By: Muneer Yaqub
I once read a novel by John Grisham, The Client, wherein a father Character was described as a ‘chain-smoker.’ It was amazing, how one could be so addicted to smoking, as to light up a new cigarette with the remnant of the last. Then a new one, that way. Then another. You know? Curiously amazing.
So, when Aisha’s suicide rented the air, with the benefit of hindsight from a Sociology scholar, I found a new solace in the word. It dawned on me. Ah. Chain-killer!
Remember? ‘If you don’t speak against a bad act, subsequently, some people may begin to see alternative in it.’ I said that of “Sniper”— remember?— the insecticide Aisha drank, that led to her death. But guess what? It’s already happening. So fast!
This morning, I was greeted on Whatsapp by Dr. Joa, Associate Professor of Sociology, with a screenshot. “I said it!” He wrote. It was a snapshot of a news story by The Punch. Emboldened on it was a short but screaming headline: LAGOS DJ COMMITS SUICIDE.
But if that was all, I was sure he wouldn’t send it. So I read further. Here. Yes, here, is what followed: “PUNCH Metro learnt that Omogaji allegedly took his life by gulping an insecticide, ‘SNIPER’.”
Pronto, I busted into my gallery. Though half-awake, I still could remember that headline on SaharaReporters: Bayelsa Man ‘Poisons’ His Three Sons With SNIPER ‘Because They’re Wizards’. I screenshot it, and sent it over to Dr. Joa.
“I told you!” he exclaimed. “Many will follow Aisha through Sniper. That’s usually the trend: when someone jumped into lagoon, many followed him. Now they’ve discovered a new means.”
So, like John Grisham’s chain-smoker, i realized, Sniper— a chemical specially made to exterminate mosquitoes and bedbugs— is fast becoming a chain-killer in Nigeria, sending homosapiens, one after the other, on a cruel errand to heaven.
But there is an irony. In this clime, we’re not proactive. Ah. We’re not. Not until many have lost their lives to Sniper, not until BBC has released a documentary about the casualties and their agonized relatives, not until it has all gotten out of hand, will our Government begin to take measures.
I was down when the Associate Prof said: “a proactive society must have made a solid drive to control the sale of Sniper immediately. But here, we don’t learn form scientific facts.” True. I couldn’t agree less.
Three down. But how many more will Sniper kill, until it gets banned? Tell me. How many more? Our prevention here is not better than cure. It’s sad.
