WHO KILLED MAYOWA? A TIME TO SERVE THE DINNER OF BLAMES
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No doubt, the University of Ibadan is presently on fire. We, the students have been on an “aggressive” protest for over 15 hours over the death of one of us, Alaran Muslihudeen Mayowa. Alaran Mayowa was a 200 level student of the department of Human Kinetics, Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan. He was reported to have been watching the Barcelona and Bayern match yester night at the Independence Hall Junior Common Room when he slumped and became unconscious. It was reported that a call was put across to the University Health Centre (also known as Jaja Clinic) requesting for ambulance to convey him from the Hall to the clinic, unfortunately, the response from the Jaja clinic was that there was no driver to drive the ambulance. The students having applied all necessary first aid did all their best to convey the deceased down to Jaja Clinic in another student’s car. It should be noted that contrary to some reports that Mayowa died before getting to Jaja Clinic, he was actually conveyed to the clinic alive! (That fact should be established for posterity sake). At the clinic, the health workers refused to properly attend to Mayowa while they insisted on finding out his Clinic Identity Card (Jaja Card) before commencing treatment. While on this sluggish adventure, Mayowa finally gave up the ghost. He lost his life as a person that had the chance to be saved but that was refused the gift of life through negligence. He died as another casualty that must be sacrificed on the altar of societal ills. Mayowa died while struggling to live…
Eleven hours after his death, my Muslim brothers were quick to conclude that the owner of life has taken it. They said God has taken the soul away and there’s nothing we can do to bring him back. They said Mayowa died according to what God has planned for him. In as much as we are trying to rest the matter with the Creator, we should be conscious of the fact that as human beings, we do have our own free will, our istata ‘a. Though God has the final authority over the existence of our soul, yet, he has given us the freewill to choose between right and wrong such that whatever things we have decided to choose, we must be ready to take full responsibility thereof (Q. 17 vs 13-15). It is settled that God has taken the soul of our brother but then, we must also know that that the Health workers at the Jaja clinic in their freewill have decided to be negligent in their duties, out of their own volition, they’ve decided to breach the duty of care owed to Mayowa. Theirs is an action and the reaction to the responsibility for that negligence is what they must be ready to bear. The Quran was explicit on the difference between negligence and mistake (Q. 33 vs 5 and 2 vs 286). Therefore, whenever we try to look at Mayowa’s death from a fatalistic point of view, we should not close our eyes to the human-factor that facilitated it and we should not hesitate to point fingers and makes everyone answer for their actions.
The University community is presently mourning the death of Mayowa. For the past 15 hours, students have been protesting against the school management over what they refer to as “injustice”. But before we continue to shed our crocodile tears over the deceased, I think it will be proper for us to provide answer(s) to a certain fundamental question, and that question, greatest uites, is “Who killed Mayowa?”
The killer is not the person that replied that first phone call that there was no driver to drive the ambulance. Those who killed Mayowa are not only the heartless health workers who have placed importance over a mere card at the expense of his life. The killers are not only the students who have to finish that Barcelona and Bayern match even when death lurked behind their friend. The killers are not only the robots who have developed such a strong shield against all human emotions to have pitied the poor lad at the point of struggling with his death. They are not only those who have merely cleaned his mouth of foam when they should be giving him a proper medical care. They are not only those who have chosen to be indifferent while death took him away.
The killers of Mayowa are not only the IBEDC who have decided to “hold power” that very night. They are not only the Maintenance workers who have refused to power the generator for whatever reason they might have had only to restore the electricity after his death. They are not only the leaders who have decided to underfund the University such that tens of students have to stuff themselves inside a small room to watch football matches.
Those who killed Mayowa are not only the students and staffs who have been victims of poor services in Jaja Clinic before yesterday and yet have decided to keep quiet. The killers of Mayowa are not only those who have lost their loved ones to the negligence of Jaja health workers and yet have decided to attribute their deaths to God. The killers of Mayowa are not only those who have always remained silent whenever Jaja Clinic turned them back on the basis that they had no Jaja Card. Those who have had to wait for a long time before being attended to and yet have done nothing afterwards, are also among his killers. His killers are also those people who have always been instructed to go and get their own drugs from pharmacist stores in Agbowo and have always done so without raising a question. The killers of Mayowa are the students and members of staff who have taken too much “egbin ati iwosi” from the Health workers in Jaja and have decided just to move on.
Their hands are also stained with Mayowa’s blood, those students’ leaders who have refused to push for the resuscitation of the “Health Post” system and also those of the school administrators who have refused to see the merit and need in that resuscitation. The killers of our brother are not only Adewole and his people in the Ivory Tower who have refused to reform the University Health Services. Those who kill him are not only the docile students’ leaders who remained indifferent when that small girl was electrocuted by open cables at Computer Science Department last year; when that lady died two days before Xmas as a result of panic of rushing down to write some tests. The killers are also the students who have refused to protest all along against erratic power supply and shortage of water (potable or not) in some halls of residence.
Mayowa killed himself by staying further to watch that match even when he knew he’s suffocating …
As strange as it is, there are some people who voted for ineptitude and mediocrity. There are some people that voted based on the “fineness” of aspirants and that of their posters; the people that allowed themselves to be used as pawns by some political gods wielding religious might; they, who turned our Union to a money-making venture; the godfathers; and those who hid behind the façade of power to alter the students’ votes. These people should also be held responsible for the death of my brother, Mayowa.
Whether you believe it or not, some people still went further to kill Mayowa after his death. These are the people that benefitted from his death. These are the people that turned his death to a festival of advancing selfish entreaty. All those that refused to come out for the protest to register their dissatisfaction. They are the ones who upon drumming for a protest led us into a war bereft of clear-cut purposes. These are also the people who used the protest to advance their political slogans and campaign hashtags. These are the people that killed Mayowa after his death. The Vice Chancellor and other principal officers that failed to pacify and address the students blocking the Mokola-Ojoo-UI road. All the people present at the inconclusive congress; all these people should be held accountable for Mayowa’s untimely death.
Mayowa was killed and we are all responsible for the killing. We are all the killers, we all sapped out life from the poor fellow, bit by bit, till he gave up the ghost. We all killed him through our actions and inactions, deliberate or otherwise. Who killed Mayowa? We all did, we all killed him.
PS. To the wounded “heroes” of today’s struggle represented by the indisposed Huntersola and the likes of us that sustained cracked voices and serious headaches, may God overlook the murder we just committed and restore our strength. Amen.
PSS. Yes! We all killed him and if we should fail in this struggle to rectify the ills in the University Health system , then, we would have succeeded in not only killing him but also in erasing his memories.
*Originally posted on Facebook on the 7th of May, 2015
[author ]Oredola Ibrahim is the erstwhile Editor-In-Chief of the Union of Campus Journalists, University of Ibadan.[/author]
