NO MORE UNTIMELY DEATHS!! NOT ON MY WATCH!!!!

I remember the very first time i lost someone to death, it was my very good friend Funmilayo Akinola who passed away on the 25th of February 2004. Of all the pains that i have felt from birth till date, none compares to the pain of losing a loved one (you may not understand this if you haven't lost a loved one and i pray that the good lord will continually protect you and your loved ones that none of you will know the pain of untimely death).

Losing Funmi hurt even more because as at the time that she passed away we were not on talking terms, we fought over something that seems so trivial in retrospect. She gave me a music CD that belonged to her dad or someone who i cannot now remember, it was a CD by 'Michael learns to rock' and i fell in love with their music. She kept asking for it and i refused to give it back because i listened to it everyday (you see at that time CDs weren't sold for #150, you could only get original ones and they were too expensive for me to afford at the time). Eventually i gave it back to her but it was terribly scratched, so much so that no song played fully. She was pissed, i was pissed that she was pissed, i stayed pissed. I heard she was sick the week before but refused to go and visit her because i thought it was a trick. On the 25th of February 2004 i heard that she had passed on and i felt like i had lost a part of me, i did lose a part of me.

I was inspired to write this piece after reading about the 4 boys from Uniport murdered by the Aluu community. When we lose someone to death because they were sick, or they had an accident or some other cause we couldn't have helped ,we feel helpless, we cry tears because we have tried everything in our power but we have failed and death has taken away our special one.

It is different when we lose a person in circumstances that could have been avoided, like the 4 boys from UniPort, and the young people killed in the Mubi massacre and the countless Nigerians who have been killed senselessly by Boko haram and every other terrorist group that our society has permitted to exist. In cases like this our pain is stemmed in anger, anger because we may have been able to save their lives by our actions, by our words, by our love, but we failed them and our security agencies failed them and of course our darling 52 year old nation Failed to protect them. Yes, our blood boils in collective anger, but for how long and to what end?

I charge us to use our anger to make a change, a change that stems from loving our neighbours regardless of their tribal or religious affiliations. Change that makes us insist on doing the right thing and putting an end to corruption in our land.

A change that requires us to go out of our way to protect our neighbour when we see him being robbed in traffic instead of acting like we can't see anything. A change that permits us to report any evil we witness even when it doesn't directly concern us.

A change that helps us cultivate a giving culture, give to that beggar on the street, to the baby with a hole in her heart, pay a little extra to our drivers, nannies and house keepers because they too have needs that we must recognise.

A change that translates even into our politics, causing us to vote right, not for tribal reasons, or for sentimental purposes but simply because he/she is the right candidate to lead us.

Today i charge us to stand and pledge that we will protect ourselves and our neighbours in whatever way we can, even if it means protecting them from our government. I charge us to stand united as we stood in January for the fuel subsidy removal strike action. I charge us to stand tall, and united and say, NO MORE UNTIMELY DEATHS if i can help it, NOT ON MY WATCH!!!