Nigeria is happening to us all
By Olufunke Baruwa
This is not a distant tragedy we watch on television. It is not a sad headline we scan quickly before turning the page. It is a lived reality, painfully, personally, and repeatedly, by ordinary Nigerians whose lives are cut short or irreversibly altered by systemic failures that should have been resolved long ago.
In the past couple of weeks, three deeply personal stories of loss, one involving a global sports figure, a beloved Nigerian writer and another an everyday Nigerian couple, have shaken the nation. They illustrate tragically that without a systemic shift towards accountability, no one is immune to Nigeria’s failures: not even the famous, the powerful and those we admire on the international stage.
On December 29, 2025, British Nigerian heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua was involved in a fatal road accident on the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, one of Nigeria’s busiest and most dangerous highways. The Lexus SUV in which he was travelling collided with a stationary truck; Joshua sustained injuries but survived, while two of his close team members: his strength coach Sina Ghami and personal trainer Latif “Latz” Ayodele, sadly, died instantly.
There are multiple layers in this accident that speak directly to Nigeria’s broken state. The Lagos–Ibadan Expressway is infamous for frequent crashes, partly due to heavy traffic, unregulated speed, poor maintenance, unregulated truck parking, reckless pedestrian crossing and inadequate signage to curb overspeeding, a recipe for disaster yet still unaddressed effectively by authorities.
Many Nigerians on social media pointed out that after the crash, there were no immediate ambulances or rapid medical emergency responses, only improvised actions by passersby and security personnel. This isn’t exceptional in Nigeria; it’s common.
Preliminary investigations cited excessive speed and vehicle control issues. Yet the deeper questions remain: Why are roadside hazards allowed? Why are emergency services not stationed where they are most needed? Why do highways without adequate patrol or rescue teams still serve millions?
The driver involved has been charged by Nigerian police with dangerous driving and other offences, a rare moment of accountability. But justice in individual cases does not equate to justice for all Nigerians killed or maimed daily on our roads.
For every high-profile accident that makes global news, dozens more go unreported: buses that plunge into ravines, trucks that crash into market stalls, pedestrians struck on unlit roads. These are not anomalies; they are everyday occurrences in a country whose infrastructure has been left to decay.
A Preventable Tragedy
As the nation was still digesting the shock of the Joshua accident, another blow struck. This time, closer to home for Nigeria’s intellectual and artistic community.
Renowned author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (aka Odeluwa) announced the death of her 21-month-old son, Nkanu Nnamdi, who passed away after a brief illness on January 7, 2026. While this is a deeply personal loss for any parent anywhere in the world, the tragedy has ignited widespread debate in Nigeria because of allegations of medical negligence at a private hospital in Lagos, one of the country’s centres of advanced care.
The Lagos State Government has ordered an independent probe into the incident and even suspended the anaesthesiologist involved pending investigation. But the very fact that such basic and essential standards of care are now under scrutiny in a private hospital that should represent the best in the country tells us something profound about the state of our healthcare system.
Nigeria boasts some excellent clinicians, capable hospitals, and dedicated healthcare workers. Yet these strengths are undermined by: Weak regulatory oversight, where protocols are not universally enforced; inadequate training and accountability structures in facilities that operate without stringent quality controls; and a systemic failure to invest in patient safety culture, so that preventable deaths continue to occur.
This isn’t merely a “health sector problem.” It is a national crisis. When a world-class novelist with influence, privilege, and resources cannot protect her own child from medical negligence, how many ordinary Nigerians suffer quietly, without public notice?
Another Double Tragedy
Last week, Nigeria was rocked by another heartbreaking tragedy that laid bare the fragility of life under our overstretched health system: nine-month-old twin boys, Testimony and Timothy, died just 24 hours after receiving what should have been routine childhood immunisations at a government primary health care centre in Lagos.
Their father, Samuel Alozie, shared emotional footage online showing the lifeless bodies of his sons in separate body bags and recounted how the boys were healthy before the injections, only to become unusually weak soon after and then pass away the following morning, on Christmas Day.
The Lagos State Government has again ordered a post-mortem and toxicology tests to determine the cause of death, even as questions swirl around the circumstances of the immunisation and standard of care at the facility. The family’s grief has ignited public outrage and a growing demand for accountability, underscoring deep anxieties about vaccine safety, clinical protocols, and the responsibility of health workers in a country where preventable loss of young life has become all too common.
Stop Playing Russian Roulette with Nigerian Lives
These preventable tragedies are symbols of a pattern that has become horribly familiar. The young graduate who dies after a treatable illness because the local clinic lacked medication, the father who succumbs on a broken road because the ambulance never came, the mother who loses her child due to delays in emergency care and the commuter killed by potholes, poorly lit roads, and reckless trucks.
These are not isolated tragedies. They are systemic failures, repeated thousands of times, across regions and demographics. For many Nigerians, daily life is like playing Russian roulette; one emergency away from fatality.
At the core of these tragedies is a leadership that has consistently failed to prioritise the lives of its citizens. We have underfunded infrastructure, where roads crumble and highways remain death traps; weak healthcare systems, where even private hospitals can operate without strict oversight; poor emergency response services, with limited ambulances and chaotic disaster response and a political culture that focuses on spectacle rather than substance, optics rather than outcomes.
Instead of comprehensive road safety reforms, we see temporary enforcement crackdowns that fade into obscurity. Instead of investing in healthcare protocols and standards, we engage in reactive investigations after a tragedy while Nigeria is happening. These tragedies are not coincidences, they are the architecture of failure and a lack of accountability to citizens.
We must demand transparent investigations with consequences, not symbolic probes; invest in infrastructure that prevents deaths, not just slogans; reform healthcare delivery systems, with enforceable standards and patient protection laws; equip emergency services nationwide, so that rapid response is the norm, not the exception and hold leaders accountable, not only for their rhetoric, but for their results. Failure to do so will continue to cost lives, one Nigerian at a time.
May the souls of all those who have died rest in peace, and may God comfort their loved ones.
