Senate President David Mark joined other politicians yesterday to mourn the death of Senator and former Minister of Works Isaiah Balat, 62, who died yesterday at the National Hospital in Abuja of complications following a leg injury.
Mark’s Special Advisor on Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan, revealed that the Senate President “literarily broke down in tears when the news of the untimely death of Balat filtered into town," and described him as an astute politician, a respectable colleague and a gentleman.
"We shall miss his candour, his frank and honest dispositions to national issues," he said, and prayed that God will grant his family and the people of Kaduna State the fortitude to bear the loss.
Kaduna State’s former Governor, Sen. Ahmed Makarfi described the death of Balat, who was a Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, as "very shocking and unbelievable."
The former Minister of Aviation, Mr Felix Hyat, said that “the news took me by surprise. Balat was a hard fighter, and represented a ray of hope to his people in the south of Kaduna State.”
Governor of Kaduna State Mukhtar Yero said “this unfortunate demise of the late Senator Balat is coming at a time that our state and indeed the entire country needed his experience and patriotic zeal the most. We have lost a rare gem, who dedicated his lifetime to the service of fatherland and humanity.”
Born in Gora-Bafai, in the Zango-Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna, Balat was a businessman and politician who was the chairman of the Katsina Steel Rolling Mill in 1980, former chairman of the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KADCCIMA) and a former council member of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE).
He was appointed Minister of State for Works and Housing in 1999 and later became the Senator representing the Southern Kaduna zone. In 2011, he was appointed Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties.
He is survived by two wives, five children and parents.
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