Sometimes you wonder how anyhowness is the ultimate process in Nigeria. But, every other day, we experience a neighbour, a family member, a cleric, a colleague or supervisor behave like there are no better processes that could prevent traumatic stories. What is most interesting is we move on too easily like it never happened. That’s a bigger issue, and will take years to bring back our already lost humanity.
In 2017, the Association of Campus Journalists at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, (ACJOAU) called on the authorities of the school to immediately check the deplorable conditions of the private hostels on campus, commonly called Maintenance Hall, where accommodation space costs average of one hundred thousand naira.
On February 9, 2022, five years later, the report from the hostel is the exact opposite of the name of the Hall.
Heritage, a student of OAU, died due to anyhowness, and this is not the first time a human being’s life has been taken due to negligence.
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In 2014, a nine-year-old child, identified simply as Riliwan, fell into a soak-away at Apata Street, Somolu area of Lagos and died on Thursday morning. Riliwan, a primary six pupil of a primary school in the area, was to attend his graduation ceremony that morning where he was billed to be given prizes for coming first in his class.
In 2019, at 1, Olusoga Street off Alafia Street in Mushin, a three-year-old son of a commercial motorcyclist (okada rider) got drowned in a soakaway. According to residents, the incident occurred when the toddler’s father wanted to put on a generator and he noticed the child following him. He instructed the boy to go back but just heard the sound of something falling inside the soakaway.
In 2021, a graduating student of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Asefon Nifemi Bernard, died after falling into a soakaway in his hostel. He was electrocuted trying to switch on a light bulb and fell.
Now, it’s Heritage, and there are no indications that we won’t hear more stories like that. Till the time of this piece, the soakaway has only been barricaded. There are no signs that the management of the Bver hostel, where Heritage resided, plan to cover the soakaway.
Heritage fell during the day and is reported to have spent about 60 minutes inside human waste, which she most likely ingested and led to her death. The shock of falling may have also caused her death.
Authorities are reported to have visited the scene and questioned the management of the Bver hostel. Police have also been stationed at the scene, but there’s nothing more.
We have been taught this same lesson severally in Nigeria, and should have used the experience to prevent subsequent deaths, but we prefer to take the anyhow way.
