Having read Chimamanda’s reflections on the loss of her parents back to back, I believe she understands the healing power of writing. It does not erase pain, but it helps one live with it. Eight years on, Kikaose’s photograph — also on the book’s cover — remains on my phone, a daily reminder that she lives on in my heart… United by loss and grief, I appeal to Chimamanda and to the many voiceless victims of medical negligence in Nigeria and beyond to join in demanding accountability.
It is a sorrow I recognize all too well, and one I imagine now envelops Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her family following the heartbreaking loss of their 21-month-old son, Nkanu, who passed away on January 7, 2026, at Euracare, a specialist hospital on Victoria Island, Lagos. Though the names, places, and years differ, the pain is achingly familiar—sudden, brutal, and life-altering.
When the acclaimed writer shared news of her son’s passing, her words resonated deeply with me. They echoed a nightmare my family has lived with since 2017—a wound that time has not healed, only taught us how to endure. Grief, after all, does not expire; it merely changes form.
In the passages reproduced below, Chimamanda recounts her harrowing experience at Euracare—an account now reverberating across both traditional and digital media. Her story of loss will be followed by my own: the story of a father who lost his daughter at 18 under similarly preventable circumstances. That account was first published on December 19 in 2017 in this column and other traditional and online platforms, again on Christmas Day of the same year in the Daily Trust newspaper.
These are not merely personal stories of sorrow. They are testaments to lives cut short and to families forever altered. Above all, they are reminders of the profound human cost of medical failure—and of the silence that too often follows it.
Here is how Chimamanda put it:
“My son would be alive today if not for an incident at Euracare Hospital on January 6th”
She lamented. Her expression of grief continued.
“We were in Lagos for Christmas. Nkanu had what we first thought was just a cold, but it soon turned into a very serious infection, and he was admitted to Atlantis Hospital. He was to travel to the US the next day, January 7th, accompanied by Travelling Doctors. A team at Johns Hopkins was waiting to receive him in Baltimore. The Hopkins team had asked for a lumbar puncture test and an MRI. The Nigerian team had also decided to put in a ‘central line’ (used to administer IV medications) in preparation for Nkanu’s flight. Atlantis Hospital referred us to Euracare Hospital, which was said to be the best place to have the procedures done”…
Continuing, she wrote.
“The morning of the 6th, we left Atlantis hospital for Euracare, Nkanu carried in his father’s arms. We were told he would need to be sedated to prevent him from moving during the MRI and the ‘central line’ procedure. I was waiting just outside the theater. I saw people, including Dr M, rushing into the theater and immediately knew something had happened.
A short time later, Dr M came out and told me Nkanu had been given too much propofol by the anesthesiologist, had become unresponsive, and was quickly resuscitated. But suddenly Nkanu was on a ventilator, he was intubated and placed in the ICU. The next thing I heard was that he had seizures. Cardiac arrest. All these had never happened before. Some hours later, Nkanu was gone”.
Surprisingly, she wrote.
“It turns out that Nkanu was NEVER monitored after being given too much propofol. The anesthesiologist had just casually carried Nkanu on his shoulder to the theater, so nobody knew when exactly Nkanu became unresponsive.”
With a grieving heart, she asked.
“How can you sedate a sick child and neglect to monitor him? Later, after the ‘central line’ procedure, the anesthesiologist casually switched off Nkanu’s oxygen and again decided to carry him on his shoulder to the ICU! The anesthesiologist was CRIMINALLY negligent. He was fatally casual and careless with the precious life of a child. No proper procedure was followed.”
Furthermore, she wondered aloud.
“We brought in a child who was unwell but stable and scheduled to travel the next day. We came in to conduct basic procedures. And suddenly, our beautiful little boy was gone forever. It is like living your worst nightmare. I will never survive the loss of my child.
We have now heard about two previous cases of this same anesthesiologist overdosing children. Why did Euracare allow him to keep working? This must never happen to another child.”
Although the tragic deaths of Kikaose in 2017 and Nkanu in 2026 occurred in different Lagos hospitals, the anguish of Nkanu’s loss—still painfully fresh—mirrors what my family endured eight years ago.
This latest tragedy underscores a disturbing reality: Nigeria’s healthcare system remains in a deplorable state. Little, if any, progress appears to have been made between 2017, when I lost my daughter, and 2026, when Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie suffered the devastating loss of her son. These recurring, avoidable deaths point to systemic failure rather than isolated errors.
As Chimamanda and her family now demand accountability from negligent doctors and medical institutions— articulated in her statement and reinforced by Dr. Anthea Esege Nwandu, a physician and family member of Chamamanda, during an appearance on Arise News’ programme — Perspectives, hosted by Ruth Osime, last Saturday—my family and I took a similar stand in 2017, determined that others would not suffer the same fate.
Consequently, I engaged in sustained advocacy and public enlightenment through a series of articles published in this column and across other traditional and digital media platforms.
Some of my media interventions since 2017, using Kikaose’s painful loss as a catalyst to expose the dire state of medical services in Nigeria, include.
“Goodnight At Noon Time: Lamenting The Death Of A Loved One” was published May 24, 2017.
“Last Letter To God: The Diary Of A Youth” was published July 4, 2017.
“Bereavement Hallucinations And The Collateral Beauty In Kikaose’s Passage” published Nov 12, 2017.
“No Happy Xmas…” was published on December 19th and on Christmas Day 2017.
“Nigerian Healthcare Situation: How Lack Of A Ventilator Killed My Daughter”, published in April 2018,
Interested readers may search online for the articles referenced above and my other media interventions on the matter.
Following our advocacy—whether by design or coincidence—the Lagos State Government under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu established the Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) to strengthen oversight of medical facilities, as we had long advocated.
Notably, it is this same agency that Governor Sanwo-Olu has now directed to investigate the tragic, untimely, and clearly avoidable death of baby Nkanu, reportedly due to medical negligence.
In solidarity with Chimamanda Adichie and her family, and to highlight the sobering reality that little has changed in Nigeria’s healthcare system eight years after Kikaose’s death, I am republishing an article I wrote in 2017. It calls for stricter monitoring of medical institutions and appropriate sanctions for negligent practitioners and facilities.
The negligence in Kikaose’s case in Goldcross Hospital 8 years ago is (1) after the surgery was completed she was wheeled out of the theatre and lodged in a room under the care of her mum and l without a doctor or nursing staff in the room to monitor her condition. Ordinarily, there should have been such support but it was absent. Also not available was the equipment or gadget that should have done the monitoring at such a critical time. Comparatively, when l had food poisoning a couple of years ago and l received treatment at First Cardiologist Hospital also in Ikoyi. Apart from a doctor and nurse attached to me and within a whispering call, I had all sorts of gadgets affixed to my body monitoring everything going on inside of me. Every half an hour either the nurse or in company of the doctor was by my bedside to check on me. On the occasion that they noticed that my BP was going up very quickly, they had insulin injections ready to be administered. When l rejected their attempt to administer it they both tried very hard to persuade me after which l accepted.
(2) How could a surgery during which the patient lost a lot of blood not have a ventilator available on stand-by to serve as backup if the patient lost control of her breathing as it happened with Kikaose? It was not until Kikaose told her mum that she could not see any more and a nurse was invited and it was discovered that she was losing her pulse after which she was rushed into an ICU and an ambulance was invited from Lagoon Hospital Apapa to ikoyi by 10 am- a typical hour in Lagos where the traffic jam can be horrible, that she received attention and at which time it was rather late (3) The situation was further complicated by the fact that the hospital was short of oxygen and the nurses and other personnel were seen running around in search of oxygen in cylinders as we watched our beloved Kikaose gasping for breathe with an oxygen mask on her face before she took her last breathe after which the medics started trying to resuscitate her to no avail. My regret to date is to have been naive enough to entrust the precious life of our beloved Kikaose into the hands of Nigerian doctors and the hospital system.
If we had been steadfast in our first instinct to put Kikaose on the next flight back to Birmingham, England perhaps she would be alive today.
But we failed her by reposing confidence in the health services system where it is generally believed that when one is ill, not having an alternative source of medical care more often than not, it is like one is faced with a death sentence. My wife and l were not allowed into the surgery theater so we are not aware of what really transpired.
One of the nurses in the emergency room informed us that our daughter is brave because in the midst of the whole confusion in the ICU, as the medical doctors were discussing whether to open her up again, she had the courage of her mind to inquire why they were contemplating re-opening her. She did not live to discuss that proposition with us because she did not make it out of the ICU alive. Our prayers are that one day, a high-minded medic in the theater in the course of carrying out the procedure on Kikaose, would reveal details of what went wrong on that fateful day.
If after Kikaose passed away, the medical system witnessed significant improvement following our campaign for improvements one would take solace that she did not die in vain. But to our chagrin, that has so far not been the case. Hopefully, with Chimamanda and family involved in the advocacy to hold hospitals and medical services providers responsible, perhaps the much sort positive change may manifest.
The choice of the article below — No Happy Xmas… —is deliberate. Published during Christmas 2017, shortly after our own devastating loss, it captured our grief during a season meant for joy. Its republication now is rendered even more poignant by the tragic loss of Nkanu in early January, just after the Christmas and New Year celebrations.
Below is that article, first published in this column eight years ago and later widely republished, titled “No Happy Xmas Without…”.
“Yuletide, which is widely celebrated as a period of joy and holidays for mankind, is especially remarkable in the Christian world. This is because December 25 is marked as the date of birth of Jesus Christ, the son of the Most High God, who we Christians believe is the saviour of the world.
It has been argued in some quarters, like in the book,
“Myth And Mystery: An Introduction to the Pagan Religions of the Biblical World” by Jack Finnegan, that Christmas was started by a pagan Roman king named Nimrod – the infamous builder of the Tower of Babel to challenge God’s authority, but his tongue and that of his co-travellers got twisted.
With no official records of December 25th being the birthday of Jesus Christ, there is a belief in some quarters that early Christians had adopted and institutionalised the pagan festival celebrating the Roman Sun god – Deus Sol Invictus as the festival of the birth of the son of God – Jesus Christ. And it has remained sacrosanct.
Over the years, the former view has prevailed over the latter and thus has become more mainstream despite the argument in recent times by the likes of Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam. He contends that the celebration of December 25, as the birthday of Jesus Christ, has no historical or empirical evidence to support the belief entrenched by the orthodox churches, which, by omission or commission, had blended the birth of Christ with a pagan ceremony.
Realistically, how can the birthday of Jesus Christ, the son of the most high God who is holy, be the occasion when people drink more alcohol and engage in devil-inspired revelry and debauchery more than any other day?
The fiery American social critic and human rights activist even parodies the foolishness of Christians, whom he believes are being exploited annually as they spend their hard-earned money buying Christmas trees and lights to decorate their homes, and in the process, enriching the merchants who sell those trees and lights that sometimes cause fire incidents in homes with disastrous consequences.
Incidentally, both Christians and people of other faiths enjoy the Christmas holidays and engage in fantastic rituals such as Santa Claus passing gifts through the chimney to kids, which mimic ancient Roman and Norse pagan rites, according to the World Book encyclopedia.
Ironically, the biggest exporters of Christmas merchandise are the Chinese and the Indians, who are mainly Buddhists and Hindus, who mass-produce the items cheaply in the two fastest-growing economies of the world.
According to Farrakhan’s analogy, it is these Chinese and Indian merchants who are non-Christians that benefit more than adherents of the faith from Xmas festivities because while Christians squander their hard-earned money at Christmas, the merchants earn income while producing and selling the memorabilia that commemorate watch night, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day ceremonies.
In Nigeria, some leaders of new generation Pentecostal churches like Daniel Olukoya, the general overseer of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM), discourage the flock that he leads from engaging in the celebration of Christmas in order not to inadvertently endorse paganism, which he believes those who celebrate Christmas may passively be engaging in.
To help members bridle their mouths and restrain themselves from joining in Christmas festivities, as it were, MFM encourages converts to embark on a more Godly and spirit-edifying exercise, which is a mandatory fasting and abstinence period. Adherents are advised to break their fast on January 1, after praying into the new year.
In life, two dates are critically important and uncontrollable by man: the day we are born and the day that we die, because birth and death are inevitable. Unlike Christmas, which is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible, the holy book records with empirical evidence that Jesus Christ died in April, which is why Easter is often celebrated in that month.
And coincidentally, my 18-year-old daughter, Kikaose Ebiye-Onyibe, who was on track to graduate in law from the University of Birmingham next year, suddenly passed away on April 12, the holiest month in Christendom, as a result of a failed surgery procedure to remove her ruptured appendix in Gold Cross Hospital on Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Remarkably, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ, who left indelible footprints on earth in a relatively short period, went back to heaven at a comparatively young age of about 35.
Given that the Bible recorded that man was ordained by God to live up to the age of three scores and 10 (70 years) and Jesus, the son of God, died at an unripe age, we are consoled that although Kikaose passed away at 18, she was a disciple of Christ. And her friends and colleagues at school have in their tributes, attested to that fact in their eulogies during the service of songs for her and thereafter.
They noted that during her lifetime, Kikaose “recruited an army for God” through her active evangelism and leadership role in campus church fellowship, as well as the house fellowship that she organised and led whenever she was home on holidays.
Kikaose’s passage has remained an irony and puzzle because she seemed to have returned from England (where President Muhammadu Buhari went to seek healing for a debilitating ailment) to Nigeria to pass away after bidding her siblings, mother, and me goodbye.
It’s baffling because it remains medically unexplainable how she was able to withstand the pain from an appendix that ruptured for about two weeks in England before she came home to Nigeria for the treatment of Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), which was the misdiagnosed ailment by British medical authorities that was discovered only after she had embarked on her trip to Nigeria.
Can you imagine how bizarre it was for us when a scan recommended by our family doctor revealed that Kikaose’s appendix had been ruptured and she needed immediate surgery to remove it?
Like a lamb led to the slaughter, Kikaose, who despite the excruciating pain in her lower abdomen, had been preaching to her younger sister since arriving home about heaven and rapture, dutifully surrendered herself to the doctors for the surgery after she assured her mum and sister that should she not make it out of the theatre alive, she was assured she would be with Jesus Christ, whom she had served diligently.
Unbeknownst to us, the Gold Cross hospital, smack in the heart of Ikoyi, with all the glitter and glitz whose doctors we entrusted with the duty of saving Kikaose’s precious little life, would fail us woefully because they had no life-saving equipment, such as a ventilator that could have sustained her life. It should boggle the mind that before Gold Cross admitted Kikaose for the surgery procedure, they insisted that I deposit half a million naira.
A payment which I promptly made at that midnight hour through the swiping of my debit card.
But, disappointingly, Gold Cross Hospital had no equipment commensurate with its high charges, which is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in the medical sector in Nigeria.
The dearth of equipment and personnel is equally dire in the so-called centres of medical excellence in Nigeria, like Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), and even worse still, the presidential clinic in Aso Rock Villa, which has become the shame of the nation as the first family exposed the abysmal state of lack of requisite medical facilities and supplies.
By the time the ambulance that the hospital called to convey Kikaose to the better-equipped and staffed Lagoon Hospital, Apapa, which has a ventilating machine, arrived about 10 hours after surgery, which commenced at about midnight and ended at 2 am, she had passed away.
At Christmas, Kikaose usually led the effort to decorate our home with a Christmas tree and lights, but now that she is no more, in her honour and in solidarity with the new revelation that Christmas may be a pagan festival, this year and going forward, there will no longer be Christmas trees or lights in our home.
So, for me, there is no Christmas without Kikaose and without positive change and succour for long-suffering Nigerians. I recognise that I’m not the only one who lost a child this year.
So, my decision to shun Xmas is also in solidarity with the families of many Nigerians killed or displaced by Boko Haram terrorists in northeast Nigeria and a horde of victims of Fulani herdsmen/farmers clashes across the country.
Although they may remain unsung, like my family and I, they are grieving and loathing Christmas without their loved ones. Apart from us, the former Board of Trustees (BOT) Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih, recently lost his second son, Eugene, to the cold hands of death. So also did All Progressives Congress (APC) leader, Bola Tinubu, suffer tragedy as his first son, Jide, passed away a couple of months ago, just as Dapo Abiodun, Heyden Petrol owner’s first son, DJ Olu, also passed away prematurely.
Expectedly, the pain of separation from Kikaose still pierces the hearts of my family members like a sharp sword, but we have resolved that although we miss Kikaose sorely, we will not mourn like pagans. Instead, we will magnify God that Kikaose led a holy life as we believe she has taken her place in the bosom of Jesus Christ, as she faithfully affirmed and looked forward to before she passed.
Most importantly, my family believes that even though we lost her, heaven gained as we now have Kikaose interceding for us in heaven until we meet at the rapture.”
Today, those of us who had identified as united in grief in the piece published some 8 years ago-Chief Tony Annenih has passed away, perhaps owing to old age, and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has become the President of Nigeria just as Dapo Abiodun is currently the governor of Ogun state.
That reflects how dynamic life can be.
ALTHOUGH the piece reproduced above helped me in 2017 to dispel the pain of the loss, the grief that drove me to write it—the loss of my daughter, Kikaose—remains deeply felt eight years on. That pain later compelled me to write a personal memoir, Beyond Loss and Grief: The Story of Kikaose Ebiye-Onyibe — A Survivor’s Manual for Coping with the Loss of a Child.
Available on Amazon and in select bookstores nationwide, including the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), the book is intended to support families confronting tragedies such as those experienced by Chimamanda Adichie’s family and mine.
Written both as therapy and as testimony, the memoir shares a heartbreaking yet hopeful story and includes afterwords by a psychologist and an education consultant to guide families navigating loss and those who may one day face it.
As I extend my condolences to Chimamanda and her family, I note that grief can either heal or destroy. There is grief that allows mourning and meaning, and grief that consumes those trapped within it.
Having read Chimamanda’s reflections on the loss of her parents back to back, I believe she understands the healing power of writing. It does not erase pain, but it helps one live with it. Eight years on, Kikaose’s photograph — also on the book’s cover — remains on my phone, a daily reminder that she lives on in my heart.
United by loss and grief, I appeal to Chimamanda and to the many voiceless victims of medical negligence in Nigeria and beyond to join in demanding accountability.
In fact, given the high rate of medical negligence in Nigeria why has the concept of medical legal not been born and thriving in Nigeria?
That is certainly one service that would enable us to honour our loved ones by fighting for justice and preventing avoidable deaths, so fewer innocent lives are lost before their time.
- Magnus Onyibe, an entrepreneur, public policy analyst, author, democracy advocate, development strategist, an alumnus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA, a Commonwealth Institute scholar, and a former commissioner in the Delta State government, sent this piece from Lagos