There are other sad similarities.
 

Nelson Okele Malachy was arrested with a fake South African passport and was subsequently often referred to as stateless. However, by merely looking at his name as well as the facts of the case, he was clearly Nigerian. Chijioke has been described in several media as Ghanaian. However, also by merely looking at his name as well as the facts of the case, he is clearly Nigerian. For example, his oral evidence during trial stated  that he graduated from the University of Benin with a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Chemistry in 2003, completed his National Youth Service in 2004, worked for his elder brother (whom he named as Tochukwu Colinus Obioha) in Tochuckwu's electronics store at Alaba International market in Lagos, Nigeria until 2005 when he left for Singapore to seek a professional football career. Tochi, who was hanged in January 2007 had also allegedly gone to Singapore to seek a football career. During the Tochi/Malachy case, the South African Government naturally went to great lengths to affirm that Malachy was not a citizen of their Country, pointing out that he had a forged South African passport. It is obvious that such a situation will not  endear South Africa to Nigeria and Nigerian citizens. The image of South Africa was smeared by a Nigerian. No South African will like this. It is no surprise that Nigerians living in South Africa as well as visiting Nigerian citizens and officials are often treated shabbily in South Africa.

The Government of Ghana  will probably walk the same path concerning Chijioke who has been sentenced still fairly recently; a sentence which may yet take several months to carry out. During that time there will be a lot of negative publicity directed to Ghana. No doubt Ghana will then be forced to come out and  deny  his being a citizen of their Country, while their regard for Nigerian integrity which is already low will sink even lower.

 

The case  of Tochi had garnered worldwide publicity at the time due to his youth (when he was arrested in 2004, his age as stated on his passport was about 19 years), his apparent talent for football (he had represented Nigeria in some youth tournaments and had also played professionally in Senegal) and some controversy about whether he actually knew that the package he was carrying contained heroin or not. Olusegun Obasanjo, then president of Nigeria, had in fact sent a letter to the President of Singapore pleading for clemency on his behalf on the eve of his execution. It is doubtful that Chijioke will get such sympathy. For one, the excuse of not knowing the contents of a package which eventually turns out to be narcotics has already gone stale and will barely get a yawn from the appeal court judges in Singapore. Secondly, the teary story of the aspiring professional football star who does not make it and subsequently gets in trouble in foreign Countries has also worn thin. Thirdly, his stated age was 29 when he was arrested; no longer a boy, but a full grown man. Finally, there appears to be very  little doubt about his guilt as he was caught trafficking a large quantity of marijuana red handed.

 

Therefore, it seems more meaningful to use this situation to learn some lessons for future situations. Not that we have not learnt these same lessons before, but in Nigeria we seem to have a disease of repeating the same sad errors (must be deliberately) over and over again. So here goes.

 

While we should not excuse Nigerians (or anyone else for that matter) for committing crimes in whether at home or in foreign lands, we need to also examine the driving factors that lead to these things. It is becoming much too simplistic especially in view of clearly deliberate mismanagement of resources in Nigeria, to merely condemn the affected individuals without examining systemic factors.

 

In the case of Tochi, his evidence was that he had been playing football as a career since his early teens but got injured while playing in Senegal. After coming home to recuperate in Nigeria, he set out to continue his football career but opted this time to try his luck in Dubai. Through some unclear circumstances, he could not get a visa to Dubai but managed to get to Pakistan. He claimed he was told there was a direct train from Pakistan to Dubai. This information was false, there is no such train. Unable to get to Dubai both for lack of funds as well as lack of a visa, he got stuck in Pakistan. It was no doubt this desperate situation that eventually led him to the gallows through a series of unfortunate circumstances as well as some big mistakes on his own part of course. If Nigeria had a well organized National Football League, it is likely that Tochi may have opted to ply his trade at home instead of going on a clearly precarious trip abroad. While our Government officials are buying multi-million Naira mansions nationwide and worldwide through ill gotten gains or indulging in meaningless ego-trips, the untold other side of the story is that some of our people are being placed in tough predicaments, which when coupled with some bad luck and personal mistakes, are leading to dire consequences for them, including even ignominous deaths in strange lands.

 

As for Chijioke, he was arrested at age 29 after being in Singapore for about eighteen months. This implies according to his evidence that he came to try out for a football club in Singapore at about age 27. That is clearly rather late in age for a person of whom there is no evidence that he had a previous football career. It is also unclear that he had any real football talent. It is hardly a surprise that he was not selected to play for the club. It is certainly feasible that he may have anticipated this but just wanted to get out of Nigeria. Thus he found himself  in a strange land, with an expired visa as at January 2007. These factors must have played a substantial role in his being involved and eventually arrested for drug trafficking in April 2007. Yes, Chijioke did wrong, but again we need to ask why a University graduate of Industrial Chemistry (he claimed he graduated with a second class upper degree from University of Benin) would be reduced to such depths in the first place. While he bears a major share of the blame, we must also put a solid chunk of this blame squarely on a Government and a system that puts down its people and gives them very little chance to grow and develop with any dignity. When basic infrastructure such as Power supply cannot be done right despite millions of dollars spent, when housing, water and good roads are luxuries, when jobs are simply not available for the people even after they have made strenuous efforts to educate themselves under harsh conditions, it is inevitable that some bizarre situations and predicaments such as that of Chijioke will arise.

 

Governors, Ministers, and other public and not so public officials who use positions of trust to loot or otherwise mismanage the commonwealth while creating a roadblock to the smooth flow of life are also guilty of treason, premeditated  murder and genocide.
 

If or when the hangman pulls the lever to send Chijioke Stephen Obioha to an early death sometime later this year, you all have some of his blood on your hands. You know yourselves and while God Almighty may take His time, His judgement is inevitable.