My Son's Close Call with a Hit-and-Run Driver

“Daddy, Daddy, don’t be scared. Everything is under control. Suleman was hit by a drunk driver, but he is now at Cedarcrest.”

That was the message from my son, Saad, last Monday morning in Kano. I was getting ready to open an executive training program with the Bureau of Public Service Reform. I had spent over a week in the city, overseeing the PRNigeria Young Communication Fellowship. It had been a busy and productive time. The BPSR training was meant to wrap up my visit. I was talking with the Director General, Dr Dasuki I Arabi, making final arrangements before the participants arrived, when I got the call.

As a father, I know the sound of a child carrying heavy news. Saad is usually calm and collected. His words, “don’t be scared,” told me there was something to worry about.

Dr Arabi noticed my change in mood right away. He paused and quietly asked if there was a fracture. I was still on the line, asking the only question any father would ask in that moment: “Is he conscious? Is he talking?”

Saad replied, “Everything is in the hands of God. Continue your program, Dad. We have it under control.”

He was trying to shield me. I have high blood pressure. Since my tough time at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, my family has a way of delivering bad news carefully. They choose their words wisely. That morning, I could feel the weight of what Saad was holding back.

I returned to the training. My professional side took over, as it always does in a crisis. My body was in the room, my voice was doing its job, while my mind was stuck on Saad’s call.

I had already sent the deposit to Cedarcrest. Whatever Suleman needed would be taken care of. That was all I could do from Kano, and I acted without thinking twice. But taking action and feeling at peace are not the same, and I had only one of them.

Gidado gave me my first real relief. He sent a photo, Suleman in his hospital bed, arm raised, making the victory sign. That picture did something for me that no kind words could. A young man hit by a car, in the hospital, facing surgery, and his first thought was to raise his hand and show he was still fighting. I stared at that photo for a long time.

But I had already made up my mind to catch the earliest flight back to Abuja. The next morning, I told the participants, without too many details, that I needed to leave early.

They were understanding. I took a flight on Wednesday morning.

Nothing prepares a father for seeing his child in a hospital bed after an accident. What I heard when I got there broke my heart in ways I didn’t expect. Only then did I hear the full story my family had kept from me until I arrived at the hospital.

Suleman had gone for his morning walk after prayers when a driver, out of nowhere, ran him over at top speed. Seeing blood everywhere, the driver fled, thinking my son was dead.

A family friend, Dr Chidi Umeokoli, arrived just in time. I don’t use the term “godsend” lightly, but he was exactly that. He checked Suleman’s injuries calmly, knowing that how we move someone with trauma matters a lot, careless moves can change a survivable accident into something worse.

He called for help from a Federal Road Safety vehicle. With lights and sirens on, they rushed through Abuja traffic. Suleman reached Cedarcrest, one of Nigeria’s best orthopedic and trauma centers, just in time. In the back of the emergency vehicle, bleeding and in pain, Suleman asked his brother if he was going to die.

Saad answered with a courage only love can bring, steady, calm, refusing to cry.

There are fractures. Surgeries are ahead. But his head is fine. His spine is fine. He speaks clearly, knowing where he is and what happened. In such a serious accident, hit by a driver who was too cowardly to stay, these are not small blessings. They are the kinds of blessings people of faith pray for all their lives.

That small act, Suleman raising his hand in pain to assure his father, tells me everything I need to know about the son I raised, and the son I am determined to see fully recover.

We pray Suleman will walk out of Cedarcrest Hospital whole after the next surgery.