A shocking death and the will of God

A Shocking Death and the Will of God
Simon Kolawole
How do you respond to the electrocution of a
promising university undergraduate, a first-class
material at that? You can say "it is God's will" — as it
is our custom in Nigeria — or you can say that once
again, another light has been dimmed in clearly
avoidable circumstances. Oluchi Anekwe, a 300-level
accounting student of the University of Lagos, was
killed on Tuesday when a naked wire fell on her from
an electric pole. Since there was no natural disaster
such as a storm, you get the sense that the deadly
cable had been hanging dangerously for a while. It
was somebody's responsibility, I guess, to maintain
those cables. The "somebody" failed in his duty and
there are no consequences. Life goes on. We await
the next electrocution, the next "God's will".
So, how many people have died needlessly in Nigeria?
If someone illegally goes on an electric pole to tamper
with the installation and gets electrocuted, we can say
there was a trespass and a self-affliction. It is still not
acceptable for any Nigerian to die carelessly —
whether or not it is self-afflicted — but official
negligence makes it all the more painful and we
should, ordinarily, be full of regrets. Only God knows
how many people have died from electrocution in
Nigeria for reasons that are considered to be God's
will. The rain falls and a weak electric pole comes
down on innocent road users or passers-by and send
them to their early graves. It is "God's will". It is the
will of God that people should be careless about their
jobs and go away scot-free, right?
Could it be God's will that people should do the right
and sensible thing? To start with, cables are hardly
laid over the ground these days. They are laid below
the surface — like sewage and water pipes. It not only
solves an aesthetic problem, it addresses a health and
safety issue. I am shocked anytime I see newly
developed areas in Nigeria still laying surface cables
on rickety poles. Let us admit that the electric cables
have been over the ground for decades and we can do
nothing about that for now — but could it be God's will
that electricity officials who get paid to oversee the
electric infrastructure should be diligent in enforcing
and maintaining safety so that naked cables stop
killing innocent Nigerians? How many people have to
die before enough is enough?
Did you hear about the container that fell off a trailer
and killed a family of three in Lagos recently? It was
the will of God, I was told, because if God had not
willed it, there was no way the accident could have
happened. You know the line: were it not for God's
will, the container would have missed them by a few
inches or they wouldn't have been on the road at that
time. It was their destiny. Do you know how many
containers regularly fall off trailers and crush people to
death in Nigeria? Do you know that the last one is not
going to be the last one? Do you know that there are
rare cases of such accidents in some other countries
— countries where the name of God is used as a curse
word or as a joke? Why should God decide to be killing
his children in Nigeria with containers all the time?
I am wondering if it is God's will that safety standards
should be enforced on our roads by those who rule
over us. I am wondering if it is God's will that officials
who certified a vehicle roadworthy should be called to
account for their negligence after accidents. I am
wondering if broken down vehicles should be left in the
middle of the road at night. I am wondering if it is
God's will that our streetlights should work so that
people will stop dying in avoidable accidents at night. I
am wondering if it God's will that our roads should be
littered with potholes that serve as death traps,
sending sorrows to homes on a daily basis. I am
wondering if it God's will that hospitals are ill-equipped
and people die daily from treatable ailments.
Some years ago, a friend's younger brother fell ill at
midnight. He managed to get a neighbour's car to take
the brother to the hospital. He got to the gate of the
estate and found it firmly locked. The security guard
said they were under instruction not to open the gate
until 6am. All pleadings fell on deaf ears. By the time
somebody came to his senses and ordered the gate
opened, it was too late. My friend's sibling had died
right in the vehicle — according to "God's will". If God
did not want the brother to die, the conventional
wisdom declares, the brother would not have fallen ill
at night when the gates were locked. In fact, the
brother would not have fallen ill at all. My friend was
traumatised for years and eventually relocated from
Nigeria, unable to overcome the devastation.
In godless countries, it is God's will that there should
be emergency services. It is God's will that you dial a
number at anytime of the day and the ambulance and
paramedics show up. It is God's will that life-
threatening cases are treated without any pre-
condition of making cash deposits. But in our godly
country, it is God's will, we are tutored, for bullet-
wound victims to bleed to death. It is God's will that
accident victims are abandoned to die because there
is nobody to guarantee payment of hospital bills. It is
God's will that our hospitals should be in a deplorable
state, and the people who embezzled the funds and
mismanaged the commonwealth are able to fly abroad
for the best medical treatment, while the people are
dying from typhoid and malaria.
An older friend of mine is diabetic. He had managed
his condition very well for years, for at least 10 years,
until one fateful day in 2011. His wife was having her
birthday. He decided to surprise her by taking a gift to
her at her shop somewhere in Mushin, Lagos. As he
parked his car and made to walk up to the shopping
complex with the surprise package in his hand, his leg
got stuck between the failing concrete slabs on the
gutter. A few weeks later, he had to have his right leg
amputated from below the knee. He subsequently lost
his job — as there is no protection for disabled people
in Nigeria — and spent a fortune rehabilitating himself,
setting himself up in business and buying a prosthetic
leg. I am even not calculating the emotional cost to
his life.
I was made to understand that it was "God's will" for
my friend to experience what he did. Some will even
go to the extent that maybe he had committed a sin
and God wanted to punish him. Maybe he had done
some evil to some people and it was Karma time. And
I was thinking: but could it also be God's will that the
local government should have maintained the gutters?
Could it be God's will that the same council that sends
thugs to harass traders and motorists to extort all
kinds of taxes and levies from them should also care a
bit about the safety of citizens? Could it be God's will
that part of the millions of naira going into the coffers
of councils should be spent on building a decent
concrete slab on a gutter? Could it be God's will for
the government to take responsibility for its failings?
I understand God's will in a simpler way: that is, I have
done all that is humanly possible but still could not
help the situation. I then surrender to the higher
authority. If the electricity officials had properly
maintained the cables and there was a storm that
caused Anekwe to be electrocuted, I will say: what
more could human beings have done? If the officials
responsible for maintenance are investigated and
charged to court for negligence and manslaughter, I
will say we are making every effort to enforce health
and safety rules in Nigeria. But from all I can see, the
tears in the eyes of the grief-stricken parents will still
be fresh when another "God's will" brings another
loosely hanging cable down to kill another innocent
Nigerian. You call that God's will? Really?