Tears flow as Senate holds valedictory session for Dantong

Photo: 

Sun News Publishing

The remains of Senator Gyang Dantong after the valedictory session at the National Assembly in Abuja yesterday.

By: 

ADETUTU FOLASADE-KOYI, Abuja

Date: 

Wed, 07/18/2012

 

Emotions ran high, grown-up men wept openly, oblivious of the clicking cameras while some Senators too, overcome with grief, simply stared blankly during the valedictory session of Senator Gyang Dalyop Dantong from Plateau State. The Senator died about two weeks during the mass burial of scores of people killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen on July 6.

He and the Majority Leader, Plateau House of Assembly, Gyang Fulani, died of exhaustion while fleeing from fresh attack. Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Smart Adeyemi, among others, tried in vain to keep the tears at bay. It failed.

When the tears refused to stop after listening to commendations about the virtues, humility and peaceful nature of the late Dantong, the Deputy Senate President, for the first time in the chamber, hid behind dark glasses. For Adeyemi, the tears flowed till the end of the session. In his tribute, Senate President David Mark recalled Dantong’s role in resolving the impasse between the Lagos State Government and medical doctors over pay disparity.

Senator Mark also said that until his death, Dantong went for funerals of constituents on a weekly basis. “Today, we say goodbye to Senator Gyang Dalyop Dantong. Even in death, he continues to be a uniting factor and a shining example of model leadership.  “For those of us who know the late Senator Dantong, he was calm and easy-going, just as he was so passionate about how to improve the health situation in Nigeria. 

“This passion for the health sector was demonstrated by his tireless efforts to broker an amicable resolution to the recent Lagos State doctors’ strike.   “Senator Dantong urged his colleagues and the Lagos State Government to do everything humanly possible to resolve the stalemate because life is sacred. He emphasized that as doctors whose solemn oath is the prevention of disease and the preservation of lives, strike should be the last resort.  

“Such was the belief and deep compassion of Dantong. There was nothing in his power he would not do for others. He never lost his natural compassion or the moral compass that informed his respect and love for humanity and primary calling of medicine.

“Nobody has borne the tragedies of Jos, particularly in the past three years, more than Dantong. As the killings continued, he became a fixed feature at burials. For each casualty of this senseless crisis, Dantong was equally a victim. He never stayed in the comfort of his Abuja home.  “Rather, every week he went to console the families of the dead or to attend the burial of one of his constituents.  “Days before his death, he was at the funeral of his Ward Chairman in Sharubutu, Bachit District of Riyom Local Government Area.

“Dantong had been a worried man in the last few years because of the mindless crisis that engulfed his beloved state. The people he buried every week in his last years were not strangers. They were people he knew so well; in his close-knit community where life revolved around agriculture and the church. 

“At the Vom Christian Hospital, where he was medical director, he attended to some who became victims of the wanton killings in Jos. Others were his patients or parents of patients. Indeed, no one can truly know the pain he endured. In the end, he paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom, human dignity and peaceful co-existence in Plateau State.

“Having paid this supreme sacrifice, his death must not be in vain. Peace must now return to Plateau State. If peace does not return to Plateau State, then his death would have been in vain. For the sake of the late Senator Dantong and all those who have lost their lives in Plateau State, I urge all warring parties to sheathe their swords and return to dialogue like brothers and sisters.”

Earlier, leading the valedictory session, Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba said the late Dantong’s “love for peace and fear of tension finally consumed him...He was fervent about his profession; he was fervent about Plateau State and he was fervent about Nigeria.” Ndoma-Egba asked: “Where is the Jos of old? Where is the Plateau of old? Jos, what has happened?” Ekweremadu, who seconded the motion to observe a minute silence for Dantong as well as raising a delegation to commiserate with the state government and the family, noted that, “Nigeria is going through challenging times.”

Deputy Majority Leader Abdul Ningi said the late Dantong was a bridge and peace-maker in Plateau North. Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, who represented Speaker AminunTambuwal at the session, said the death of Dantong should be “a wake-up call for Nigeria.” Minority Whip Ganiyu Solomon had been mandated to lead a 10-man delegation to Plateau State.

SOURCE: 19 July 2012.