It is not for nothing that Nigerians have maintained a high grading among the list of the happiest peoples of the world. We are a people who let nothing rob us of any occasion to celebrate. Birth and death, appointment and retirement, birthdays, housewarming and religious festivities–irrespective of one’s faith–are occasions for merry making.
Christmas season falling at the end of the year is one most Nigerians anticipate and work towards. Many other ceremonies such as weddings, reunions, burials and reburials are usually fixed to coincide with the season thus making December assume a carnival mood in most parts of the country.
However, the whole nation wears a mournful look as deaths came as cheap as a bag of rice for many, mostly women and children, just a week to Christmas.
The dark clouds came down first at Bashorun Islamic High School in Ibadan on Wednesday, the 18th of December, 2024 where as many as 35 innocent children were trampled to death at a children funfare organized by the estranged Olori of the Ọọnirisa,Naomi Silekunola under the aegis of her Women in Need of Guidance and Support. It was the promise of free food items, five thousand naira and other necessities that have become hard to get that brought those precious souls to the event. As the nation mourned the Ibadan victims, disaster struck next in Okija and Abuja on Saturday 21st December, 2024. Obi Martin, a well known philanthropist who had done much for the Okija people to the extent of building houses for the less privileged was at it again when the surge of the crowd who were there for bags of rice and other precious food items led to the death of 22 people confirmed by the local government authority. The deceased were women and children. The Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Maitama, Abuja as well has a long history of helping the poor not limiting that to just the parishioners. Again, the hope of laying hand on the preeminent Nigerian staple, rice, was the main pull. Things nevertheless went awry when a stampede resulted in 10 dead, including four children and six women, among them expectant mothers as authenticated by the police.
Could such grim news be prevented? Could anything had been done to prevent death from wrecking such havoc: harvesting such a sum of unripe fruits; uprooting seed yet to germinate thus destroying hope and the hopeful? What went wrong? How did it happen? Who takes the blame? What do we do to avoid future occurrence? These are some of the questions that beg for answers.
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Governments and their agencies are apt to finger organizers of such events for poor planning, organisation and execution. In addition, they complain of organizers not involving relevant government agencies such as the police and emergency management authorities. While this may hold true, it is likewise true that Nigerian law enforcement agencies know how to ban what they consider as illegal gatherings and protests even when no one informed them of these. Moreover, it is not certain whether there are any laws mandating those who may want to help others to report their activities prior to execution. And if there are, how far have the concerned agencies sensitized people to this?
The Oyo State government has arrested the organizers of the Ibadan event with a promise to bring them to book. Some opinion leaders have voiced their disapproval of this even as some expressed support. However, the crux of the matter is, how would their prosecution, maybe for negligence or whatsoever, compensate for lost lives and help prevent future occurrence? We should bear in mind they had good intentions. They were not out to hurt the innocent.
Furthermore, government agencies have been involved in causing deaths by stampede before. How sure are they that they have what it takes to prevent this sort of disaster? The Nigerian Customs Service held an auction for rice this February. About eight people lost their lives in the ensuing surge of crowd. The death through free rice when the former first lady Dame Patience Jonathan was distributing rice a decade back is still fresh in memory. Both involved security agencies.
Matter-of-factly, Nigerian law enforcement agencies seem to have no clue on crowd control. There had been stampedes at stadia resulting in deaths. The most gruesome is the young lives cut short at Abuja Stadium at the recruitment exercise of the Nigerian Immigration Service when now Senator Abba Moro was the supervising minister of Interior. If Dame Patience Jonathan, Senator Abba Morro and the management of the Nigerian Customs Service were not prosecuted, why punish those with good intentions instead of finding lasting solutions to a persistent evil?
It is glaring that the reactions of governments and the police to the latest Litany of woes is the usual fire brigade approach. The “initial gra gra” aimed at pacifying the people until other spectacular news pushed these to people’s subconscious.
Many have fingered the present economic hardship as the reason for the deaths. But when we remember that this evil of death for palliatives has been with us for longer than the present economic troubles we should learn to shift our blame elsewhere.
The first thing to do is to train our law enforcement agencies on crowd control and management. Agencies like National Emergency Management Authority, NEMA and its state counterparts, SEMAs should be adequately equipped to handle such events. We may need to make laws mandating organizers of crowd gathering events to involve NEMA , SEMAs, Fire Brigade and Police in the planning, organisation and execution of their events. In addition, buildings, especially public building plans should not be approved without the input of safety experts.
But pending the time we get these done, there is need for all to continue to be each other’s keepers. Organizers of events should not wait until a crowd gathers before opening their gates. Once a crowd gathers, don’t open your gate until you are sure of orderliness. Ir stampede is sure to ensue. If people trickle in one by one there’s less possibility of chaos. Maintain orderliness once they are in before distributing whatever you have.
In conclusion, we need to commend President Tinubu who has shown much concern as we pray for the repose of the souls of the departed and comfort for the bereaved.
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