprint Newspapers Ltd. By virtue of his position, every member of staff had to relate with him. His friendly disposition endeared him to all the staff, both in the management and lower cadres. He always wore this smile that made him approachable to all.
Thomas never claimed to have solutions to all problems presented to him by the staff, but no one ever left his office feeling diminished. He was a good manager of men.
Working with him since the inception of Blueprint in April, 2011, I found him pleasant to work with. He would smile if he found you discharging your functions as expected but would be quick to frown if he was displeased with you. He was just being professional.
Thomas also doubled as the secretary to the Management Committee of the paper and we usually hold our meetings every Wednesday. His contributions at the meetings were always rich ostensibly because he trained as an auditor.
Besides being the head of the personnel department, our paths crossed from time to time in the office. We popped into each other’s office from time to time discussing both official and personal issues. We worked more closely when the company constituted an Award Committee in January, 2018 of which he was the secretary. He contributed immensely to the success of the maiden award held in July of that year.
We were both looking forward to serving on the committee for the 2020 Award Ceremony expected to be reconstituted after the New Year break. But as it is said, man proposes but God disposes.
Nobody can predict death, agreed. But you could sense some deaths coming through the body language, actions and inactions of the deceased. Some folks could have premonitions of their deaths by what they say or do few days before their demise.
When the news broke, we all began to scratch our heads trying to figure out whether Thomas gave us any signs of his final stay in the office when he departed to Kaduna on Friday, December 15, last year. It was customary of him to take off to Kaduna where his family lives every weekend. And everything looked normal. He actually told me that he would like to take his 2019 annual leave before Christmas.
He was also planning to relocate his family to Abuja in the near future and I encouraged him to do so. Thomas was a Kaduna boy, having been born in that city. He was a native speaker of Hausa language, though he hailed from Edo state. From the way he switched from English to Hausa, no one would doubt if he claimed to be a Hausa man. His accent was flawless. In fact, often times when we were alone, we communicated in Hausa, I also being a native speaker of the language.
As a mark of respect for our amiable secretary, all the management team headed for Kaduna on a condolence visit to the family of the deceased, led by the COO. It was an emotional visit. In fact, one of his administrative staffers that accompanied us broke down at a point and forced some other staff to fight back tears. And the widow who was calm when we got to the house could not help breaking down again.
After the visit, the team headed for the Kaduna residence of the Chairman/CEO of the paper, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, to commiserate with him. We all recalled the two deaths earlier recorded in the year. First to pass on was one of our Kaduna correspondents, Abdullahi Usman Lapai, followed by Sunday Atomode, the Personal Assistant to the chairman. Sunday lost his life in a motor accident and his demise was as painful as the DGM’s because of the sudden nature. Lapai was the oldest of the trio and his death came after a prolonged illness that prepared the minds of everyone around him.
The vacuum which the passage of Thomas Imonichie Joseph has created in Blueprint will be difficult to fill and he will be sorely missed. This tribute would have been written for this space last week but the reality of his demise was difficult to accept immediately.
We were looking forward to a pre-Christmas management meeting billed for December 18, 2019 and I expected the usual notification from him which never came, unknown to me that the sickness had hunted him down. I think it was at that point that I called his line to inform him I had not got the usual notification for the meeting, only to be told that he had been on admission.
Although Thomas is gone, his memories will linger with us for many years to come. May the almighty God grant his soul eternal rest and the family as well as Blueprint the fortitude to bear the huge loss, Amen.
