O12: OMERUO, MATTHEW [DECEASED]

#1

Name: Matthew Olusegun Omeruo
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Place of Residence: Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria
Language/s: English, Yoruba, Nigerian Pidgin
Hobbies and Interests: Association football, teaching and tutoring, studying, his religion and faith, Scrabble

Appearance: Matthew is a little above average in terms of both height and weight. He reaches 5’8”, and he has some decent muscles in his core and legs, due to playing football for the school team, putting him at a weight of 159lbs. His skin tone is a dark brown colour, and his hair is black. It gets very kinky when left to grow out, but Matthew keeps it cut short, with a high fade. He maintains a good posture when sitting and standing, and is fortunate enough to have avoided any notable outbreaks of spots or acne; he is, overall, a picture of fitness and good health.

For better or worse, Matthew’s facial features don’t particularly stand out. He has a diamond shaped face, with full lips, dark brown eyes and a broad nose; the most notable parts of his face are his rather bushy eyebrows and his large ears. He generally prefers not to show his teeth when he smiles, as despite a decent dental care routine, they are yellower in colour than he’d prefer. Since last year, Matthew has started growing facial hair, which he trims daily to maintain a neat and tidy amount above his upper lip and along his jawline.

Matthew doesn’t have a particularly extravagant wardrobe, with most of his clothes being hand-me-downs or second-hand. He prefers to wear button-up shirts or polo shirts, paired with jeans. He has a couple of pairs of trainers, one that he wears each day to school and one that he wears for kickarounds after school with his friends, as well as a pair of smart black loafers for church services. The only accessory Matthew wears is a small silver cross on a piece of cord, hung around his neck.

When Matthew was abducted, he was on his way back from a training session with his school football team. Because of this, he was still wearing a pair of replica Nigerian national football team shorts and socks, along with a pair of white and green lace-up trainers. He was also wearing a faded navy blue polo shirt, with two horizontal white lines across the upper chest, and had his cross necklace on as usual.

Biography: Matthew was born in 2003 in the city of Lagos, to Victor and Obinne Omeruo. He has a younger brother, Mark, who was born in 2008. The family home is connected to a church, of which Victor is the pastor; he is the sole breadwinner for the house, as Obinne is a stay-at-home mother, who occasionally does odd jobs around the city. Nonetheless, Matthew has never really wanted for anything, and has lived, financially, in comfort all his life.

From a young age, Matthew was shown to be a smart, albeit quiet, boy. He enjoyed his lessons at school, and was frequently remarked upon as being studious and attentive in class. His parents, Victor in particular, had drilled into him the importance of his education, about how it would lead him to a well-paying job in the future, and how fortunate he was for receiving it. Matthew took this advice to heart, and to this day, sets aside a couple of hours after school each day for studying or homework.

Despite his quiet, studious nature, Matthew had no real struggles with fitting in and getting along with his classmates. Although he had no interest in being the ringleader for games and activities, he was always happy to join in when invited. The main game he and his friends would get up to, either during lunch break, after school, or at the weekends, was five-a-side football matches. Matthew initially started playing because it was what all the other boys were doing, but he quickly found he enjoyed the fast paced nature of the sport - and while he did enjoy studying, he also enjoyed the opportunity to get outside, relax, and stretch his legs. He found he was better at tackling and blocking than he was at shooting, so generally played in a defensive role during these five-a-side games.

Matthew’s popularity grew further as he moved up to secondary school. Victor, eager for his oldest son to have the best possible education and opportunities in life, paid a large amount of money to have him sent to St. Oswald Secondary School, Lagos, a private school on the outskirts of Lagos. Among the many benefits that going to a private school provided, the school featured several extracurricular clubs and teams, including a football team, to Matthew’s delight. Due to the small size of his year, and the fact he was generally decent at the sport, Matthew landed a spot as a starting central defender for the school team. He got on well with his teammates, all of them bonding over their shared love of the sport, and they would often get together to talk about the performances of their favourite teams or to trade football stickers. He supports Enyimba International F.C., and hopes to one day visit the city of Aba to watch them play at their home ground.

His teammates also quickly realised that Matthew was both a talented student, and was actively interested in learning and studying new things. They began seeking him out for assistance on homework and test questions, and news of this began to spread to Matthew’s other peers at school. Initially, he was more than happy to answer any questions his friends and classmates had about the subjects they were learning, but he started to become inundated with requests to complete homework for them, something he was reluctant to do as he believed it entirely defeated the purpose of studying. A few years into his time at secondary school, a different solution struck him, and he began to offer his services as a peer tutor to his classmates, a number of them taking him up on this. He finds teaching and tutoring others much more rewarding, both for himself as it allows him to demonstrate his knowledge and expertise in the subject he’s teaching, and for the tutee as it allows them to work out the answers to questions by themself, rather than just having them force fed to them. A few of his former friends did cut ties with him when it became apparent he wouldn't do their homework or studying for them, putting a small but notable dent in his popularity, but Matthew holds them no ill will, and has stated that if they ever need help or a tutor, he will welcome them with open arms.

Matthew has been raised Christian, and is a devout follower of the religion. His parents drilled into him the tenets of Christianity, along with the importance of offering charity and generosity to those around him, particularly those less fortunate than him; this being another reason why Matthew decided to offer tutoring for his friends and peers. He assists Victor with his Sunday services, and occasionally on Saturdays will go with Obinne to help out with her odd jobs around Lagos. Despite the family’s comfortable economic standing, Matthew has a rather small number of belongings, much of what he does own being gifts from friends and family; he has no desire to own more material possessions than necessary. He feels a great sense of fulfilment in helping out and assisting others in any way he can, whether that be helping clean the church after service or simply lending an ear to listen to someone’s problems.

Although much of Matthew’s life is taken up by playing football, studying, and tutoring, he always makes sure to set aside some time for his family each day. The Omeruo family eats meals in the evening together, and on most days will try and spend some time together afterwards. One of Matthew’s favourite things to do is to play Scrabble, something he gained an interest in after hearing his parents playing it. He’s quite good at it, able to use uncommon words he’s discovered while studying in order to get high points scores. His parents still end up winning most games they play, but Matthew is much more interested in spending time with them than with beating them at Scrabble. He also occasionally plays it with his classmates during lunch break at school, generally on rainy days.

Matthew has attempted to introduce Mark to Scrabble as well, but his younger brother has been much less receptive to the game than Matthew was. Mark has difficulty with putting down long words, and will often put down something that is spelled incorrectly, which frustrates and upsets him. He is also notably struggling at school, as he is likely suffering from an undiagnosed learning disability. Matthew has noticed this, and has started to help Mark out with his homework, answering any questions he has, and trying his best to help him from stressing out about school.

Unfortunately, this has led to no small amount of frostiness between Matthew and his father. Victor believes that Mark’s struggles with schoolwork are due to incompetence and laziness, rather than due to any true difficulties with learning, and will often compare him unfavourably to Matthew, asking him why he can’t be more like his older brother. This only serves to make Matthew feel uncomfortable, and for Mark to get more upset, both at his father and often at his older brother, often reacting poorly to his genuine attempts to help.

In addition, Matthew has recently started to question some of the things Victor has taught him over the years. His belief in Christianity has taught him that all people are to be respected and treated as his equal. However, Victor has imparted upon his family that this does not extend to certain groups of people; specifically, disabled people and LGBT people. Matthew has been lead to believe that both are blasphemers against the lord and that they should not be treated with any form of kindness, and he has believed this for most of his life, but as he has grown and has developed his own interpretations of Christianity from his readings, his belief in these viewpoints has wavered. He is struggling to see any reasons, beyond that his father has told him so, that he should treat gay and disabled people any differently from anyone else. Matthew’s trust in his father has also been damaged by Victor’s reaction to the recent escalation of violence by SARS members in Lagos. Victor believes that anyone injured or killed by SARS got what was coming to them by protesting against the government, and his opinion has not wavered, even after Matthew has informed him that friends and family members of his classmates were attacked by SARS.

Matthew still excels at school, and is a well-liked and well-respected member of his year. Teachers appreciate his quiet, polite nature, his football teammates like him for his skill and friendliness, and his services as a tutor are hugely appreciated by those who require them. His best subjects are maths, science, and geography, as he works better at subjects that have a definitive answer to any questions asked in relation to them. He does a little worse at subjects such as more creative subjects, or subjects open to interpretation, such as literature and history, but he is fascinated by language and its usage in writing. Matthew is able to speak and write in English, Yoruba, and Nigerian Pidgin. He has more than a passing interest in Latin, and is interested in learning it at university.

After graduating, Matthew plans on studying to become a teacher. He doesn’t think there is anything more gratifying than helping others and trying to improve their experience of learning, and is prepared to study as hard as possible in order to achieve this goal.

Advantages: Matthew is very easy to get along with; he is polite, courteous, and friendly, all of which should serve him well in gaining allies. In addition, he is dedicated to helping out people in need and dealing with them in times of stress, which will likely also benefit him in getting allies and people onto his side. He is calm and rational, rarely getting stressed or angry, and is able to keep a cool head under duress and when difficult decisions have to be made. Matthew has good stamina and strength from playing football, and is in good general shape and fitness, which should help him if he needs to, for example, run from somebody. He can also speak English at an above-average degree, which should help to alleviate any potential communication issues.
Disadvantages: Matthew has been raised to believe several prejudices, particularly against LGBT and disabled people. Although these believes have wavered recently, he may not have completely shook himself free of them, and may be wary of anyone openly gay or disabled, which would only likely alienate and anger many potential allies. Matthew is completely opposed to violence, as it goes entirely against his beliefs, and so is very unlikely to try and actually attack anybody; even if he is attacked, he is likely to try and avoid hurting his attacker when defending himself. Matthew has lived in comfort for all of his life, and so the situation he is placed in will be a major culture shock for him.

Designated Number: O12

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Designated Weapon: Trishula

Conclusion: Another soccer player, and unlike O05 I don't see much use for this kid. Fit and with a good melee weapon, but opposed to violence to the point of barely defending himself? He better have some thoughts and prayers for his chances, cause what I see is another early out. - Quaker