MAKURDI (CONVERSEER) – As one of the brightest young men of his time, Mathew Iormba scored impressively in JAMB and was confident that Benue State University would grant him admission to study Human Medicine. Sadly, he was denied, not for lack of merit, but because he had no one to stand for him.
Determined to pursue his dreams, he moved to the University of Jos for a remedial programme, where he excelled and emerged the best among his peers. Yet again, he was denied admission into Medicine, perhaps, this time because he wasn’t an indigene. Ironically, those with lower scores were offered admission.
Left with limited choices, he humbly accepted to study Pharmacy. Despite the hurdles and delays typical of Nigerian universities, he persevered. After five gruelling years and some added extensions, he graduated as one of the best in his class with flying colours.
After completing his NYSC, and true to the entrepreneurial spirit that he cultivated as a kid, selling kerosene in the then busy Yelewata Market, he had already begun establishing successful businesses in several places, apart from those of his elder brother—who has no formal education but spent all he had to sponsor him in the university—and he ran and supervise them effectively.
Just days ago, he returned to his Yelewata community to supervise some of his ventures. He decided to pass the night. It was there and then that the Fulani militia struck, cutting short his wildest dreams of becoming a renowned pharmacist, a business magnate, and an employer of labour, alongside many of his immediate family members and hundreds of his kinsmen.
Now, he leaves behind a young, beautiful wife, a daughter, and grieving parents and community, drowning in pain and sorrow.
Rest on, Pharmacist Matthew Iormba. The country you had so many plans for has failed you.
