Nigeria, June 1 -- On May 16, 2025, with her heart half in her mouth, Miss Emmanuella Ahenjir entered a vehicle from Gyado Villa area ofMakurdi, the Benue State Capital, to Wukari in Taraba State. The 23-year-old student of the Federal University Wukari was headed back to school. But she never made it. At the Wurukum roundabout in Makurdi, she was shot dead by another one of many of Nigeria's trigger-happy policemen, who opened fired on the vehicle when the driver refused to stop.

She may not have had the sort of piercing premonition that would have made her postpone her journey, but for many years now, there has remained something ominous about travelling on Nigerian roads. The dilapidated, potholes-ridden stretches of the road don't ev...