Epitaph to Shanono

We had barely grappled with the smothering unease that accompanied the news that you were the only one that could not be found among a host of other brothers innocently stranded in the midst of a fierce clash. We waited subsisting on a thin strand of hope that you were alive and could not reach out to us considering the precarious nature of the unfortunate situation. A hope that was utterly stashed when we were told the heartrending news that your body was found among the mutilated corpses of other innocent victims of the gruesome massacre, and we wondered, ‘what manner of human minds would slay the innocent and still deny them even the token courtesy of leaving their bodies inviolate? How could a human heart be plunged into such an unholy depth of obsession with savage devilry?’

You and the many other deceased had absolutely nothing to do with the wanton feud of your infamous murderers who obviously are a cesspool of our misdirected polity. You are a law-abiding citizen who had chosen to study medicine to redeem the squalid plight of your people and earn a decent living. The searing passion of comradeship you flawlessly embody had made you dare the many life-threatening miseries that prevail upon our roads in pursuit of our rightful position as stakeholders in the affairs of our country. What a whopping irony that you had to breath your last in the midst of the public? We are inclined to lament that if only our ostensible statesmen had cared to identify, at least, with the most basic of their numerous derelict statutory responsibilities than being assiduously preoccupied with courting vendetta and mayhem, you will be alive and in our midst today serving the lofty virtues humanity holds dear and fanning the embers of hope to your people. No religious or philosophical belief that boasts of a spectre of conscience can justify your murder because your only crime was that you were born in your country and had decided to fulfil the herculean responsibilities your people entrusted in you. The blood-soaked soil itself fervently testifies your innocence.

To many, your death may be just another headline, but to us, it is an irredeemable desecration of innocence that casts an indelible hideous scar on our psyche. Our training as medical students reminds us each day of the evanescent nature of life and its challenges but your death, no doubt, shall haunt our minds till the day we meet ours. Losing you truly transcends an eclipse of the heart as no words can paint an accurate portrait of the soulful gloom it leaves us with. It can only be likened to the agony of a mother that helplessly watched the slaughter of her child on a pharaoh’s tyrannical directive. Your dear parents, who have hoped you will look after them the same way they nurtured you to a full grown man, were left with the ignominy of watching you lowered several feet down the earth; wishing they could change places with you.

Your handsome face that graced the mosque, wards, lecture halls and hostel is now an apparition. The merriment your athletic frame stirred in the pitch we can now only reminisce. Gone is the mirth of friendship we relished through the thorny journey of life. Gone to the abyss of memory is your voice. You saw hope when everyone despaired and dithered. You had set high targets and pursued them gallantly to the moment of fruition inspiring many to believe in the power of their potentials. You are, without the slightest doubt, a national leader in the making.

Your martyrdom is a testimony to the travesty of governance and the anarchical state of our country, and indeed the sordid state our moral philosophy has eroded to. Your precious blood which taints the hands of those murderous perpetrators and their helpers implores them, if they can only reason, to strive towards the gate of repentance while it stays open. For indeed, before every soul that lives is certainly a lane of destiny that leads to its own terminus. No one, including those who committed this heinous act and those that may rejoice therein can proclaim being immune to mortality. Who can defy death when it comes? And it shall surely come knocking on every door! The time and manner of which none can tell, and when it comes, all we amassed and achieved on this earth shall matter no more.

May this huge atrocity meted out on you be the eraser of all your sins and the doorway to your everlasting repose in the inimitable mercies of Allah (SWT). Until the day we reunite to part no more by Allah’s merciful leave, sleep soundly dear brother.

Audu is a 600 Level student of  Faculty of Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. [email protected]