In search of greener pastures: The story of Chinenye Okonkwo – Nigerian student killed in UK car crash

“She wasn’t earning very well back in Nigeria where she worked with a beauty company. She believed the UK will be a good route for her to build a career, so she decided to move to the UK for a better life and better career.” Henry Okonkwo told Neusroom on the phone on Thursday, February 16, 2023, seven hours after friends and colleagues of his younger sister Chinenye Okonkwo gathered to pay her tributes at a Catholic Mass in Glasgow, the United Kingdom.

Chinenye Okonkwo, 33, moved to the UK in January 2022 to study, but a year after taking the decision she believed would change the direction of her career, she was killed in a car crash on St Vincent Street, Glasgow, on Thursday, February 2, 2023.

“Around 7.40pm on Thursday, February 2, 2023, officers received a report of a crash involving two vehicles and a pedestrian on St Vincent Street, Glasgow,” a Scotland Police spokesperson said in a statement sent to Neusroom. “Emergency services attended but the female pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene.”

The statement added that “The driver of one of the vehicles, a 28-year-old woman, was arrested in connection with the incident and released pending further enquiries.”

No one has been able to give a vivid account of how the incident happened. Not even the Police.

“We don’t know exactly what happened,” Nkechi Uzoma, one of Chinenye’s friends told Neusroom at the Catholic Mass on Thursday. “They said she was at the bus station when it happened.”

A Neusroom correspondent who visited the area where the incident reportedly occurred on Thursday, February 16, reports that the road is a very busy highway with multiple overhead bridges linking into different road networks. Local media in Glasgow also report that about 45 minutes after the accident that claimed Chineye’s life, there was another crash on the same St Vincent Street, about 200 yards away from the scene of the first crash.

In 2021, 361 pedestrians were killed in Great Britain, whilst 5,032 were reported to be seriously injured and 11,261 slightly injured, the UK Department for Transport says in its latest report on road crashes in the UK.

Family-oriented, humane and humble, are some of the words family and friends used to describe Chinenye Okonkwo at the memorial service organised in her honour at the Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) where Chinenye was a Public Health student until her death.

Before the 12:10 pm time set for the commencement of the memorial mass on Thursday, February 16, 2023, the small worship hall at GCU’s Faith and Belief Center had been filled to capacity with about 50 people – White and Black, who were all united in grief. All who knew her spoke glowingly about her calm and lovely personality at the memorial service attended by a Neusroom correspondent.

“She was the first friend I ever made when I got to GCU,” Nkechi Uzoma, one of her heartbroken friends told Neusroom. “Chinenye was a very happy and soft-hearted person. She will really be missed.”

Uzoma said Chinenye’s death “was a very terrible and sad incident.”

Ngozi, one of Chinenye’s closest friends who was visibly inconsolable, couldn’t speak to Neusroom at the Mass.

Some sources said Chinenye was on her way to her part time work that Thursday evening when she was involved in the accident.

Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) where Chinenye was studying for a master in public health. Photo: Neusroom.

“One of the major reasons why she left Lagos was because she wasn’t doing a tangible job in Nigeria, and she believed the UK will be a good route for her to build a career” her brother who also just arrived in the UK in 2023 told Neusroom.

Elizabeth Oluwafemi, president of Nigerian Students Society at GCU said Chinenye was a friend to all and an amazing person to everyone that knows her.

“We are deeply saddened by Chinenye’s death and to the entire Nigerian Students society in Glasgow and GCU, it’s a really sad event for us,” Oluwafemi said.

Thursday, February 16, 2023 Photo: Neusroom.

Stephanie Wylie of Springvale Care Home in a Facebook tribute said Chinenye was a lovely girl, very hard working and kind. “I had booked her for many shifts in our home over recent months.”

Born June 16, 1989, in the Ojo area of Lagos, Chinenye was the only female among her parents’ six children. The 2013 Microbiology graduate from the University of Ibadan in Oyo state, worked with a beauty company in Lagos before deciding to migrate to the UK for her master’s programme at GCU.

Her brother told Neusroom she was hospitable and very supportive.

Chinenye is just one of the thousands of young Nigerians who have left the country in search of a better life in Europe and America due to rising unemployment, economic woes and insecurity in the country. Experts and professional bodies have warned that the mass migration of young professional may lead to a brain drain in Africa’s most populous nation.

In 2021, 73% of Nigerians were looking to emigrate with their families, a 41% increase compared to 2019, a report by the Africa Polling Institute (API) says.

In January 2023, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors said at least 85% of Nigerian doctors are planning to leave the country to seek greener pastures overseas. In October 2022, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) said at least 5,600 Nigerian medical doctors migrated to the UK in the last eight years.

After moving to the UK for her 18 months master’s programme in Public Health, Chinenye also convinced her brothers to move to the UK. Henry Okonkwo, her brother, said she was supposed to graduate around April/May, 2023.

As attendees took turns to sign the condolence register at the Mass on Thursday, Elizabeth Oluwafemi assured that the Nigerian students’ body is doing all the best it can to ensure that justice is served.