Death of HIV/AIDS crusader

October 19, 2006 :: Editorial, Vangaurd Newspapers,Lagos

THE sun suddenly set for Omololu Falobi, journalist and Founder/Executive Director of Journalists Against AIDS, a non-governmental organisation, that creates awareness on the deadly HIV/AIDS, the other week.

Falobi was killed by suspected armed robbers in his car around Kollington, Agbado area of Lagos State. The robbers were having a field day on the Abeokuta-Lagos Expressway, a presidential route that has fallen into disrepair - forcing the President to patronise alternative means of getting home - and has been under futile repair in the past seven years.

Falobi, 35, father of two young children, through seminars, symposia and lectures sensitised not only journalists but the public on the challenges of managing the HIV/AIDS virus. His passion in this assignment was legendary and those who met him testify to how dear combating the virus was to Falobi, who left his senior position in a national newspaper to pursue what he considered a calling. Within a short period, he got attention because of the commitment and purposeful direction he gave his self chosen assignment.

   
At a time that the world's attention keeps drifting from combating the menace of HIV/AIDS, especially in Africa, Falobi's death is a big loss to the tasking engagement of steadying the world's focus on a scourge that combines with poverty and illiteracy to devastate Africa. His young life was cut short by criminals who are emboldened by the ease of operations in these parts and the fact that the security agencies appear totally incapable of stopping these criminals.

The killing of Falobi has brought to fore once again the state of insecurity of lives and property in the country. People get killed and it is no longer expected that the killers would be found. In a matter of months, other deaths occur relegating the unsolved one to the long list of murders that have been filed away.

Funso Williams, Lagos, and Ayodeji Daramola, Ekiti, were murdered in quick succession. Both were Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship aspirants. With all the furore over their death, there are no serious leads to their killers. The promises that their killers would be found were the same trite lines that are recited everytime a major crime is committed.

Something has to be done about these mindless killings. No one knows whose turn it may be next. The increasing tide of insecurity must be earnestly arrested. The current distressing insecurity level constitute serious threat to meaningful development.

Falobi created an indelible impact in his momentous 35 years. His death will not be in vain if the fight against HIV/AIDS which he died propagating is carried to greater heights with visible results to show for it. Better still, his death should wake the authorities up from their deep slumber. The community that he served - humanity - should not forget the young family he left behind, for in a society without a social welfare system, they would be the ones to bear the brunt of this brutal death.

Adieu Falobi.