Killing Of Passenger In Oshodi-Bound BRT: More Questions Than Answers -By Isaac Asabor

When John Lester Nash Jr., an American singer and songwriter, best known in the United States for his 1972 hit “I Can See Clearly Now” went to the studio to record the hit-song, he might not had projected in his mind that at a particular time in the history of Nigeria that there would be more questions to ask than answers on unprecedented increase in the rate of crime across every nook and cranny of the country.

I must confess that in my quest for inspiration and facts as I prepared to gather materials toward the expression of this view that I attentively listened to the lyrics of “I Can See Clearly Now” as sang by Nash from the first line to the last line, and realized that the message of the musician who relatively died recently; on October 6, 2020 finds expression on the increasing crime rate in Nigeria today.

As I listened to the music, I could not help thinking of how the lyrics rhymed with the increasing and prevailing crime incidences that are been perpetrated in present day Nigeria, and that not few people are compelled to ask questions.

Nash, through his bestselling album sang, “There are more questions than answers/Pictures in my mind that will not show/There are more questions than answers/and the more I find out the less I know/Yeah, the more I find out the less I know/I’ve asked the question time and time again/Why is there so little love among men?

But what is life, how do we live/What should we take and how much should we give/Oh, there are more questions than answers/Pictures in my mind that will not show/There are more questions than answers/and the more I find out the less I know/Yeah, the more I find out the less I know.”

Without any scintilla of exaggeration, the foregoing questions that were put in lyrical perspective are not quite different from the questions which not few Nigerians are asking today concerning the spiralling rate of perpetrated crimes in Nigeria.

Ostensibly expressing his view on a national daily on April 20, 2016, on how safe and comfortable the Bus Rapid Transport System, simply called BRT was, a writer eulogised the leadership of Lagos State Government for introducing the highly subsidized transport line thus, “Prior to the introduction of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system on Lagos roads, commuters had gory tales to tell in the course of moving from one place to the other in the metropolis. While some had their clothes torn by rickety commercial buses and had to appear shabbily dressed for those all important functions, others had to contend with saucy bus conductors, who have made it a habit to insult passengers whom they imagine are at their mercies. In addition, many people have been killed or maimed by commercial bus and motor bike drivers who are unmindful of the sanctity of the life”.

To be objective and fair with the writer’s view as partly cited in the foregoing, it is expedient to say that he may today not shower the same praise on the state government as he did in 2016. One of the reasons that may turn him off from expressing his view on the same issue in the same or similar tone cannot be farfetched as the family of 21-year-old Oluwabamise Ayanwola has been thrown into mourning following her sudden death after she reportedly boarded a BRT bus going to Oshodi around 7 pm at Chevron bus stop.

As gathered, Oluwabamise, who usually spend her weekends at Ota in her lifetime in Ogun State, and worked as a fashion designer at Chevron Estate in Ajah never disembarked from the bus that was once eulogised to be safe and comfortable to tell her story or share her testimony with other Nigerirans.

As the reports of her disappearance gathered storm across the length and breadth of Lagos state since she got missing, the police and some BRT officials intensified search for the BRT driver in whose bus she allegedly got missing. It was reported that she got missing while returning to Ota from Ajah on Saturday, February 26 after boarding a BRT bus with number 240257 going to Oshodi at Chevron Bus-Stop.

Sadly, the news of her death was today, March 7, 2022 announced by one of her relatives who stated that “The dead body of the 22-year-old lady, Miss Oluwabamise Ayanwole, who got missing after boarding a Lagos Bus Rapid Transit vehicle, was reportedly found with some body parts missing.
The relative mourned that efforts to rescue Oluwabamise Ayanwole by passers-by failed, insisting that justice must be done.

According to him, Bamise’s body was first sighted in public late on Saturday when a BRT accompanied by a jeep dumped her body and zoomed off.

He said, “The picture of her corpse was first sent to us. We went to confirm and she was the one. The picture of her corpse is gory, it shouldn’t be shared. She was taken to Morgue on Sunday. Police found out about her death Saturday night.

“A passer-by alerted the police at Ebute Ero. On getting there, people trying to see if she could survive fled on sighting police officers. She didn’t die immediately she was dumped.

“When the police got there, she was not on panties. She was naked. They didn’t take off only her top. Some of her body parts were tampered with and missing. Investigation into the cause of her death continues”.

At this juncture, it is expedient to say that even as the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alabi, who is unarguably saddened by the gory incident promised that the police would not rest on its oars until the killers of the lady are found that not few Nigerians are asking the kind of questions Jonny Nash asked in this lyrics as cited in this piece.