Death, as it is popularly said, is the inevitable end. But when it occurs, there are always people who wish it was avoidable. In the end, the number of people who so wish is usually determined by the deeased’s extent of positive impact while alive. There have been a few such deaths in 2014. But, in addition, there were deaths that no one didn’t need to wish were avoidable – because they were simply avoidable; they had no business happening. Here are 10 of them.
1. DORA AKUNYILI, THE AMAZON


“Her dogged appearance at the recent national conference in spite of her health challenges exemplified her essence as a true patriot. She was determined to add her voice to the national conversation on how best we could possibly create a new Nigeria where we can all live together in peace, harmony and prosperity.” Those were the opening lines of a tribute written for a woman of substance, whom Nigeria lost to 2014. Nigeria will never forget Dora Nkem Akunyili (OFR), its former minister of information and ex-director-general (DG) of the Nattional Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) – neither will the fake drug peddlers whom she fought with all her might during her time at the helm of NAFDAC. One of the most tragic events of the year was Akunyili’s loss of her 17-year battle with uterine cancer. That was on June 7, 2014.
2. ADADEVOH AND THE ‘EBOLA SEVEN’

Stella Adadevoh, a doctor at First Consultants hospital laid down her life for her country on August 19. But she made the sacrifice itself much earlier in July, after insisting that Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, only suspected of carrying Ebola at the time, should not be discharged from the hospital under no circumstance until tests on him had been concluded. Although Sawyer failed in his numerous attempts to force his exit from the hospital, he succeeded in infecting a number of hospital staff, including Adadevoh, with the viral disease. Besides Adadevoh, Nigeria also lost Justina Echelonu, a 25-year-old nurse who assumed work at the hospital just one day before Sawyer entered Nigeria. Ejelonu died on August 14, 2014. Kogi-born Jato Asihu Abdulqudir, the 36-year-old ECOWAS official who helped Sawyer with his personal effects at the airport, also fell to the deadly disease. Evelyn Ukoh, a maid at the hospital; Ike Enemuo, a Port Harcourt doctor who died with his wife; Amos Abaniwo, chief consultant (anesthesiology) and director of clinical service at First Consultants were the other casualties By the time Nigeria was declared Ebola-free on October 20, eight of the 20 infected patients had died.
3. GENTLE TIGER, BAMIDELE ATURU
Bamidele Aturu, human rights lawyer and national activist, died at the age of 49. As an activist, Aturu came into national limelight in 1988 when he refused to shake the hands of Lawan Gwadabe, the then military governor of Niger state, at the passing-out parade of the National Youth Service Corps, citing the military’s opposition to democratic rule. His NYSC certificate was withheld as punishment “for embarrassing the military”, but it was later released to him. Nicknamed ‘Gentle Tiger’, Aturu studied law at the Obafemi Awolowo University and had his NYSC in Niger state in between 1987 and 1988. He stayed true to his fight for human rights in the years to come until he was snatched by death on July 9, 2014, after complaining that he was unwell. He slumped and was taken to the hospital. That was the end.
4. KEFEE OBAREKI DON MOMOH

Nigeria’s political history has no fond memories of June 12. On that day and month in 1993, the election believed till date to be the freest and fairest ever in the country was held. Won by Moshood Abiola, candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), it was annulled by Ibrahim Babangida, the head of state. Fast forward by exactly 21 years and the entertainment industry would never wish for such day again. On June 12, 2014, gospel singer Kefee Obareki died, and more painfully, with a pregnancy. Keffe had collapsed on May 29, during a flight to Chicago, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles in order to get medical attention. She was in coma for two weeks, but eventually died, owing to what her manager, Adeline Adelicious Adebayo, said was “lungs failure”.

True!
Dora, a woman that gave her all to this nation. Put her life on the line to make sure we lived a healthy life.

Adadevoh, who paid the ultimate price to make sure we all can be here today to fight, laugh and live ebola free lives!

These are the most painful to me.
The others are sad too but these too made it possible (besides God) for most of us to be alive and healthy today.

I still advocate national post humous honours to these women!

RIP patriots.

5. ‘BLACK SCORPION’ BENJAMIN ADEKUNLE


“I do not want to see any Red Cross, and Caritas, any World Council of Churches, Pope, Mission, or UN delegation. I want to prevent even one Ibo having even one piece to eat before their capitulation “I have learned a word from the British, which is ‘sorry’! That’s how I want to respond to your question. I did not want this war but I want to win this war. Therefore I have to kill the Ibos. Sorry! The End”. That was Benjamin Adekunle speaking in a wartime interview with Randolph Baumann. These words heightened war time tension in the country when they were published by Stern Magazine in 1968, in the heat of the Nigerian civil war. Adekunle was a mercurial man; he was seen as a villain in some quarters and a hero in some other quarters. He was a leader of the Nigerian 7th and 8th division of the Nigerian army against Biafra, during the civil war. Black Scorpion, as he was later known, was the commander of the Lagos Garrison as substantive lieutenant colonel before the civil war. He spoke the three major languages in Nigeria fluently. Adekunle, 78, died on September 13, and was buried as a brigadier-general and war hero.
6. GREAT GRANDPA SAMUEL SADELA


Samuel Akinbode Sadela was one of the few men in the world who saw both 1900 and 2014. Sadela, a Nigerian cleric, dedicated his life to peacemaking and preaching the gospel of Christ. He started his primary school education at St. Paul’s Primary School, Ifon, Osun state, in 1914, but dropped out in 1918. At the time he was due for tertiary education, there were no universities in Nigeria, so he proceeded to the University of Cambridge in 1925. On graduation, he became a preacher, working with Pentecostal leader, Joseph Ayodele Babalola, the founder of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC). He was revered as Nigeria’s oldest living preacher. Sadela, who got married to a 30-year-old lady when he was 107, believed he would live as long as 200. He said this on his 113th birthday. “I feel happy to be this old. Actually, I feel like a young man. I still enjoy my meal of Iyan (pounded yam), Eba and bush meat,” he said. “I want to live longer to prove to all that God remains the same as He was in times past. If Methuselah could live for 969 years, God can make me live well beyond 113. “If Noah could be 950, it is not too much for Him to make me live up to 200.” At the time of his death, Sadela was arguably the world’s oldest person, as he was months older than Goldie Steinberg, the verified world’s oldest man, and Sakari Momoi, 111, holder of the Guinness world record for the oldest man. Sadela died on his 114th birthday, August 24.

7. ADO BAYERO, EMIR OF KANO


Ado Bayero was emir of Kano for over half a century, precisely 51 years. He was the emir with the longest reign (1963-2014) since the Jihad of 1804. Besides being one of Nigeria’s most prominent and revered Muslim leaders, Bayero was also a successful businessman, banker, police officer, member of the Nigerian parliament, and one time Nigerian ambassador to Senegal. He was chancellor of the University of Nigeria and served as chancellor of the University of Ibadan until his death. He was coronated the emir of Kano on October 22, 1963, as the 13th Fulani Emir of Kano and the 56th ruler of the Kano Kingdom. He died on June 6, 2014, aged 84, and was succeeded by his brother’s grandson Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, whose tenure as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had just expired.

All deaths are painful tho' bt inevitable..
But we hope we were simply Righteous at the time of its callinq.

After DEATH, JUDGMENT.

Yeah these deaths were quite painful. May the good Lord grant their souls eternal rest.

8. J.F. ADE AJAYI, FATHER OF HISTORY

Jacob Festus Ade Ajayi was a Nigerian academic, an emeritus professor of history, one of the Professors from Ekiti who made Nigerians rate Ekiti as the most literate state in the country. Ade Ajayi attended the famous Igbobi College in Yaba Lagos, before proceeding to the University of Ibadan where he bagged a degree in history in the early 1950s. He went on to Liecester University in the United Kingdom, where he trained as an historian under the tutelage of Jack Simmons, an Oxford-trained historian. Ajayi returned to Nigeria, where he lectured at numerous Nigerian Universities, including the University of Ibadan and the University of Lagos. He was vice chancellor of the University of Lagos from 1972 to 1978, a time famously known for the Ali-must-go protest in Nigerian education sphere. Although Kenneth Dike, the first Indigenous vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, is referred to as the father of Nigerian history, J.F. Ade Ajayi also carved a niche for himself to be so referred to. Ade Ajayi, 85, died on August 9, 2014.
9 IS FOR ‘IMMIGRATION VICTIMS’

This was one tragedy in the category of avoidable deaths. It had no business happening. It was a testimony to the astronomically high level of unemployment in Nigeria. Six-and-a-half million people were reported to have applied for just 4,000 vacant immigration positions across the country. These 6.5 million applicants had to pay N1, 000 for application, and little did some know that they were even paying for their deaths. On March 15, these millions gathered at stadia, schools and colleges around the country for the job test. The overwhelming population in all the states were soon involved in stampedes that led to the death of about 16 applicants in all. This led President Goodluck Jonathan to order a cancellation of the test and a refund of application fees, while promising automatic employment for the families of the deceased.

10 IS FOR OVER-2,000 BOKO HARAM CASUALTIES

Boko Haram, the Islamic extremist group terrorising northeastern Nigeria, accounts for the most frequent and the highest number of deaths in 2014. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), the sect killed at least 2,053 civilians in an estimated 95 attacks during the first six months of 2014. HRW figures were based on the detailed analyses of media reports, as well as field investigations. The killings ravaged more than 70 towns and villages in the northeast, Abuja, and a few other places outside the northeast, with an average of two attacks in a week in the final three months of 2014. Although the number of lives lost to the sectarian violence cannot be ascertained, women, children, and even able-bodied men in and out of the military died in 2014 at the hands of the insurgents.

http://www.thecable.ng/akunyili-adadevoh10-painful-2014-deaths

With due respect to the op i think this is utter nonsense.
I lost people who are much more close to me than Dora Akunyili. Adedavohs' death is a big loss but with due respect it to The families of Dora Akunyili her death is not more painful than my cousins' death.

KEFEES was the most painful... admins FP abeg

May their gentle soul rest in peace!

OAUTemitayo:
With due respect to the op i think this is utter nonsense.
I lost people who are much more close to me than Dora Akunyili. Adedavohs' death is a big loss but with due respect it to The families of Dora Akunyili her death is not more painful than my cousins' death.

Sorry for d loss, Temitayo. Each family truly have DAT one person whose death is more than a national loss

Thank you. You are very right.

Haryoryhemie:



Sorry for d loss, Temitayo. Each family truly have DAT one person whose death is more than a national loss