Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet
USAfrica: Tobi Amusan’s gold medal and Nigeria as a graveyard of talents. By Kene Obiezu, contributor to USAfricaonline.com
In a tale of two videos which quickly followed each other (between July 24 and July 25, 2022) – with one shattering the heart and the other mending it, two events, continents apart from each other, were witnessed by Nigerians.
On March 28, 2022, just a day before Nigeria was supposed to confirm its participation in the 2022 World Cup scheduled for Qatar by swatting Ghana aside at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja, horror took haunting form and hunted down some passengers on a train travelling from Abuja to Kaduna.
When the terrorists were done with their operations, at least nine of the passengers were killed; many injured and many others abducted.
The next day, a soccer-crazy country promptly drew the tie when only a win would have been enough, to send a less-fancied Ghanaian side to the World cup and further darken the national mood.
It has now been more than three months since the country receded into darkness within those two days, and in the captivity of the terrorists who continue to taunt the Giant of Africa with heartbreaking videos of unspeakable cruelty, about 43 innocent Nigerians remain, some of them children.
In a video released by the terrorists which went viral on Sunday July 24,2022, the male victims were flagellated with whips as they cried out in agony. For those who have been collecting the heartbreaking images and moments of Nigeria`s demise, it was another prize piece.
The terrorists went on to mock Nigeria in the video, threatening President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State.
In the agonizing wails of the victims in the video, Nigerians do not need to strain to hear the death rattle of a country that once promised so much.
While the terrorists whipped some Nigerians as if they were thieves and threatened a government seemingly growing mor impotent by the day, in Eugene, Oregon, Tobi Amusan surged to the gold medal in the final of the women`s 100m hurdles event, smashing in the process the world record.
Amusan, the current commonwealth champion, finished in a time of 12.06s,0.08s better than the 12.12s she posted in the semi-finals to push Jamaica`s Britany Anderson to second place, and current Olympic Champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Cuba to third place.
She was promptly reduced to tears as the Nigerian national anthem was rendered during the podium ceremony.
Undoubtedly, hers were tears of joy. But given the size of the champion runner`s heart, some of those tears were undoubtedly for Nigeria and the graveyard it has become.
Tobi Amusan no doubt put many years of work into her record shattering feat to surge into the hearts of many Nigerians, and there is no doubt that she will stay there.
For years now, a country of impulsively happy people has gradually been reduced to a place where every news is bad news and depression continues to deepen.
The national mood has become so dampened by pain and despair that even when feats like Amusan`s happen,the celebration is brief and forced.
Amusan’s achievements is some validation for a country that has continued to show that in spite of its many difficulties, it remains a prolific producer of talents. For Tobi Amusan who is only 25, and Nigeria, this just the beginning of more gold and glory. There is more to come. Much more.
Someday too, out of the hearts of Nigeria`s young people, hastily branded ‘lazy’ in 2018 by an evidently incompetent president, redemption will come for Nigeria from the claws of the predators who prowl Nigeria’s halls of power.
Disaster loading with “a sitting President asking for civil war.” By Chido Nwangwu
