By: Abdulsalam Omuya Lukeman
On the night of April 25, 2025, the earth mourned.
The rocks, the rivers, the unseen veins of minerals beneath us – they knew one of their faithful custodians had fallen silent.
Kefas Malgwi – geologist, rockstar, colleague, mentor – your journey has ended.
Here, words falter and memories must speak.
You walked among maps and mysteries, traced the hidden wealth of a land too often overlooked.
You turned barren landscapes into promises, not through dreams or guesswork, but through patient study, discipline and the art of seeing what lies beneath.
You understood the rocks – their ancient languages, their deep murmurs – and you taught others how to listen.
Your passing this April delivers more than grief; it leaves a fracture.
In lecture halls where young geologists once leaned excitedly forward to hear your steady voice, an aching hush will now linger.
In the bright rooms of the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF), where strategies and critical visions were once debated, there will be no replacing the quiet force you brought – the mind sharp as chisels, the hand steady on maps of uncertainty.
But perhaps the deepest loss is felt in the hope you carried.
You were part of a rare brotherhood of builders – those who believed Nigeria’s story could be rewritten from its bedrock.
That we did not have to entreat or borrow because the ground itself carries our future.
Your life’s work was neither about titles nor applause; rather, it was woven around unlocking potentials.
You were not a man of uproar.
You worked with diligence and intuition, far from the spotlight and politics.
Yet, your footsteps are imprinted on pathways others will now walk, gathering wisdom you first unearthed.
The sorrow today is not hollow and it will certainly not be brief.
It is the honest sorrow reserved for those who gave more than they received, who served causes bigger than themselves, who understood that mentoring, building and dreaming were crafts worthy of their finest efforts.
Kefas Malgwi, the news of your transition remains a seismic event, difficult to comprehend.
The earth holds you now, the very earth you studied and esteemed.
May it cradle you gently.
May the rocks, the deep seams of hidden treasures rise in testimony to your life.
May every young geologist who picks up a field notebook, who squints into a distant horizon wondering what lies beneath – may they walk in the illumination you left behind.
You are gone, but your work is sedimented deep into the future.
To the family you left behind, may they be consoled by the countless milestone scored and the legacies you fossilised.
To your extended family at SMDF and the executive secretary, Hajia Fatima Shinkafi who became more than a sister, this is one loss too many.
May she find the strength to keep forging on.
To stakeholders of our sector’s ecosystem, I pray that your resplendent memory continues to be a blessing to us all.
Rest now, Son of the Earth.
Like Halley’s Comet, you rocketed through our lives and quickly vanished.
How brilliant was your STAR!
Rest now.
Find solace in the landscapes you loved, among the gems you sought by compass and by hope.
Walk in the celebrated radiance of the afterlife where eons await, for you are written into the grandeur of rocks.
Till we meet to part no more.
Adieu, Malgwi Kefas…
Abdulsalam Omuya Lukeman, editor-in-chief, The Rock Post magazine, writes from Abuja, Nigeria.
omuyalooks@yahoo.com
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