THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
Friends and well-wishers are lauding the life and work of Dr Daniel Yakubu Kutchin following his death. The Nigerian was found dead on 7 August 2019 in his apartment in Monchengladbach, Germany. He was 57.
Doctors, in their interim report, say he must have died of natural causes. While a detailed autopsy report is being awaited, friends and colleagues of the late nuclear physicist and IT expert have been reacting to his untimely and sudden death.
Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Germany (NIDOG) led the legion of tributes that have been paid to the late Nigerian.
“With the death of Dr Kutchin, Nigerians in the Diaspora have lost a valuable member and our nation a patriot, who made meaningful contributions to the development of Nigeria,” the press release signed by Dr RosaLyn Dressmann and Femi Awoniyi, president and general secretary respectively, of the organisation said.
In his own tribute, Kenneth Gbandi, chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe (NIDOE), said Kutchin was “a motivator and teacher”, describing the deceased as “a compatriot who was an optimist about the future of Nigeria and Africa”.
Larry Bello, a Frankfurt-based journalist with the Evangelischer Pressedienst, described how shocked he felt upon hearing of the sudden death of Dr Kutchin. “You cared for the needy, people cried for help and you answered!” he wrote. “And you still showed us that we should help ourselves.”
Berlin-based political scientist and development specialist Obiora Nweke described Kutchin as a “very detailed intellectual with a modern mind”.
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“Death where is your sting? This world is nothing,” wrote Ngozi Utoh-Samuel, Hamburg-based Nigerian community leader, recalling that she had just spoken about the late IT expert with her husband a few days before learning of Dr Kutchin’s death.
“I am shocked beyond words. His mother died about a year ago. We were very close. He honoured Nigerian Community Germany Würzburg’s end-of-year party and gave us money. My children still have the toys he personally brought for them and and and…. oh death oh why?!” Godwin Ogbebor wrote in a spontaneous outburst of grief.
In a long elegy titled Ode to Dr Daniel Yakubu Kutchin, Prof Anyanwu Eberibe, a retired professor of medicine, wrote:
I felt a quake and a tsunami welling in my Eyes.
What is it, Danny Boy, Danny Man?
…
Few people there are, who put their energy where their mouth is.
You did. You were one of them.
While we miss you in our community
We remember you Daniel, Daniel Yakubu,
Dr Daniel Yakubu Kutchin
A commentator said the reaction of people who knew Dr Kutchin to his death shows again that “it’s good to be good”.
May the soul of Daniel Yakubu Kutchin rest in eternal peace.
Sola Jolaoso
