On Late Kasimu Yero
By Bello Sule
“Reflection on the transient nature of life is dominating my thought and feeling right now, and I must share it with you. A few hours ago the reason why the call I placed at exactly 9.59 a.m. on Saturday was neither picked nor returned, hit me like thunderbolt – the end was drawing near for my friend and creative stimulant Kasimu Yero who passed on this Sunday morning.
I’ve been in touch with Kasimu more frequently over the last couple of months (since the infamous post about his condition which unfairly accused NTA of abandoning him). I cannot claim to be closer to late Kasimu than Zainab Bewell – who gave me the first of the very few “actor” roles I played for NTA in the popular Magana Jari series alongside him, or Debrah Ogazuma who devolved the screenwriting part of the series and made me write a sizeable number of Magana Jari episodes that he delivered with finesse, but Kasimu and I developed a relationship based on mutual respect and, on my part, deep admiration. More than any artiste of his time, Kasimu put his talent at disposal and gave his all but not all those that matter availed themselves.
His first employer, the famous Ahmadu Bello University paired with the then nascent NTA and mutually harvested his fame to built an audience base that is loyal and nostalgic to this day.
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Kasimu has been under-appreciated by the profession, by the government and by the society – in that order. Kasimu belongs in the Nigerian Television Hall of Fame, but there is none.
Way back in the 90s I nominated Kasimu twice for the national honor award but he never got one, perhaps because the industry did not feel there was need to support and push for the recognition.
Yet, till his death he was still ready and willing to offer his talent for the benefit of the society. Had he been given the chance, he sure would have poked pun at those who stash dollars in soakaways while their compatriots wallow in so much poverty they can’t make meaningful contribution towards filling soakaways with shit.
I feel greatly pained by failure to redeem two pledges Kasimu Yero made to me. About a month or two ago I called to ask after him following the fake news that he was seriously ill. He had been ill, he said, but had recovered well enough and was ready to work with me on a production which Senator Shehu Sani has promised to sponsor.
The other pledge was made in 1999 at the end of the second of two interviews he gave me for NTA’s Contact Magazine.
I asked if he thought he could break the “comic guy” stereotype his audience has cast about him. He paused for a while and said: “You know, Malam Bello, we should work on a script that I will act for people to watch and weep.” And we laughed.”
