Nigerians deserve more than an official conclusion in Habila’s death, contends PAT ONUKWULI
An unexplained death should unsettle any society that claims to value human life. It should matter whether the deceased was prominent or obscure, connected or ordinary, rich or poor. Mary Habila’s death is a matter of public concern, not because of her status, but because a young woman died in circumstances that remain unclear, and the state has a duty to establish what happened.
The matter remains deeply personal to her family, but it is no longer exclusively private. Nor can it be left to the discretion of the Minister of Works, David Umahi, or to those around him. Once a death is unexplained, responsibility shifts from private grief to public institutions. The task is not to manage reputations but to determine facts.
This is not an invitation to conjecture. It is a demand for evidence. Social media cannot establish a cause of death; political loyalty cannot settle disputed facts; sympathy cannot replace forensic inquiry. The question is not who controls the narrative, but whether the truth can emerge from an independent, competent and credible investigation.
Umahi should neither be condemned without proof nor cast as the principal victim of the controversy. Questions about the death do not establish guilt, yet they make him a person whose knowledge, conduct and environment may properly be examined. Scrutiny is not conviction, just as public office is not immunity.
