Author: Mahmud Jega

The avalanche of stories, articles, comments and jibes in the traditional and social media since the death last Friday of Malam Abba Kyari reminded me of a passage in Arthur Hailey’s 1959 novel, The Final Diagnosis. It was about Dr. Joseph Pearson, the head of pathology at a fictional American hospital. Pearson walked into a theatre full of student doctors to perform an autopsy. He pointed to a plaque on the wall, with the Latin inscription “Mortui Vivos docent.” That is, the dead shall teach the living. It is what an autopsy is all about, Pearson said. Tribute to a…