₦airaland Forum

Seeing the image below — the woman, a widow they say, holding the body of her only son — does something to you. It is not just heartbreaking; it unsettles you in a way you cannot easily recover from. You don’t just feel sad, you feel confused… almost disoriented. Because how is something like this still happening?

I found myself staring at it longer than I should have, not because I wanted to, but because my mind was trying — and failing — to process it. How do you even begin to comfort a woman like that? What do you say? “Sorry for your loss” sounds almost insulting in the face of that kind of pain. As a parent, I tried to imagine it, but I had to stop. There are places the mind refuses to go, not because it cannot, but because it knows it should not.

And the truth is, this did not just happen. This was allowed to happen.

That woman is not only a victim of violence; she is a victim of neglect at the highest level. Because what else do you call it when citizens keep dying in the same ways, in the same places, and nothing fundamentally changes? What else do you call it when lives are lost and the response is routine — statements, condemnations, promises — and then silence, until the next tragedy?

At some point, we have to be honest: this is no longer about “unfortunate incidents”. It is about a pattern. And patterns point to failure.
You do not have to hate the government to admit this. You do not have to belong to any political side. Strip everything away — the slogans, the loyalties, the arguments — and look at the outcome. People are not safe. Families are being destroyed. Communities are living in fear. If the basic duty of any government is to protect lives, then we have to ask a simple question: is that duty being fulfilled?
Because if it is, this should not be normal.

When people say “Nigeria is happening to people”, this is what they mean. It is not just about hardship or money. It is about waking up every day in a place where your life can be cut short, senselessly, and it barely disrupts the system. That is why people leave. Not everyone is chasing wealth. Some are simply running from the possibility of becoming the next headline… or worse, the next forgotten story.

And then there is something even more disturbing.
That video of a young man being lynched while others go about their day — that one is hard to shake off. Not just because of what was done to him, but because of what was not done by everyone else. People passed by. People watched. No one stepped in. It is as if something inside us is slowly switching off.
We are getting used to things we should never get used to.
And that might be the most dangerous part of all.
Because when a society stops reacting to evil, it creates room for more of it. When outrage dies, accountability dies with it. When people begin to accept this as “just how things are”, then nothing changes — and everything gets worse.

For those of us who still feel disturbed, who still lose sleep over things like this, it can be exhausting. It feels like you are out of place in your own country, simply because you refuse to accept what is happening as normal.
But it is not normal.
It should never be normal for a mother to hold her dead child like that. It should never be normal for people to be killed while others walk past. It should never be normal to scroll past tragedy after tragedy and feel nothing.
And yet, here we are.

The painful truth is this: a country that cannot consistently protect its people is failing them. Not occasionally. Not accidentally. Systemically.
And until that truth is faced — honestly, without excuses — images like that woman’s will keep appearing. And each time, we will ask the same questions, feel the same anger, and watch nothing really change.

I like that Tinubu acknowledged her when he visited Jos briefly, but I was shocked that there were too many sycophants in that lounge clapping for an incompetent leader on a condolence visit

SmartPolician:
I like that Tinubu acknowledged her when he visited Jos briefly, but I was shocked that there were too many sycophants in that lounge clapping for an incompetent leader on a condolence visit

Acknowledging her from an airport lounge isn’t the same as showing up where the tragedy actually happened. Presence matters — especially in moments like this.

If power supply was the reason his visit was cut short, then that only raises a more uncomfortable question: who is responsible for fixing that problem in the first place?

This isn’t about sentiment or brief appearances. It’s about accountability and follow-through. Leadership is measured not by quick visits or kind words, but by whether the conditions that lead to these tragedies are actually being addressed.