Goodbye Clementina

February 7, 2007 by muyiwa

I just read this article on ThisDay - online edition - by Simon Kolawole (update: the above link requires you to login to read the article. Use this one on the same topic) lamenting the appalling security situation in Nigeria, and I can't find the words to express my sadness and anger at what Nigeria has become under the watch of a delusional egomaniac president who is more concerned with protecting his dubious legacy of economic reforms than ensuring the safety and security of his countrymen, most of whom now live in what has effectively become a failed state.

Clementina Saduwa was a tireless and extremely effective volunteer student leader a few years back, when the IEEE Nigeria Section was being revived, and she went on to become the first ever IEEE Region 8 Women In Engineering (WIE) Coordinator. This promising wife and mother of two has been denied the opportunity to pass along her legacy to her children by the failure of her country to afford her the most basic benefits of citizenship. Clementina will surely be missed.

As a result of the near-total breakdown of law and order, promoted and supported by the president himself in his flagrant disregard for court rulings and outright encouragement and support of extra-legal behaviour in the conduct of national matters, another promising Nigerian professional has been cut down in her prime. One wonders how many Nigerians who are either unwilling or unable to leave the land of their birth will be cut down in the prime of their youth before the power-drunk old man in Abuja wakes up to his responsibilities.

For reactions to Clementina's passing, see here and here