Jotted down on paper, this playful story a few lazy lion is now a memento of a younger life misplaced.
Chidera Onovo, 15, was a caring boy who liked to attract and was his mom’s unabashed favorite.
“He saved up his lunch cash to purchase biscuits to share along with his siblings,” Blessing Onovo remembers. “And he was at all times the one who seen my moods and would ask: ‘Mummy are you high-quality?’.”
Final Friday morning Chidera went to secondary college along with his youthful sister Chisom however solely one among them would return.
Official experiences from the Nigerian authorities say 22 college students have been killed within the constructing collapse at Saints Academy, a non-public college within the central metropolis of Jos, however native residents say the quantity is nearer to 50.
Utilizing their naked palms and shovels, mother and father desperately looked for survivors, managing to tunnel by way of and free among the trapped kids. “It took about an hour earlier than an excavator got here,” says Chidera’s father, Chike Michael Onovo.
“I noticed my daughter Chisom being dragged out. I used to be relieved, however I stored shouting: ‘The place is Chidera my son?’.”
The boy’s physique was later discovered, crushed by the fallen concrete in his classroom on the primary ground.
‘Individuals lower corners’
Additionally looking frantically that day was 43-year-old Victor Dennis. His worst fears have been confirmed a day later when he discovered his son Emmanuel’s lifeless physique at an area morgue.
“My boy was a great boy,” he tells the BBC. “He didn’t should die. They killed my son. He didn’t do something improper. He simply went to high school to be taught.”
Tears fall from Mr Dennis’ bloodshot eyes as mourners sing a farewell hymn at his son’s burial. Absent is his spouse, Emmanuel’s mom, who’s inconsolable with grief and stays at residence.
Individuals in Jos have rallied to assist each other, and plenty of younger lives have been saved because of blood donors who’ve visited native hospitals.
However there may be anger and disbelief that yet one more constructing collapse has been allowed to occur in Nigeria. Residents even declare the youngsters had felt the constructing shake the day earlier than.
“Substandard supplies have been used – these may have been chargeable for the collapse of the constructing,” says regulator and architect Olusegun Godwin Olukoya, who leads the Nigerian Institute of Architects in Plateau state. “Our preliminary investigations point out that there was doable lack of adherence to constructing rules.”
He’s scathing in his criticism of builders and the Nigerian authorities, telling the BBC:
“Sadly, because of the form of society that we reside in, lack of will has prevented the authorities from adopting our strategies prior to now.
“Individuals lower corners and if you attempt to increase alarm, some really feel that you’re attempting to victimise or oppress them. They use their folks in positions of authority to avoid the foundations.”
Following the constructing collapse at Saints Academy, the native governor has ordered a structural audit of all faculties and public buildings in Plateau state, of which Jos is the capital.
Officers in his authorities say it’s not clear whether or not the college’s proprietor, who has since died, ever had a building allow for the location.
The BBC was unable to get remark from the college’s administration.
Some additionally suspect that mining exercise shut by may have broken the college constructing, so the governor has additionally ordered the arrest of any artisanal miners discovered digging in residential areas within the state.
However officers suspect that the principle downside was with how the college was constructed.
“Whilst a layman who is just not a constructing skilled, you possibly can see that the supplies used within the building will not be normal. However we’ll examine the reason for the collapse and punish these discovered culpable,” Musa Ashom, the state Commissioner for Info, tells the BBC.
Comparable guarantees got here from Nigeria’s Housing Minister, Ahmed Dangiwa, who spoke scathingly of “unscrupulous” people whose actions he mentioned had resulted within the Jos college collapse and induced unquantifiable loss.
However these phrases will come as little comfort to the numerous bereft households, like that of Chinecherem Pleasure Emeka.
The 13-year-old was top-of-the-line dancers at her college and dreamed of turning into a health care provider at some point, says her mom Blessing Nwabuchi.
Chinecherem, or Chi Chi as family members referred to as her, was sitting her end-of-year exams the day she died.
Pictures like this one, from her junior excessive commencement final 12 months, are treasured reminders of what she achieved – and every part she may need gone on to turn out to be.
Extra BBC tales from Nigeria:
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