The Oluchi story: A normality in an abnormal clime

Tears flowed freely as the remains of Oluchi Onyeka was committed to mother earth, I watched as her family, friends and loved ones broke down and wept uncontrollably over the death of one lady who was described by so many as brilliant, elegant and very ambitious. Indeed she was all these and many more, to many of us her friends, she was an angel who came into our lives and whose life was cut short by the cruel ones.

I scanned faces at the funeral and wondered if the real killers of Oluchi were present, if they came to watch as the lady whom they drove to her death was being covered in dust. Much as I looked around, I couldn’t place any of the killers but I knew they were among us, crying as much as we were if not more.
According to the autopsy report, Oluchi died as a result of the head injury she suffered when a car drove by Saka Olanihun ran over her on the busy Allen Avenue in Ikeja, Saka was discovered to be too drunk to even understand what he had done after the incident.

She did make it to the hospital where the good Samaritans who had taken her there were asked to pay 300 thousand Nigerian Naira before she was attended to, the fact that they had no such amount to pay led to the hospital abandoning her and less than 30 minutes later she closed her eyes and stopped breathing.
Oluchi was born some 24 years ago in Lagos to a clergy father and a teacher mother; she was a very beautiful girl whose beauty she inherited from her mother. Blessed with the right curves and shapes plus a wonderful Ukwu, Ma Onyeka was a head turner anytime even after 5 children and 35 years of marriage.
Her daughter took not only her beauty but also her intelligence; Ma Onyeka was a very brilliant student who got scholarship from the state to study abroad. Oluchi followed in her mother’s footsteps and was on scholarship for her secondary education on account of her own brilliance too. It certainly runs in the family, her other siblings got various scholarships as well, from government to blue chip companies.
After graduating from the great Ife, Oluchi was faced with the huge task of getting a job in a country that has more than 50 million job seekers. She had graduated with a 2:2 from Ife because she had refused to play balls with a particular lecturer who was bent on tasting from her honeypot. She did refuse the lecturer and Prof Adeoye in turn gave her series of D in his courses which had a big effect on her final grade point.
Now in the labour market, she was faced with series of Adeoyes as she was offered jobs but has to sleep with someone in charge before the offer of employment could be signed. She did refuse initially and preferred to wait upon the lord but after a year and 6 months at home, she finally gave in to the temptation.
He decision was reached after Osayeme who was her course mate and bestie had paid her a visit some months back. Osayeme works with a telecoms company and was doing very well, less than a year and she was already cruising a landcruisier. The two friends got talking and Oluchi brought up the sex for job topic to which Osas told her friend point blank that it was the new trend in town and that lot of ladies with good jobs paid in kind to get the jobs.
Oluchi finally succumbed and agreed to the next sex for job offer which was from Alhaji Adamu who was the Executive Director HR in a big company in the state. Having gone through the recruitment process, Alhaji told her she would be offered a job in the company only if she would play balls. They both agreed to meet at a small hotel downtown and after a long sexual drill by the Alhaji, she got her offer of appointment for a job she was to earn a million naira per annum to resume the next Monday.
With that in her bag, she returned home to break the news to her parents leaving the sexual aspect of how she got her job out of the story. Her parents were elated, finally their daughter has a job and they could hope for the beginning of greater things in the family. At the Sunday service the day before she was to resume, Oluchi came out in her church to share the testimony that she has finally gotten a job after so long and with the help of God.
On Monday, she was all dressed and at about 7:15am was at the gate of the company she was supposed to be working for from that day. She greeted the security men and upon showing her employment letter was asked to proceed to the reception. She met with the receptionist who greeted her well and asked that she wait for the HR manager’s arrival.
She waited with joy and was particularly pleased to see her colleagues come in one after the other to resume the day job; they were all looking good with good cloths and designer shoes. They must be well paid and motivated she thought, this was exactly what she needed, a job not only to get her out of the house but one that pays well and that can give a beginning to a great life.
She finally met with the HR manager who was surprised seeing her letter of appointment, the manager was aware of the vacancy and had even been on the panel that interviewed her and other candidates but the board was yet to meet and finalize on the list of shortlisted candidates. She was told to go home and that the letter would be looked into and she should expect a call from the HR team latest evening of that day.
She couldn’t go home, what was she going to tell her parents, how was she going to look when people who saw her leave for work that morning see her come back from work so early and on her first day at work, long before the closing hour. She decided to go to Osayeme’s office instead and pass the day, she placed a call through to her friend who was glad and asked her to come over, the office was at Allen Avenue in Ikeja.
At the close of business that day, Osayeme was to go to her boyfriend’s place on Toyin Street so Oluchi had to take a bus back to her house in Agege. At the bus stop, she received a call from the HR manager who apologized for the mix up and regretted to inform her that she did not pass the interview and that the appointment letter was a mistake that was being looked into to determine who sent it out to her in the first place.
Hearing this Oluchi was devastated, she had been defrauded emotionally and sexually, she has given Alhaji her honeypot and he had played her smartly. She was in tears and unconsciously started moving towards the road, it was at that point that Saka’s car ran her down ending the dreams and life of the young lady.
The autopsy report was correct, she had died as a result of the injury she sustained in the accident but the report failed to capture the real reasons that drove her to her death. The report did not also narrate how she was not attended to by the hospital she was rushed to initially and also the fact that it was an emotional fraud that she suffered that drove her to her death. How was the autopsy supposed to have known that, Oluchi was just another Nigerian causality, normality in an abnormal clime?