A shocking death and the will of God

How do you respond to the electrocution of a promising university undergraduate, a first-class material at that? You can say “it is God’s will” — as it is our custom in Nigeria — or you can say that once again, another light has been dimmed in clearly avoidable circumstances. Oluchi Anekwe, a 300-level accounting student of the University of Lagos, was killed on Tuesday when a naked wire fell on her from an electric pole. Since there was no natural disaster such as a storm, you get the sense that the deadly cable had been hanging dangerously for a while. It was somebody’s responsibility, I guess, to maintain those cables. The “somebody” failed in his duty and there are no consequences. Life goes on. We await the next electrocution, the next “God’s will”.

So, how many people have died needlessly in Nigeria? If someone illegally goes on an electric pole to tamper with the installation and gets electrocuted, we can say there was a trespass and a self-affliction. It is still not acceptable for any Nigerian to die carelessly — whether or not it is self-afflicted — but official negligence makes it all the more painful and we should, ordinarily, be full of regrets. Only God knows how many people have died from electrocution in Nigeria for reasons that are considered to be God’s will. The rain falls and a weak electric pole comes down on innocent road users or passers-by and send them to their early graves. It is “God’s will”. It is the will of God that people should be careless about their jobs and go away scot-free, right?

Could it be God’s will that people should do the right and sensible thing? To start with, cables are hardly laid over the ground these days. They are laid below the surface — like sewage and water pipes. It not only solves an aesthetic problem, it addresses a health and safety issue. I am shocked anytime I see newly developed areas in Nigeria still laying surface cables on rickety poles. Let us admit that the electric cables have been over the ground for decades and we can do nothing about that for now — but could it be God’s will that electricity officials who get paid to oversee the electric infrastructure should be diligent in enforcing and maintaining safety so that naked cables stop killing innocent Nigerians? How many people have to die before enough is enough?

Did you hear about the container that fell off a trailer and killed a family of three in Lagos recently? It was the will of God, I was told, because if God had not willed it, there was no way the accident could have happened. You know the line: were it not for God’s will, the container would have missed them by a few inches or they wouldn’t have been on the road at that time. It was their destiny. Do you know how many containers regularly fall off trailers and crush people to death in Nigeria? Do you know that the last one is not going to be the last one? Do you know that there are rare cases of such accidents in some other countries — countries where the name of God is used as a curse word or as a joke? Why should God decide to be killing his children in Nigeria with containers all the time?

I am wondering if it is God’s will that safety standards should be enforced on our roads by those who rule over us. I am wondering if it is God’s will that officials who certified a vehicle roadworthy should be called to account for their negligence after accidents. I am wondering if broken down vehicles should be left in the middle of the road at night. I am wondering if it is God’s will that our streetlights should work so that people will stop dying in avoidable accidents at night. I am wondering if it God’s will that our roads should be littered with potholes that serve as death traps, sending sorrows to homes on a daily basis. I am wondering if it God’s will that hospitals are ill-equipped and people die daily from treatable ailments.

Some years ago, a friend’s younger brother fell ill at midnight. He managed to get a neighbour’s car to take the brother to the hospital. He got to the gate of the estate and found it firmly locked. The security guard said they were under instruction not to open the gate until 6am. All pleadings fell on deaf ears. By the time somebody came to his senses and ordered the gate opened, it was too late. My friend’s sibling had died right in the vehicle — according to “God’s will”. If God did not want the brother to die, the conventional wisdom declares, the brother would not have fallen ill at night when the gates were locked. In fact, the brother would not have fallen ill at all. My friend was traumatised for years and eventually relocated from Nigeria, unable to overcome the devastation.

In godless countries, it is God’s will that there should be emergency services. It is God’s will that you dial a number at anytime of the day and the ambulance and paramedics show up. It is God’s will that life-threatening cases are treated without any pre-condition of making cash deposits. But in our godly country, it is God’s will, we are tutored, for bullet-wound victims to bleed to death. It is God’s will that accident victims are abandoned to die because there is nobody to guarantee payment of hospital bills. It is God’s will that our hospitals should be in a deplorable state, and the people who embezzled the funds and mismanaged the commonwealth are able to fly abroad for the best medical treatment, while the people are dying from typhoid and malaria.

An older friend of mine is diabetic. He had managed his condition very well for years, for at least 10 years, until one fateful day in 2011. His wife was having her birthday. He decided to surprise her by taking a gift to her at her shop somewhere in Mushin, Lagos. As he parked his car and made to walk up to the shopping complex with the surprise package in his hand, his leg got stuck between the failing concrete slabs on the gutter. A few weeks later, he had to have his right leg amputated from below the knee. He subsequently lost his job — as there is no protection for disabled people in Nigeria — and spent a fortune rehabilitating himself, setting himself up in business and buying a prosthetic leg. I am even not calculating the emotional cost to his life.

I was made to understand that it was “God’s will” for my friend to experience what he did. Some will even go to the extent that maybe he had committed a sin and God wanted to punish him. Maybe he had done some evil to some people and it was Karma time. And I was thinking: but could it also be God’s will that the local government should have maintained the gutters? Could it be God’s will that the same council that sends thugs to harass traders and motorists to extort all kinds of taxes and levies from them should also care a bit about the safety of citizens? Could it be God’s will that part of the millions of naira going into the coffers of councils should be spent on building a decent concrete slab on a gutter? Could it be God’s will for the government to take responsibility for its failings?

I understand God’s will in a simpler way: that is, I have done all that is humanly possible but still could not help the situation. I then surrender to the higher authority. If the electrecity officials had properly maintained the cables and there was a storm that caused Anekwe to be electrocuted, I will say: what more could human beings have done? If the officials responsible for maintenance are investigated and charged to court for negligence and manslaughter, I will say we are making every effort to enforce health and safety rules in Nigeria. But from all I can see, the tears in the eyes of the grief-stricken parents will still be fresh when another “God’s will” brings another loosely hanging cable down to kill another innocent Nigerian. You call that God’s will? Really?

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

ASSETS’ LIABILITY

PUNCH reported on Saturday that governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have made it clear that they will not publish their assets — unlike President Muhammadu Buhari. I’m not surprised. I have always maintained that APC is a coalition based on winning an election, not based on shared values or overriding principles. Many politicians simply rode on Buhari’s popularity to power in a mutually beneficial arrangement — otherwise known as “friends with benefits”. Yet some of these governors fiercely criticised ex-President Goodluck Jonathan for saying “I don’t give a damn” after criticisms of his no-disclosure stand. Hypocrisy.

SANI VS FAYOSE

Have you noticed an emerging subtext in the ongoing criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari by Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state? Senator Shehu Sani from Kaduna state has emerged as the counterweight. For every word against Buhari, he offers his own. I notice that the president does not spend time reacting to Fayose’s statements, and maybe Sani is the “talking head” arrangement or he is just trying to fill the gap as a volunteer. Whatever the case is, Nigerians are entitled to a decent debate full of facts and less of insults. As a journalist, I am having fun. Thrilling.

BOMBING IDPs

Wickedness, as it goes, does not have a code of conduct. It is impossible to understand why heartless terrorists will chase people from their homes and still pursue them to a camp to kill them. The killing of seven school children at the Malkohi camp of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Yola, Adamawa state, on Friday is yet another proof that we are not dealing with human beings. Attacking a church means nothing to them; bombing a mosque is pure routine; and now they pursue disoriented and displaced people to their camps and murder them in cold blood. Cruel.

FIRST WOMAN

Isn’t it heart-warming that Nigeria’s oldest bank, Firstbank, is about to have its first female chairperson in its 121 years of history? Mrs Ibukun Awosika, the chairperson-designate, is one Nigerian who does business with integrity and has proved herself to be an inspiration to Nigerian women. I’m very happy for her. My dream for Nigerian women is for them to break new grounds, to be given the opportunity to lead, to be respected for their brains, not just the beauty. When we look at the last 20 years, it has been a positive trajectory. Things can only get better. Encouraging.