She was inches away from leaving Nigeria. The story of Dr Chinelo Megafu

Dr Chinelo Nwando Megafu’s dreams and promising career were also cut short by terrorists who attacked the Abuja-Kaduna train on Monday, March 28, 2022. I was studying for an exam when I saw Chinelo’s tweet calling for prayer around 11 pm on March 28.

I became numb the following day when I heard she had died, but that could not be compared to the devastating feeling that came with seeing the comments on her tweet.

It’s been a month since Chinelo Megafu and about seven others died in the attack, but no one has been arrested. Some passengers abducted by the terrorists were yet to regain freedom when Chinelo was buried. The minister overseeing the rail transport, Rotimi Amaechi, threw a jamboree at the 38,000-seater Adokiye Amiesimaka stadium 12 days after the attack to declare his intention to run for President.

Nigeria, as usual, has moved on after a few days of outrage.

Before deciding to attend her funeral service, I’d searched online to know more about Chinelo Megafu. I also spoke with one of her acquaintances on Twitter, a senior colleague. Many only knew her from a distance. But beyond the news headlines and 280-character tweets, I always want to know more about people in the news and those whose stories didn’t make news headlines. So a funeral service would be held for her on April 21 at Shepherdhill Baptist Church? Good opportunity!

At 10:47 am, when I stepped into the church auditorium at Obanikoro, along the Ikorodu road in Lagos, more than half of the seats were still vacant, but her parents and siblings sat quietly in the front row.

The atmosphere was calm and sombre. Officiating ministers, friends and family members flipped through the funeral programme as they waited for the service to commence.

Chinelo’s mother, Dr Akonam Megafu, clad in white, like her children and husband, projected withering confidence and smiled whenever guests walked to her to register their presence where she sat with her family.

Five minutes before the 11 am time set for the funeral service – Rev Israel Kristilere, the Pastor of Shepherdhill Baptist Church, led other ministers to Chinelo’s parents; together, they went out of the auditorium to receive Chinelo’s coffin. The atmosphere became more emotional as the pallbearers wended their way into the church.

About 10 minutes into the programme, I looked back from where I sat close to the choristers, and faces of grieving young and old had filled up the seats behind me. We were all united in grief.

Heartfelt eulogies and tributes were not allowed to flow in torrents. Only a few selected representatives of organisations and associations Chinelo Megafu and her parents belong to were allowed to speak.

As stories were spoken and memories shared, it appeared everyone internalised their grief as they calmly hummed to confirm the speakers’ stories about Chinelo.

All who knew Dr Chinelo Megafu spoke of her with enthusiasm. She is described as a humble woman brought up in a Christian home, a devout Christian, beautiful and empathetic, confident and highly determined professional. They are comforted that she knew Christ before her death.

“The only degree she’s going with is a BA (Born Again),” Israel Kristilere said in his sermon.

The first of her parents’ three children, Chinelo Megafu was just inches away from leaving Nigeria before she was killed.

Despite being a science student at Queen’s College in Lagos, she developed a keen interest in arts (painting) and playing the saxophone.

Her father, Engr Ifeanyi Megafu, said she took those traits from him. He also started painting and writing poems when he was a student at the Federal Government College, Enugu (FGCE). His obsession with musical instruments also grew, but he didn’t acquire any instruments until he married and had Chinelo.

“I revisited my musical passion after having Chinelo,” he said at the funeral after playing ‘a father’s song and elegy’ to Chinelo with his saxophone.

She won prizes in various art competitions and a certificate of merit at the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON). As a medical student at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, she excelled in sports, earning a silver medal at the Nigeria Medical & Dental Association Games (NIMSA) 2014. Before graduation from medical school, Chinelo was conferred the Invitti Award for ‘Beauty and Brains’ in 2016.

After her NYSC with the Kaduna State Health Ministry, she took a job as the Head of the Dental Surgery Department of St Gerrard’s Catholic Hospital in Kaduna, where she worked until her death.

Chinelo would have been 30 on October 26, 2022.

When she cried for help with a tweet during the attack on March 28, she was mocked by some Twitter users who are mostly supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and are always quick to shut down government critics.

“I’m in the train, I have been shot please pray for me,” that was Chinelo’s last tweet at 9:43 pm.

Her prayer request was mocked by government supporters who claimed she was lying.

“Are you dead now?” one of the trolls identified as Abolore tweeted.

Another asked what an ‘IPOBian’ was doing in a ‘Buhari train’.

Chinelo’s last tweet, which has amassed over 5,000 comments, over 18,000 retweets and over 52,000 likes as of the day she was buried, sparked an outrage on the internet for several days. Her trolls, led by 60-year-old Iyabo Awokoya, who is based in the United Kingdom with her family, quietly withdrew into their shells and locked their Twitter handles for weeks.

The reactions from Awokoya and other trolls were the major talking points of Chinelo’s father’s tributes and the preacher’s sermon at the funeral service.

“My first feeling, when I saw the reactions, was that of shock,” Megafu said. “Shock that our humanity could be so degraded, and some people could be so demented to rain vile and venom on her.”

It was his first public reaction since the incident.

Megafu said he had forgiven the country and those who mocked his daughter at the point of death.

“When someone from the government called to commiserate with us, a few seconds into the call, the next things he said were pure politics. I wasn’t interested. I only told him to release my daughter for burial, and I would handle the cost of bringing her to Lagos, which I did,” he said.

He urged the government to fix the country “so that we will stop losing our young ones and the best and brightest will not be taken away.”

A report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said young Nigerians make up the largest population of migrants from Africa to developed countries. Rising insecurity and the failing economy are reasons young Nigerians are leaving in droves.

“Chinelo was just inches away from leaving this country to further her studies and practice in an environment devoid of hate and fear,” the father said.

“Dr Chinelo was one of the most unassuming people I’ve ever come across. Though her online presence has not been as before since she’s become a doctor, her personality and sense of value always showed in everything she did,” Opeyemi Ajala, a Writer and Data Analyst, told me. “It’s extremely sad that Nigeria is skilled at killing its youngest and frustrating its brightest.”

Each person who paid tributes, including the preacher, Kristilere, lamented that they never thought they’d gather for her funeral or write tributes to her.

Dr Charles Ononuju, Chinelo’s supervisor during her internship at the National Hospital in Abuja from 2018 to 2019, said, “I had thought I’d be writing a reference letter and not your tributes.”

Kristilere was expecting an invite to her wedding and not officiating her funeral.

As the funeral service came to a close and we marched out of the church, the siblings and parents maintained their straight looks. They appear not to be interested in public attention.

I wished the family could talk to me, but her father had issued a caveat in his tribute. “There would be no interviews. Take everything I say here as the interview.” I had to respect the family’s decision.

As we sang the recessional hymn with grief-stricken faces, I asked again – “why does everything about this country feel so wrong and static? And why do terrible things happen to good people?”

I hope the Megafus find healing from the grief and the strength to go on.

As I drove back home, about 3km away from the church, a whispering voice kept reminding me of the Nigerian parlance, “may you not be a victim of Nigeria!”

Nigeria’s habit of killing its young and brightest is one thing I hope never settles into a permanent ritual.