So sure of itself, Google boasts that we “Ask anything”; so I asked, “Why do people die?” The answers it gave are as interesting as they are intriguing. Google says “people die for a variety of reasons” and these, according to it, include aging. “The most common cause of death, aging is a natural process that occurs as cells in the body die and are replaced by new ones”

Other causes of death it listed are cardiovascular diseases “such as heart disease and stroke” It also lists cancer as “another leading cause of death, and chronic respiratory diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease”. Injuries and infectious diseases are other causes of death according to Google. It then explained that “the time it takes for someone to die depends on the cause of death, the (concerned person’s state of ) health, and any treatment they are receiving”.

To many, the question why do people die must appear trite, if not silly. People must die, anyway! Whatever has a beginning must surely have an end. Imagine what our world – or your immediate environment – would look like if people don’t die! The scripture says death is inevitable. The wisdom of our people says there is no one who comes to this world that will not taste death. Death, therefore, is inevitable and unavoidable, which was why Julius Caesar said in William Shakespeare’s play of the same title: “It seems to me most strange that men should fear; seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come. Cowards die many times before their death, the valiant never taste of death but once”

Another silly, so-to-say, question that I often ask myself is, why did we even come into this world? What for? Life appears to me a mere routine and drudgery of sorts: what we do today is what we will repeat tomorrow, ad infinitum ad nauseam. The food we eat, what we drink, the clothes we wear, the activities we engage in are all routines. No matter how rich you are today, someone will be richer than you tomorrow. Where are the Da Rochas, Agbonmagbes, Baba Olowos, SB Bakares, Ajanaku of Ilesa and even the MKO Abiolas of yesterday?

 Today, it is Dangote but tomorrow belongs to someone else. Someone is coming that will build a more beautiful house than today’s the most beautiful house. Have you seen the ruins of the palatial buildings of Mobutu Sese Seko and Idi Amin Dada? If you are the most beautiful damsel today, more beautiful ones are yet to be born. Someone will surpass any achievement you record today. And in a matter of decades, if you are not totally forgotten, you would have become ordinary. The rave of today would, at best, be a footnote of history down the line.

What is the purpose of life, afterall? Achieve everything if you like but be sure you are taking nothing away with you. We gather but others enter into our labours – most times they are those we do not even know or approve of. We have no control, even knowledge, of what becomes of those things that we treasure once we are gone. Death, the grim reaper, is no respecter of persons. Which is why my people call him OLOJO – the owner of the day. He owns just one day – but that day arrives in the life of every person. Days, months, years and decades – even a centenary and more – may belong to you to amuse yourself as you jump up and down thinking you are doing something great, but the day OLOJO comes, he strips you of everything and sends you packing – helpless, naked, empty and penniless.

There are more causes of death than the ones listed by Google. In fact, for every death, there is a cause – if an autopsy is performed. There was this day decades back that I sauntered into the office of Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti at Imaria Street, Anthony, Lagos. Beko’s office was a second home to progressive journalists in those days. I expressed surprise seeing him tending a cup of black coffee – no milk, no honey or sugar. I exclaimed: “Comrade, what is this thing you are doing?“ He answered, “What?” I drew his attention to the cup of black coffee before him. “You are a medical doctor: Don’t you know that this is harmful to your health?”

Beko’s trademark wry smile played on his lips as he answered: “Is that why you are surprised?” I said of course! He waved me aside with “It is something that will kill somebody!” While I was still trying to take that in, he asked: “Have you seen anyone who dies that doctors did not tell you the cause of death?” Beko was right! For every death, there is a cause. With all the advances in healthcare in the advanced countries, people still die there! One-time president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, just died a few days ago aged 100 years.

And therein lies the difference! Some causes of death are understandable and acceptable but others are not. Carter’s death, as a result of old age, is understandable but the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by the Russia/Ukraine mindless war is not. The ongoing genocidal war in the Middle East is unacceptable. The killing fields that all manner of religious bigots and militants, bandits and sundry criminals and vagrants have turned Nigeria into is not acceptable. The thousands of hapless Nigerians that die these days as a result of poverty and government insensitivity is unacceptable.

Perhaps the greatest killer in developing countries is poverty, where people cannot afford the cost of basic medicare and where the government turns a blind eye to their plight. In 1989 when I visited Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, the policy was that any Libyan in need of medical attention that was not available in the country would be taken abroad for treatment at the government’s expense. Were such a safety net available here in this country, thousands of lives would be saved every year.

Life is cheap here. People die needless death. What ordinarily should not kill people kills them here. What no longer kills people elsewhere kills them here. Years ago, Iyiola Omisore (ex-deputy governor, Osun State; ex-senator, and ex-National Secretary of APC) expressed surprise that Nigerians die for the inability to raise paltry sums for medical treatment. So, Omisore made it a point of duty to spend 1st of January every year in hospitals and motherless babies’ homes bringing succor and hope to the hopeless. I pray he still does so today, being the 1st of January, 2025.

 Why is it that it does not appeal to our governments to set aside a fund to take care of Nigerians in need of paltry sums that make the difference between life and death? The billions we spent on Hajj subsidy (which eventually found its way into private pockets), those spent on renovations of this and that – why can’t a fraction be set aside to save the life of poor Nigerians whose medical needs are beyond their own reach? Since such provisions for medical treatment abroad are made available to our leaders, why not extend the same to ordinary Nigerians?

Year’s back, I lost a very dear friend because he needed just N10m for medical treatment abroad. A governor-friend that I thought would help considered it politically-unwise to expend a “whopping” sum of N10million on just one person when he could spend a fraction of that on a hundred patients in dire need of peanuts for medicare and reap the attendant political mileage.

On 17 December, 2024, I made here on this page a strident appeal for help on behalf of a man who was once a dutiful usher in my parish; that was after The PUNCH newspapers had graciously published the same story weeks before. He needed a pacemaker which cost N10 million. Few days later, before help could come, the man died! I received a few calls thereafter; I thank them! The man’s distraught and financially exhausted family needs help all the same.

Now, as if that was not enough, I received, a few days ago,  an SOS from a coursemate and comrade at Great Ife whose wife needs N30 million for kidney transplant. He stated matter-of-fact that there is no way himself and his family can raise the money – except help comes their way.

Now, these sums are paltry to some of our countrymen. In fact, it should not be too much for the government to set up a fund for the purpose of indigent citizens with failing health- just like we now have the Students’ Loans Fund. It is the duty of the government to take care of the health of its citizens. A safety net for the poor and vulnerable becomes necessary to take care of this need. Where none is available, needless deaths will continue to occur. And everyone will soon realise that they have to make provisions for themselves by any means possible. And will you blame them?