By Ashmieu Bah
Wednesday 10 February 2021. We were in our normal newsroom production meeting around 9:00 am. A colleague pulled me aside and whispered thus: “I want to tell you something but please don’t tell anyone for now.”
I thought he was going to tell me about a major breaking news story in the country. He saw the anxiety in my eyes, and then he went: “BEST don die!” I almost fell on the floor but thankfully I just staggered, took my seat and bowed my head on my desk speechless for almost three minutes.
One of the most difficult moments in one’s life is to lose a pal and colleague with whom one shared some of the best memories that one can ever think of. And that’s what happened to me on that fateful day. It was the day on which the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation lost one of its most brilliant and prolific broadcasters. Alpha Amadu Bah also known as “DJ BEST” epitomized what I will refer to as a gem in Sierra Leone’s media landscape.
When my colleague told me about his passing, I had an indescribable feeling I hadn’t had for a very long time. I think the only I had had a similar shock was when I lost my father in 2008. Then I was writing my third year exams at FBC. I had spoken with my father the night before he passed on. He was hale and hearty. I only came out to use the gent’s when my phone rang, and the caller on the other side of the telephone said “D Pa Don Die”.
The Quran says It is He (Allah) Who created death and life that He may try you - which of you is best in deeds; and He is the Mighty, the Forgiving, (67:2). Alpha's death was indeed a trial for those of us who had worked with him, and had done everything together.
Alpha Amadu Bah’s ailment started in Kono. It was sometime in August 2020 when he and I went to the district – in Soa Chiefdom – to look at the road condition of one of the agriculturally endowed chiefdoms not only in Kono but the country as a whole. We left Freetown on Friday around 7:00 pm, and arrived in Koidu at 2:00 am and spent the night at VIP Guest House. When we woke up, he showed me his foot which had swollen, saying: “Asmieu a nor well, me foot don swell e dae mona me ol net”. Our arrangement was to leave Koidu just after dawn, but he sought permission to go to Koidu Hospital and got medical attention.
On his return from the hospital he showed me a plastic bag full of painkillers and antibiotics. When we arrived in Freetown, he went to the Jui Chinese Hospital to do some tests, but the situation got worse as the swelling increased and he started limping. The condition deteriorated to the extent that the office had to give him a few weeks of sick leave. At home, we kept communicating with him, and during those weeks he made several visits to Connaught, 34 Military Hospital and other private hospitals to do medical diagnosis. But to his dismay none of the hospitals could tell him the cause of his swollen foot and that was worrying to him.
Best had reported widely on the country's health system. His experience those few weeks left him in shock as he told me. He told me how poor our health system had sunk. Even at the 34 Military Hospital he saw many odd things that he promised to report on once he was out of the sick bed. Obviously he cannot now do that. During one of my visits, he told me the hospital had less than five wheelchairs.
It was on a Thursday afternoon when he left us in the office after he had edited the World Toilet Day news to the best of his ability as if he was bidding goodbye to the job. He went to town to run some errands. While on that he had an attack and was rushed to the 34 Military Hospital. None of us knew or even expected that would be his last time to visit his office. I only came to know about the incident on Friday morning when I came to the office. I called his phone which was picked up by his wife who told me in a very disappointing and somber voice that her husband was at the outpatient ward waiting to do some tests.
After my production meeting, another colleague, Sheku Sumaila and I drove to the 34 Military Hospital where we met him lying in one of the beds apparently because it was early and the officer in charge didn’t want to allow us in. but he recognized us and allowed us in. I looked at BEST, he was in agony. He told me he had felt pain in his stomach that he had never felt before. He was not sure whether it was a disorder, but he had not eaten any food away from home. So he was in complete astonishment as to the cause of that severe pain. I gave him words of consolation before I departed.
On the following day, the surgery was done and I visited him two days later. Though he was in pain, he looked strong like a soldier. Those of us who knew Best knew him to be very regimental and brave, and he never liked to act weak or to be seen as weak or vulnerable. As a regimental man his sense of humor was just exceptional. He always wore a smile.
Best was indeed a best man in all facets of life. If it were for professionalism, you would hardly find his breed at SLBC and other local media houses, because he was always meticulous and had the best hand writing I have ever seen.
If you saw his handwriting you would mistake it for a photocopied print product. Even on a blank A4 Paper his lines would be straight like a muster parade of rank and file soldiers waiting for an inspection of a guard of honor being mounted for a visiting head of state.
He took over from DJ Base the popular radio programme called Night Life when the latter left SLBC for Ayv. DJ Base joined the SLBC after the merger between SLBS and UN Radio. When he came to SLBC he continued Night Line which was very popular during the UN Radio days. When DJ Base left, Alpha Amadu took over the show and added a lot of flare, professionalism and human interest touch. He changed the face of the show and made it more human interest centered.
He visited all the districts of this country, went to communities that had never seen even their member of parliament. He went to communities in Falaba that would be cut off from the rest of the country during the rains. He visited communities that people would walk 30 to 40 miles to access a community health centre.
He showed us places where in this day and age pregnant women are still being carried by young men on commercial bikes. He exposed us to places in Sierra Leone where the Guinean Franc was the legal tender. He visited villages that had never seen a vehicle – the only means of transportation for them was commercial motorbikes. He braved all odds just to bring out the sufferings of the ordinary man. I remember talking to him after one of his visits to Falaba. He said the people did not even know the name of the leaders of the country. He was that kind of journalist who had the nose to smell where news was and how to unearth that news.
I recall in our daily production meetings, Best was known to do the hard news that no one would dare venture to do. As the presenter of Morning Coffee, he would ask the hard questions and tell the story of the ordinary man even if it hurt the powers that be. He was always ready to face the music if the need arose.
Alpha was a fair and honest person who always preferred to be with the downtrodden and the oppressed. He hated bullies, and would speak truth to power no matter who that powerful person was.
Since his death not a day has passed without me thinking of him. The last time I spoke to him was the Saturday he called me to say he would come to the office on the following Monday. Little did I know that was the last conversation I was going to have with him.
SLBC has indeed lost a gem. I will end with this verse from the Holy Quran which says: "Every soul shall taste death, and only on the Day of Judgment will you be paid your full recompense." As a Muslim I am convinced my brother and colleague is in paradise, because I can confirm that he was a pious man who, like the Prophet said, felt “sorry for your fellow man and Allah will show you mercy.”
The Messenger of Allah (S) has stated: “Death is the first stage in the stages of the hereafter and the last stage from the stages of the world.” Till we join you one day Best, Loud Master, Chief Pikin na Chief, we shall see one day and we shall uphold what you stood for.
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