Lagos Waves Claim Final-Year Star: The Day Balogun’s Laugh Drowned in the Tide
By: Akinde S. Oluwaseun
It was supposed to be a chill hangout — just a bunch of uni execs swapping stories under the Idado sky. But for Damilola Balogun, a 400-level education student and soon-to-be president of UNILAG’s education students’ association, it turned into something else. Thursday afternoon, the waves were whispering danger. Locals were shouting. And Damilola? He was still laughing, arms wide, ready to flex for one last TikTok before the sea claimed him.
He’d gone down to Akodo beach with the outgoing crew — a handover party turned goodbye. By 2pm, after some football and laughs, Damilola nudged the general secretary: “Catch me doing a backflip, na only you fit make am look nice.” The guy warned him — “Water dey rise, no dey play.” But Dami, always the daredevil, just grinned: “No be small thing dey happen. I wan enjoy village life finish first.”
Then he waded in. One minute posing. Next, arms flailing. The current didn’t wait. It swallowed him whole. The general secretary turned back, and there was silence — then screams. Divers tried. The sea won. Two days later, his body washed up in Museyo, not far from where he laughed last.
He wasn’t just some student. He was the guy who stayed up till 2am drafting petitions for better hostels. The one who made you smile even when deadlines were crazy. The association called him “a star with dreams as bright as dawn.” And now? The beach where he drowned is quiet again — but not before taking a piece of so many hearts.
Funny how life works, right? Just last year, four teens drowned at Elegushi after celebrating their exams. Lagos keeps mourning its youth — swept away not just by water, but by the cruel luck of being young and fearless in a city that forgets to guard its shores.
The university still hasn’t released a statement. But on campus, they say his spirit lingers — in the halls, the chats, the quiet moments when someone asks, “What would Dami do?”
He was 22. Buried fast, by lantern light, in Museyo. Not a backflip hero. Just a brother who loved life — and didn’t see the wave coming.
