By Lillian Okenwa
The elevator of the General Hospital, Odan in Lagos State Nigeria has been reportedly faulty since 2018. It is incontrovertible that the hospital like other government bodies receives monetary allocations to run its affairs. It is also not in doubt that there is a head of maintenance in that hospital but typically, government institutions in Nigeria are poorly supervised. And a lot of times as in this case, people die.
A social media post aptly captured the loss of Dr. Vwaere:
“And We Lost Dr. Vwaere to Nigeria’s Anyhowness.”
According to the post. “When Dr. Vwaere was being inducted as a Nigerian doctor after her six-year sojourn at Babcock University last year, she had high hopes and expectations.
“She had hopes for a flourishing medical career.
“Expectations to use her newly learned medical skills to benefit the community and society at large.
“Training a child at a Babcock medical college is quite expensive and does not come cheap.
“3.5 million per annum for school fees alone during her time; it is now 6.5 million per annum, but her parents did it because they wanted to give the best to their daughter and then to avoid the anyhowness in the Nigerian university ecosystem.
“Post-induction, Dr. Vwaere got a place to do her internship at General Hospital (Odan, Lagos Island), a facility owned by the Lagos State Government.
“Before Dr. Vwaere joined the General Hospital as a student doctor, it was noticed by the resident doctors and staff of the hospital that the only elevator at the hospital had been in bad shape since 2018 and then there was no running water in the hospital.
“But because of Nigeria’s anyhowness, one big madam, or Oga, siphoned or embezzled the money meant to replace the elevator while patchy work was done at the elevator to serve as a temporary respite, endangering people’s lives in the process and turning deaf ears to the genuine complaints by resident doctors at the hospital.
“The elevator was so bad that it stopped at intervals, and you had to manually use your hand to close it in order to continue your journey.
“The carelessness, wickedness, and anyhowness culture we have here have finally ended the journey and the dreams of Dr. Vwaere.
“Just like the rest of us, Dr. Vwaere woke up today with bright hopes for the month of August.
“She was upbeat for one reason: her housemanship at General Hospital (Odan, Lagos Island) was finally coming to an end.
“She had less than two weeks to round up.
“She went to work excited that she has less than 2 weeks to complete her housemanship.
“And this afternoon, a dispatch rider who brought the food she ordered online called her on the phone to let her know that he was around.
“Since she was free, she elected to go and pick the food herself from the ground floor where the dispatch rider was, and on her way to meet the dispatch rider,
“She entered the faulty elevator.
“And then disaster struck.
“The elevator fell from the 10th floor, where she was, to the ground with a loud thud that shook the foundation of the hospital.
“Even the dispatch rider who was waiting at the entrance of the elevator thought that Armageddon was here when he heard the noise, so the man ran for his dear life.
“It took one hour before Dr. Vwaere was rescued from the debris of what was once the elevator.
“She was still alive, though badly injured, and was bleeding when she was brought out and rushed to the emergency section of the hospital.
“And from multiple accounts of those who witnessed the surreal drama
“Dr. Vwaere was crying that she did not want to die; even while stuck in the elevator for hours, she was crying for help.
‘I don’t want to die; help me,’ she cried nonstop.
“She cried that she wanted to live and not die, but her desire to live was truncated by Nigeria’s anyhowness, which snuffed the life out of her.
“Again, Nigeria’s anyhowness kicked in and deprived her of this chance to live.
“She was taken to the emergency section of the hospital, but after another delay because there was no blood,
“That was how Dr. Vwaere gave up the ghost.
“The young lady died just like that.
“Corruption kills, and this is another part of corruption we don’t discuss well enough.
“We just lost Dr. Vwaere because of that hydra-headed monster and Nigeria’s culture of anyhowness.
“I am visibly upset as I’m writing this.
“This is not right.
“We can’t continue like this.
“We can’t continue living like this, like animals.
“For how long will we continue to tolerate losing our best and brightest to this culture of mediocrity?
“Nigeria keeps devouring its youth.
“Nigeria failed Dr. Vwaere; may her innocent blood spilled for no reason haunt and punish those criminals who embezzled the money meant for a new elevator.”
Just before she died, Dr. Chinelo Megafu tweeted that she had been shot, calling for prayers. She died from terrorists’ bullets during the 28 March 2022 terrorists attack on an Abuja–Kaduna train. Dr Chinelo a brilliant and bright dental surgeon was billed to travel abroad shortly to further her medical career having performed excellently in her exams. She had gone to Abuja to pick up her referral letter from the National Hospital, where she did internship and also Kaduna where she did National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and worked briefly. Many other shining lights and hapless Nigerians were swallowed up by that terror attack. Till date no one has been found culpable. No arrest was ever made. Nobody was ever made to account for that monumental waste of Nigerians.
A Superintendent of Police, Goddy Ihende, told a Lagos State High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square that a driver of the Lagos Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Andrew Ominikoron, who allegedly raped and murdered his passenger, Oluwabamise Ayanwole (Bamise), always raped his victims in secluded places.
Just before the cover-up commenced, Andrew Nice the bus driver revealed that the 22-year-old Bamise was raped before being murdered. Reacting to the intrigue, rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun Oluwa Adegboruwa in a statement, accused the Lagos State Government of attempting to cover up Bamishe’s rape and murder insisting that the federal authorities should take over investigations into the rape, abduction and death. The statement reads:
“Events unfolding concerning the murder of Miss Oluwabamishe Ayanwole are as intriguing as they are worrisome. Following public outcry and media monitoring, the Lagos State Government hurriedly packaged the Bus Rapid Transfer driver for media interview, to give the impression that he was innocent of the crime,” he said.
“Some further revelations have now thrown up very serious questions that the Lagos State Government must answer, if it is not covering up this dastardly act of daylight murder.
In a homicide matter of this magnitude, how can a prime suspect who was declared missing, be handed over to government by the security agencies?
“A video of his initial arrest showed that the driver confessed to having carnal knowledge of the deceased, in very remorseful fashion. He was dressed in shabby and disheveled attire, truly reflecting his fugitive status as of the time of his arrest.
“Who then packaged a crime suspect, to turn out clean shaven, dressed in specially designed Lagos State Government outfit and now well tutored to claim innocence to set up the cock and bull story of hijack?
“Why was Lagos State Government romancing a murder suspect?
“And why was he paraded on a selected media of TV Continental, over which Lagos State has influence through patronage?
“What is the business of Lagos State in the interrogation of a murder suspect?
“The Commissioner of Police had earlier addressed the press to the extent that the suspect had confessed to the crime before Lagos State emerged with the latter James Bond storyline.
“What interest is the government serving to cover up a clear case of blue murder?
“Has there been other cases of ritual killings in BRT buses to which the government has become accustomed?
“Why will a driver whose bus was hijacked and has thus become a victim himself then bolt away for days without reporting to his employers?
“Your employee that was trusted with human carriage took your citizen who boarded the bus innocently based on trust that it’s a government outfit, your driver allegedly saw the citizen abducted, your driver drove the bus to you, he did not report the incident but handed over the bus and disappeared and after public outcry, he was apprehended and all you do is dress him up for press interview to lie to the public, after killing an innocent girl?
“What kind of government will do this wickedness and expect to earn the trust of its people?
“It will be a sad day for humanity in general for a responsible government to stoop so low to try to cover up a clear case of murder, just for public relations. It is unthinkable that Governor Babajide Sanwoolu that we know would be a party to this nonsense story of hijack, which does not add up at all.
“It is clear that the Lagos State police command cannot be trusted to handle this case, given that it surrendered a murder suspect still under investigation to the Lagos State Government for media packaging.
“I, therefore, urge the federal government and the Inspector-General of Police to take over this investigation immediately, before the case is completely compromised.”
What about Gideon Hagack whose victory was hijacked after he won the Milo International Marathon in Lagos on October 9, 1994? Thankfully he survived it. “While still dressed in his running gear, he was arrested for cheating, held in jail, and had his career irreparably damaged,” wrote Oluwashina Okeleji in Aljazeera on 22 July 2023.
Continuing, Okeleji said: “Hagack was whisked away to what he initially assumed was a private reception at Government House. After waiting there for six hours, shivering and famished in his drenched running garb, he was accused of cheating and his immediate detention was ordered by the governor…
“Following the formation of an independent panel of sports administrators that placed the burden of proof on the accusers, the AFN was subsequently unable to prove their case and Hagack was officially exonerated by the panel in early November 1994.”
When will people be held accountable for gross negligence and crimes in Nigeria? The real perpetrators; not their alter egos or petty criminals. W that ever happen?
May Nigeria not happen to you.
