They Hung Tyre On The Head, Doused Fuel Before lighting Fire

There is no better way to capture the level of anger and frustration in Nigerian youths than what transpired in their now receding nation-wide protests.

Anyone and anything directly or remotely connected to their frustration, was a prime target in the #EndSARS protests that eventually went out of control.

In Onitsha, hoodlums took advantage of the protests to descend on the statue of Nigeria’s first president, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe..

“You are the cause of our trouble,’’ was how one of the rioters described the late elder statesmen before they descended on it. First, they hung a disused tyre on the statue before dousing it with petrol and torching it.

In not time, the statue erected under a year ago by the state government at Denis Memorial Grammar School roundabout in Onitsha, was on fire.

Of course, they were armed with dangerous weapons and chanting war songs and no one could come to the rescue.

A report from NAN quoted one Mr Victor Ononye, a kisman of the late Zik as describing the incident as “heresy and sacrilegious’’.

Dr Azikiwe must be expressing regrets at the action as the deceased statesman was one of the architects of independent Nigeria, he reportedly exclaimed.

He was later to tell the reporter: “What happened at the DMGS Roundabout, Onitsha, which I saw with my own eyes, evoked tears,

“They decapitated the hand and went away with his title staff. That is the height of ingratitude by ignorant people who know nothing about history,’’ he said.

Ironically, the situation could have been saved when two vigilante stopped, but when the boys hailed them, they drove off

The Eagle understands that the hoodlums destroyed all the ornaments used in beautifying the site of the statue.

“They were few in number. Why the police, a stone throw away to the roundabout, could not intervene, was a mystery.

“All the iron bars erected round the site were removed. All the decorative lights and materials around the site were vandalised.

“I saw two vigilante men brandishing rifles and riding on a motorcycle. They stopped and the boys hailed them and they rode off.

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“It is a pity! Zik of Africa; the sage, who facilitated the end of the Nigeria civil war; Zik who built Nigeria’s foremost University for excellence in the education, doesn’t deserve this,’’ he lamented.