The news came to me like a thunderstorm. I could not believe it. The questions I asked repeatedly were, when did it happen? Where did it happen? What caused it? Did the bus somersault? Did the brake fail? These were the questions I asked my brother and friend, Hon. Ifeanyi Njoku, who broke the news of the sudden death of five (NANS) leaders via Short Message Services (SMS).
I received the message which reads “Sir on behalf of Imo youths, I, with deep sense of sorrow announce to you the death of Donald Onukaogu, NANS Senate President from Ezinihitte Mbaise LGA, Imo State, a student of FUTO. He died this morning (Thursday) alongside other student union leaders on their way to Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. May their souls rest in peace as w console their families and National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) signed Ifeanyi Njoku from office of the deputy governor of Imo State”. Immediately after reading it, I rushed to the convenience, used water to wash my face and rushed back to the news room, took my cell phone and re-read the message over and over again. Tears started flowing from my eyes. I could not believe it. It is a lie, that was what I told one of my colleagues, Mrs. Chinwe Uzoeshi who was in the newsroom with me when the bad news came. In order to confirm the information, I put a call to Hon Ifeanyi Njoku who answered me with a broken voice, hear him, “my brother, Chidiebube, it is true, Donald, the NANS Senate President and other student leaders are dead. They died this morning in Umuahia on their way to UniUyo. I immediately ended the call. With curiosity, I called the National President of National Association of Imo State Students (NAISS), Comrade Madunezim Chukwuma, who did not answer my calls, I kept on calling the number, until he answered, as if he knew what I wanted to ask him, he said, “Comrade, five NANS student leaders are dead, as I speak to you, I am in Umuahia, making sure that the survivors receive adequate treatment”, that was when I knew that indeed calamity has struck again the Nigerian students.
Reports have it that five, out of twelve NANS members died in the auto crash along Umuahia-Ikot-Ekpene Road, in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. An eyewitness recounted that a MAN, Diesel feet trailer, marked XX 26OEKY rammed into NANS unmarked. 18-seater Innoson bus; killing the driver and three other persons on the spot while the driver of the trailer was trying to avoid a pot-hole.
That is it, the students died in their prime, on their way to UniUyo to calm the crisis in the institution. I blame the death of the youths on the insensitivity of the Nigerian leaders. It is most unfortunate that Nigeria is still baffling with bad road network after over fifty years of nationhood and the so called fourteen years of uninterrupted democracy.
Had the Nigerian leaders done what is right, the accident would have been averted. The trailer driver was trying to avoid a pot-hole before it rammed into NANS unmarked bus, sending the youths to their early graves. What a pity? My God! Is it how this country will make headway? Is it how the youths will take over the mantle of leadership of this country? Each time, the political leaders keep telling the youths that they are the leaders of tomorrow. But a situation whereby the youths are killed in their prime, bombed in the North, shortchanged, no job opportunities, the entire system is unfavourable for the youths to grow. Then how will youths take over the leadership? Somebody should answer me.
The leaders conspire to make sure that the youths are given half-baked education, while they send their children to abroad to study, yet the youths are told that they are the leaders of tomorrow and the government has better plans for the youths. Better plans, my foot.
Had the leaders done things right, thousands of Nigerians students who are being killed on regular basis would have still been living. Before now, it was four students of Uniport, who were killed in a jingle justice. Also, students were killed in Adamawa in their various hostels sometime this year. While students also get their lives cut short while on one year compulsory National Youth Service Corps, programme.
Out of the five students who I learnt, their corpses have been deposited at Aladinma mortuary, Owerri, Donald Onukaogu, the NANS Senate President and Duru Jacob, Assistant Secretary General, NANS, Zone B, were from Imo State. While Onukaogu hailed from Ezinihitte Mbaise LGA, Duru was. from Ikeduru LGA. Also when four students of Uniport were killed, one of them was a native of Obowo LGA of the state. It seems Imo is the worst hit on students death incidences. Imo students should pray and seek the face of God. Such an ugly thing should not happen again.
Now five young Nigerians, full of life are gone to the land of no return. If anybody had told them that they would die on that day, they would have beaten that person, likewise myself. In the spirit of Comradeship, the NANS leaders wanted to go to UniUyo to calm the situation but they couldn’t succeed, they died on their way to resolve the crisis.
The students could not have died if our security operatives had done things the right way. How in God’s name will police men use live bullets on students who were on a peaceful protest to the Vice Chancellor of the institution over issues that have to do with their welfare in the institution? But the students have right to protest when they think that they are being shortchanged, provided they do it in an orderly manner. Why did the police shoot them?
The registrar of UniUyo, Mrs. Edak Umondak, was angry with policemen for using live bullets on students who were on a peaceful protest which led to the death of one student. The registrar also alleged that the police would have shot her. Hear her, “I thought the police bullets had hit me, I didn’t know when my colleagues whisked me away barefooted”. She continued “it was a surprise because we identified ourselves, yet the police were adamant and still hit our car. The school authority did not authorize any policeman to shot any student not to talk of using live bullets”.
The Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) University of Uyo branch, Mr. Anyim Nwachukwu confirmed that the police used live bullets on the students. Mr. Nwachukwu who was angry with the police said that the action was uncalled for. But the AkwaIbom State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Umar Gwadabe did not see anything wrong in the police using live bullets on armless and innocent students who were lawfully protesting what the tagged the unfriendly transportation policy of the Vice Chancellor of the institution.
That is the problem with the Nigerian police. I don’t know when the police in this country will ever change. It is quiet unfortunate that police could decide to shoot students who were on peaceful protest. Unconfirmed source says that three students were killed. Are we in democracy or autocracy? This is not the first time the police would be said to have shot people, mostly students who were on peaceful protest. Yet the authority in the Nigerian police force will defend the action of the police, just like Mr. Gwadabe did in regard to the UniUyo crisis.
If the police in Akwa-Ibom had realized that Nigeria is not practising autocracy ad done things the right way, the protest could not have escalated. And the NANS leaders wouldn’t have died on the way to remedy the situation.. Now youths, who are the pride of their various families and the nation. The police have brought sorrow to many families as a result of their overzealousness. Legally, what the police were supposed to do was to guild them against being violent. They would have used tear gas to scare them away. God, what manner of policemen do we have in Nigeria? Why are people who do not know what the police force is all about being recruited into the force?
While the real criminals are allowed to walk the streets free, innocent students are being killed. What a country. The police need to change. We must not continue like this. There is no way we can make headway in Nigeria, if the police keep on doing things the wrong way. The strength of every nation, is the youths. Our youths must be cared for, the youths must not be killed by those who are constitutionally required to protect them. The police need re-orientation, training and retraining.
Those police men who used live bullets on the protesting students should be dismissed from the force. They should equally be tried before a court of competent jurisdiction. The House of Representatives should swing into action. The police force was set up to save lives and not to waste them. My heart bleeds, I cannot withhold my tears. The death of the five NANS leaders should be blamed on the police who were supposed to calm the situation instead of worsening it.
While we mourn the death of the student leaders, we pray God to give the bereaved families who have lost their promising children to death the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss. It is my prayer that leaders in Nigeria should start doing things the right way. Our roads should be improved. That was why I laughed when the Minister of Works, Arch Mike Onolomemen said that the Nigerian roads are in good conditions. If the statement was true, why then are there potholes which resulted in the death of the young students? The accident would have been averted if the roads were in good condition. No amount of compensation will equal the worth of human life but the federal and state governments should help the affected families in order to cushion the sorrow of the unfortunate incident.
Comrade Chidiebube Okeoma, an activist journalist and social commentator, writes from Owerri, Imo State.
