And A Man Died

“A Man Died" is the story of a nameless man who came to the world but had no record that he came and he departed without a record of his departure from this earth.

Huge gratitude to Professor Wole Soyinka, Africa's first Nobel laureate in literature for giving humanity a phrase that inspired the one I choose for this essay. Not exactly like his "The Man Died" which is an account of his prison experience during General Yakubu Gowon's regime. The man actually died, the man who was with Soyinka's team in his struggles against an impending civil war in 1967 Nigeria died, and so in this essay also "A Man Died" when Nigeria's disorganized environment and health system not only refused to care for him but treated him as never being a Nigerian at all.

“A Man Died" is the story of a nameless man who came to the world but had no record that he came and he departed without a record of his departure from this earth. He certainly has a name but he was called "Chairman" because he was the chairman in charge of security of his local place in a city that is large but still very rural. Everybody went to him for everything that needed to be ironed out. He reported to the magaji (traditional representative of the king in every small unit) of the area who does not live in the area over which he superintends. It is not likely that he was born in a government hospital and therefore could not have had the privilege of any record anywhere. Up till this year of the Lord twenty thousand and twenty-four, women who give birth still go to traditional midwives who are not trained but depend on juju ( magical power) to assist their clients in childbirth.

Sometimes some of the midwives are nurses in the government hospitals who do midwifery as part-time business in their houses that are not certified for that purpose. A woman for example went to one to deliver her child. She came back a few hours after she left home. We had heard she was going to a Maternity Center to deliver. She had told me a lie that she was registered in that Maternity Centre. They are quickly discharged without the necessary checks on mother and baby. 'Chairman' was probably born in that kind of facility. Like many who still patronize those places where their children have no official record, "A Man Died," had no record of his coming to motherearth. Why do people still use those facilities? The stories are very gory and they tell of the carelessness of the political class who govern hapless Nigerians. The hospitals are expensive and the people are poor. There are all manner of corruption in the hospitals. "If you don't give those nurses some money apart from the official fee, they can leave you to die while you are in labour," a woman told me. It is no lie, these women have seen many die through that corrupt system. So they prefer to go to quacks, who are half-educated but trained by medical doctors who use their services because they are cheap. The poor think they are trained nurses and so they patronize them because they are cheap and affordable.

These "nurses," so they call them are very popular and they have sent many pregnant women to their untimely graves. For the simplest ailment, the poor send for 'nurse' and she comes to give them prescription. Usually she prescribes injections which many of them prefer. Once injected or placed on a drip, they consider the sickness as grievous. "I almost died but for three sachets of water (that's what they call drip) 'nurse' gave me." Thus the "nurse" has become very popular. But who discovers the mistake of the "nurse"? Nobody. It was a nurse like that who caused the death of Mohbad; remember the young afro hip-hop singer who was said to have been injected with high dosage of a drug that killed him. A woman told me one of those quacks administered the drip on her and when she was almost passing out she pulled the drip out by herself. It had been wrongly fitted by the quack. That saved her from death. Yet they continue to invite "nurse" in spite of the risks. Why? Hospitals are expensive and corrupt and the poor are illiterate. Nobody cares about the existence of the poor. They are only relevant at election times when their number count for the politicians.

So "Chairman" died. 'A Man Died'. How did this man contact the ailment that sent him to the great beyond. He was in charge of the security of his area. He was a commercial motorcycle rider. He told me he used to be a contractor for the government. But while he superintended over the security of his area, a notorious gang took notice of him and had conflicts with him many times. He was lucky to escape many attacks planned to exterminate him, he told me. A youth who lives close to him attributed his escape to juju. No bullet shot at him can penetrate his body. The people in his area believe him, they believe he was invincible. But he ran out of luck on the day that the head of the notorious gang nicknamed "Ebila" was killed by soldiers who from stories from locals purposely came for him. The gangleader who also had the reputation that no bullet could penetrate his body fell to a hail of bullets from the lethal gun of a soldier.

It became a wonder to many that "Kabiyesi" (King) for so was "Ebila" also nicknamed, could die through a bullet. So the area became a Mecca of sorts for many who were curious to see the corpse of this young man who was thought to be invincible. 'A Man Died' was curious also to see the corpse of this notorious gangleader who had determined to kill him. He forced his way through the crowd who thronged the vicinity to catch a glimpse of the notorious gangleader. In the process of that, some of the gang members saw him and began to attack him. They used many objects to slash him but as the story goes, their instrument which includes machete, knives and woodsaw could not slash him. So one of them took a very big stone and hit it on the head of 'A Man Died' who fell immediately. A second stone that hit him could have killed him but some persons smuggled him away. Thereafter, he was advised to go to the hospital but he declined because the juju on him will disallow hypodermic needle to penetrate him. Another man reputed for juju came around to administer an antidote on him which has power to neutralize the anti-hypodermic needle juju power. Then he was ferried to a private hospital, one of those in the innercity that offers substandard services.

He was treated but he had developed symptoms of stroke. "It's like a stroke," he told me, when I visited him. By then he could hardly walk, he had lost mobility in one of his legs and had to summon all his strength to take a few steps. That was how he got into the trouble that after about four years took his life. His government had denied him the dignity of a standard medical attention. He was poor, at birth, his mother and father believed more in "nurse" and his government did nothing to help them to access standard healthcare. Attacked because he took up the role of organizing security in his environment, a duty which the government does not attend to, “A Man Died" was fatally wounded, yet unable to afford a government hospital, he ended in a substandard private hospital. It will be interesting to know that even to pay for the substandard medical attention many people in the area had to contribute some money. "A Man Died" nursed his ailment for four years, became so immobile that he urinated on his body constantly. Prior to his death, he had become bedridden. Eventually, he died and at death which everybody had expected and had prayed for because he had become a liability to poor family members and to neighbours, he left the mother earth without a record again.

In dying, "A Man Died" was denied good hospital treatment, he was allowed to waste away and subsequently died to relieve the family from the agony of waiting upon him. So "A Man Died" died again with no record of his death. No record anywhere of the man that hit him with stone on his head. That is the standard practice of his poor community. They fear the police and so prefer not to invite them when they have problems in the community. They know the police will "eat" from every crime reported to them. "Eat" is the local parlance for police extortion.

So "A Man Died" has no record of his birth, no record of the man that hit him on the head with a stone and began the process of his death and no record of his death. A grave quickly dug beside his father's grave which had been dug in front of the father's house became his lot to be dispatched to the world beyond. Most likely his father also suffered the same fate, no record that he came and departed. "A Man Died" passed away around 3 pm, and it fell on the youth of his area as the practice is to dig his grave, digging so lazily perhaps because it was a service that attracted no payment. The digging finished at 6:30 pm, far beyond the 4 pm limit that is allowed for dead Muslims to be interred . Well, thank goodness, Allah still hears the prayers made for men even after they are dead, "A Man Died" will be forgiven even for his late arrival in aljanah, Muslims' final place of rest after the sojourn on earth. The grave was dug about three yards from the well from which his immediate neighbours fetch water. It won't be a surprise if those neighbours drink water from that well. A young mother died in the house of "A Man Died;" the death was so traumatic, some neighbours felt she was killed because she died after she had just put to bed. Perhaps she drank contaminated water from the well near the grave from which microorganisms may had seeped from the decayed body into it. Every death is attributed to somebody. Everybody is killed because the cause of death is never investigated. Even if a medical cause is given still the people are always in denial and may not accept the medical report.

That is Nigeria; that is Oyo State, that is Ibadan, that is Kudeti, that is the residence of "A Man Died." Who knows how many a man must have died in a similar manner in those government- forsaken places all over Nigeria.

Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos