The gospel singer, Prince Chinedu Nwadike’s passage on March 27, 2022, has drawn indignation from many quarters. They were all praising his “golden voice,” but none of them could help it.
According to an annonymous source Nigeria is to be blamed for the singer’s death.
He has pointed out how “we” failed him. Nwadike was not a friend of mine, but we were close. We started together as actors under the umbrella of Nollywood sometime in 1999, having purchased the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN’s) form before he left Port Harcourt, and the next big thing was that his music was everywhere. We were not in contact and there was no need for that till I saw his video sometime in the middle of March soliciting funds to help him attend to his failing health. I was aghast. A few people I talked to about his development said, “Is he not working with the government? Why is he asking the masses to help him? “bla bla bla.
It was a time of introspection for me after I noted the mindset of humanity here again. I knew that humanity here was hardly helping because one million and one people that cheered my posts on social media were nowhere to be found some time in the past when I launched crowd funding for my book project for a year. I shared the link to the project for people to donate to, and that’s a long story. Immediately some people saw Nwadike’s video asking for funds and how he was stooling blood, they arrogated that to something only they knew the definition of and gave him unprintable names that can’t even be given to shrewd ladies in the street.
It was then that I said to myself that some men with feminine features in Nigeria are sold on the back of what they might not be. And Nwadike had some feminine gestures! I thanked some notable Nigerians who donated to him, despite the fact that no tradition or religion says a donor to the needy should take credit for helping those in need by establishing a sort of cinema. When a Dibia made a donation of One Million Naira (N1M), humanity here was divided into religious lines, with one uncouth pastor making a video, saying that Nwadike should pray for forgiveness for accepting the N1m from a Dibia.
The irritant, called a pastor, even added that Nwadike needed more prayers than he needed money and the hospital. Except for the money bags in Nigeria and perhaps abroad, the majority of those making blog traffic to their news platforms with Nwadike’s death were nowhere with, say, N500, as a donation to the bank account he made public, when he needed money to assist him with. Rather, when he said that the earlier pronunciation by him of having renal failure had been corrected but something was wrong with his blood, some people made videos saying “Chinedu has cashed out”, using a sickness he didn’t have as an excuse.
While in a big city like Abuja, believed to have the best hospital, the money donated for his treatment was organized for his overseas trip for medical attention. Something that tells me that anyone who is seriously ill in Nigeria should not have hope for better treatment
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