Nigerian parents mourn death of child at Saints College

This amusing story about the lazy lion was scrawled on paper and now serves as a memento of a young life lost.

Chidera Onovo, 15, is a caring boy who loves to draw and is his mother’s unabashed favorite.

“He saved his lunch money to buy cookies to share with his siblings,” Blessing Onowo recalled. “He would always notice my emotions and ask: ‘Mom, are you okay?’.”

Last Friday morning, Chidra left for middle school with his sister, Chisholm, but only one made it back.

An official report from the Nigerian government said 22 students were killed when a building collapsed at Saints College, a private school in the central city of Jos, but local residents said the number was closer to 50.

Desperately searching for survivors with their bare hands and shovels, the parents managed to dig tunnels and rescue some of the trapped children. “It took about an hour for the excavator to come,” said Chike Michael Onovo, Chidela’s father.

“I saw my daughter Chisholm being dragged out. I was relieved, but I kept shouting: ‘Where is my son Chidra?'”

The boy’s body was later found in a first-floor classroom, crushed by falling concrete.

Victor Dennis, 43, was also frantically searching that day. His worst fears were confirmed a day later when he discovered the body of his son Emmanuel at the local morgue.

“My son is a good boy,” he told the BBC. “He didn’t deserve to die. They killed my son. He didn’t do anything wrong. He just went to school to learn.”

Tears fell from Mr Dennis’ bloodshot eyes as mourners sang farewell hymns at his son’s funeral. His wife, Emanuelle’s mother, was absent and left distraught at home.

People in Jos rallied to support each other and many young lives were saved thanks to blood donors who visited local hospitals.

But Nigeria has allowed yet another building collapse, sparking outrage and suspicion. Residents even claimed their children had felt the building shaking the day before.

“Substandard materials were used – these could have been the cause of the collapse of the building,” said regulator and architect Olusegun Godwin Olukoya, director of Nigerian Architecture in Plateau State. The head of the Teachers Association. “Our initial investigation indicates there may have been a breach of building regulations.”

He was harshly critical of builders and Nigerian authorities, telling the BBC:

“Unfortunately, because of the society we live in, a lack of will has prevented the authorities from taking our recommendations in the past.

“People cut corners and when you try to sound the alarm, some people feel like you’re trying to hurt or oppress them. They use people who are in power under them to get around the rules.”

Following the collapse of the Saints College building, the local governor ordered a structural audit of all schools and public buildings in Plateau state, the capital of Jos state.

Government officials said it was unclear whether the school’s owner, now deceased, had a construction permit for the site.

The BBC was unable to obtain comment from the school’s management.

Some also suspect that nearby mining activity may have damaged school buildings, leading the governor to order the arrest of any artisanal miners found in residential areas of the state.

But officials suspect the main problem lies in the way the school was built.

“Even as a layperson who is not a construction professional, you can see that the materials used in the construction were not standard. But we will investigate the cause of the collapse and punish those found guilty,” National Press Commissioner Moussa Ashom ( Musa Ashom, told the BBC.

A similar pledge was made by Nigeria’s Housing Minister Ahmed Dangwa, who harshly criticized “unscrupulous” individuals whose actions he said had led to the collapse of schools in Jos and caused incalculable damage.

But these words are of little comfort to many families who have lost loved ones, as Chinecherem Joy Emeka said.

The 13-year-old is one of the best dancers in the school and dreams of one day becoming a doctor, said her mother, Blessing Nwabuchi.

Chinecherem, as her loved ones called her, was taking her end-of-year exams on the day she died.

Photos like this one from her junior high school graduation last year are precious reminders of all she has accomplished and all she could become.