DEATH MENACE IN UNIZIK: PAINS FELT, TEARS SHED BY GODSON UBAH

Death is a natural phenomenon in life. People die everyday, while
babies are born everyday as well, perhaps to balance the cycle.
However when it begins to occur more frequently in a community to the extent that it worries members of that community, then there is need for more attention to be drawn to the issue.
This is the case in Nnamdi Azikiwe University where the...
incessant
death of young blood and promising youths with promising future, has
continued to put wrinkles on the faces of the university community
especially the students. More fresh in memory is the more recent
occurrence where UNIZIK lost three zikites in the space of two weeks,
and more tears have continued to flow, more wailing heard everyday, as
the question on every lip is what is happening?

I lay down on the hospital bed and eventually, I never stood up from
it. I went to swim in the pool but I ended up at bottom of the pool. I
went out to play with friends and while at the field of events, I
breathe my last. It was my last breathe and I became no different from
those who died as a result of accidents both domestic and otherwise.
We ended up D-E-A-D.
The poem above is a brief illustration of some death tales that have
repeatedly found their way into the history book of NNAMDI AZIKIWE
UNIVERSITY, AWKA which is fondly referred to as UNIZIK or NAU. When I
first got admitted into UNIZIK, I remember we were greeted with an
address by the then fellowship executives of my department (Economics)
urged us to be prayerful because our faculty, as of 2009, had greater
tendency of losing at least one individual per department before a
session runs out as this was fast becoming a regular occurrence across
the various faculties. Not long after we received this admonition, a
student within our faculty who had just graduated with a high pointer
CGPA of which most individuals in his department speculated to be
"first class" had an accident and died while returning to school to
collect his call-up letter.
As freshers, we were soon to get used to the weeping, the mourning
and the wailing by course mates which had also become a ritual.
Suddenly, like wild fire the news of a first year law student who died
while playing soccer in the fields at Bakassi (UNIZIK) spread across
the school. This was followed by another shocking revelation of a boy
who had just been admitted same year (2009) and on his birthday, he
received a call and was informed that his parents had an accident in
which one of them died on the spot while the other survived but was in
a state of shock which eventually led to a stroke.
We had thought that was the end but by the end of second semester,
leaving aside the death of babies via abortion that had been on the
increase and the death of other students across faculties and
departments; yet another news spread forth across the campus of the
death of a student who had gone swimming with friends in one of the
hotels (name witheld) within awka. By the time his friends were about
to leave, he was nowhere to be found and they taught he probably left
the pool without letting them know. They never knew that he left them
indeed but to the great beyond as his body was later found in the pool
by the management of the Hotel.
I remember very well the story of a graduated student waiting for
call-up at Joy Hostel, Ifite who fell off the hostel top floor. It was
a pitiable story as one of his lodgemates shared the experience. In
2012, Chioma Obikel Nwosu (23 years old), a 400 level medical student
was shot dead by "armed robbers" on a Friday (August 31). She was
buried at her hometown on October 26, 2012.
Students in the C.E.P. were not left out as April 7, 2013 marked
the day that we lost Miss Annabelle, a CEP (part time) student of our
beloved citadel of learning. She had survived a fatal motor accident
along Benin-Ore road that claimed lots of lives, only to die in the
hospital where in she was admitted.
I know for sure that the incident of April 2013 is still fresh on our
minds but for those who might have forgotten, let me remind you: It
was the day a trailer that "failed brake" cleared all that was on its
way as it swerved to the side of the road close to UNIZIK JUNCTION in
the middle of individuals and vehicles killing between eleven to
thirteen people (the exact figure was not confirmed by authorities).
Not forgetting so soon names like Agoha gift of Engineering, Maryjane
of theatre arts department, Kingsley Ugwu of civil Engineering, to
mention but a few but we lost them all. Not too long ago, August 28,
2013, the faculty of social sciences got a shocker that Peter Ebere
aka Mandela, a 400 level student of sociology department passed on.
Still in the state of shock, yet another shocker came again and this
time around it was the news of a 200level Geology student, Ebere aka
"Dawgy" who died on Thursday, August 29, 2013, also on the 28th of
august, Anaeto Onyinye of history and international relations died,
and she will be buried on 28th september.
These events raise questions as to what is being done by instituted
authorities to safeguard the lives of the students, citing the earlier
case of the trailer accident that claimed several lives at
UNIZIKJUNCTION due to bad roads . Also there is a need to ask: what
are the Christian bodies on campus doing to cut down on the incessant
rate at which individuals die on campus regularly?
Based on what the state government did with respect to stopping the
highlighting of passengers off buses at UNIZIK JUNCTION, the
continued efforts of our Vice-cancellor, Prof. Egboka, to ensure that
the ELMANDA hostel is completed within the scheduled time-frame, there
is still need for more lifeguarding regulations along the roads and
strict implementation and as for the building project, though the
ELMANDA project is a nice one, not all can afford the fee currently
being paid and thus, for continuous and easy surveillance that will
reduce the mortality rate, it is necessary that room is given to more
private investors that will be willing to invest in the Hostel
building project in Unizik. The university authority should seek ways
on subsidizing the fee so as to attract more students to live on
campus rather than off campus. Such means could include aid by
philanthropists, extended length of payback period in terms of
contracts between the school and the investors.
For the religious arm, insider information lets us know that prayers
have intensified especially with respect to the JCCF prayer team. It
is also noteworthy that a student (who chooses anonymity with regards
to his details) had a revelation about the UNIZIK TRAILER CRASH
incident . He prayed about it alone and after on with his course
mates. According to him, "it probably would have been worse than what
was experienced if we had not prayed".
Despite all these things, all hands whether secular or religious must
come together in unity to fight this menace that seem to be eating the
very fabric of our existence. Thus, we need not forget to emulate the
steps of a set of students whose testimony have been a source of joy
to me because they are not all fully committed Christians yet they
embraced prayers for the whole class by the devout Christians amidst
them and the efforts of their course representative who ensured that
some of these devout Christians led the whole class in prayers at
least once every semester as they all committed and re-dedicated their
lives to GOD. They never lost a course mate to death from their first
year till they eventually graduated July this year (2013) from this
prestigious citadel of learning . I'm referring to the 2012/2013
graduated set of the department of ECONOMICS, UNIZIK, who began to
commit their lives to the safeguarding hands of GOD from the day of
their first examination paper (first semester - year one) and
continued this praying exercise even to the day they wrote their very
last examination in UNIZIK. Although this might have sounded a bit too
religious but that is not the case here.
The focal point here is if as a class, they did it continually and it
worked for them because they took it as the basis on which every other
safety measures hang on, then life or death, it's up to every
individual to choose what to believe in.

God help us all.