Ochanya’s Death: Why Societal Progress Is Impossible Without Attitudinal Transformation -By Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh

So the devils have succeeded in snuffing life out of this 13 year old? She is dead now and buried. For those who loved to blame every evil on the devil, no one can deny the fact that there is no Satan involved in this issue. Rather, these are mortal men – or animals in human clothing – which began the process of intimidating and defiling the poor girl until they achieved what they wanted – to send her to the grave untimely.

It is a shame for all of us. Many times when I hear people talked about witches and wizards, I always said “You do not understand what you’re talking about.” Why? Because I know for a fact that there is no witch that was more deadly than humans who slandered, blackmailed, gossiped and conspired to tarnish the good image of another. Two weeks ago when I first read the story of this innocent girl on the pages of the Daily Sun, I was enraged and my anger was not just against the two animals-in-human-clothing that were the culprits but against society, against leadership and against myself.

Late Ochanya (Middle). L-R are her Father and Brother, her molesters and killers.

Ochanya Obaje, a 13-year-old teenage girl, died on October 17, 2018 after suffering complications from five years of anal and vaginal rape which led to the infection Vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF) and other health issues. She was a Junior Secondary School 1 student at the Federal Government College, Gboko, Benue State, Nigeria. Those responsible for her ordeal and eventual death were Mr. Andrew Ogbuja, a lecturer with the Benue state polytechnic and his son, Victor. This is the sad story I gathered.

Evidently, these two monsters decided to prey on the innocent girl because they found themselves in a country that is still too torn apart by trivialities to know what the girl child was going through. And for the escapade to have continued for five years was testimony to the level of poverty in the land that made even the wife unable to have for once caught the randy husband in the act. One immediately gets the feeling that one was in danger should one be unable to strive to cater for one’s own offspring in today’s world.

I ask: Where are we really going as a country? Why has leadership continually failed to see that the best investments it can make is to invest in the people? Get the citizens educated, orientated aright and even reoriented if need be. The media that have done their own style of teaching over the years are in the power of government to control. However, while government made policies to sustain the media in business, the media continued to pollute society with all the junks they could lay their hands on.

To say that the Family is at present, under great threat of total erosion because of erosion of sustainable values is to state the obvious. While the average parent struggled to bring food to the table, the vacuum created by their absence gave room for the Sons of Perdition to go from neighborhood to neighborhood, destroying very innocent girls. If it were in the days when values still directed the affairs of society, these two imbeciles would’ve been tied up and thrown into the evil forest or buried alive.

What they did was simply a great abomination – one that defiled the land and may only be appeased by death of the culprit. What crime did Ochanya commit by coming into the world as a Nigerian, a relative of Mr. Andrew Ogbuja and a poor girl? I ask again, what crime did she commit? With the way we are going, if God was to judge this country the penalty would be more severe than those of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Imagine the height of insult and abuse! Even if their actions were driven perhaps by bitterness and the will to revenge on her against whatever grudges they had with her parent; it shouldn’t come to this. Assuming it was for revenge, they simply took their bitterness too far! Cho! I wish I could get a hold of the lecturer and clear his doubts with a sound slap across his face. A male chauvinist or serial rapist couldn’t have been this cruel.

Another painful part for me was the angle in which a friend of mine approached the subject. He had asked: Why will they not molest her, when the politicians are busy fighting over who gets what and how much? Why will they not molest her when the traditional leaders are the ones desecrating the land in the name of ambition and politics? Why will they not molest her with crass impunity, when the religious leaders no longer cared about the spiritual welfare of their members but harped on money, money, and money?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the ‘big fool’ of the two – Andrew Ogbuja – held a position in the place he worshiped or wasted his time every Sunday. Nonsense. A married man indeed. Come to think of it, anal sex; is that how he mounted his wife too from the anus? I pity those devils. If I was the chief executive of that state, I would simply barbecue the two in the full view of the BBC and CNN and damn their worthless animal rights! Yes, because as far as I am concerned they are nothing but animals-in-human-cover.

I feel so sorry for the legitimate parents of this girl. Please accept my heartfelt condolences. I pray for you that because of this tragedy, Heaven will make surplus provisions that will enable you raise your children by yourself. Plus, another beautiful girl is coming into your lives that will erase your tears. They have done this wickedness because they felt they owned her destiny, Heaven will make you laugh again. Very soon. Take heart. Fellow Nigerians from Ogene Amejo, Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue State; una doe.

Nigeria has reached her peak development. Except there is a conscious effort by leadership to cast a vision of unity and motivate Nigerians to attitudinal transformation, the country will only continue in cycles. A blessed country that has all it takes to be very great but like the biblical fig tree, it is waiting eagerly for the wrath of God to fall before it would decide whether to give up on evil or not.

Existing at a time like this, societal progress has never been possible without attitudinal transformation. It is time Nigerians are reminded of what media veteran Oprah Winfrey once said “We can not become what we want to be by remaining what we are.”

Comrade Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh is an advocate for attitudinal change, a researcher and authored (THE ORIGIN OF IGBO MARGINALIZATION IN NIGERIA). 08062577718.