“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”
Proverbs 29:2 KJV
In Ibadan, Oyo State, 35 children we confirmed lost their lives, with several others hospitalized, after a Christmas funfair turned into a chaotic disaster. Organized to distribute cash and food, the event at Islamic High School, Bashorun, was overwhelmed by an unanticipated crowd of over 7,500 people, far exceeding the 5,000 the organizers had planned for. Days later, as if the lives lost the previous days were not enough, tragedy struck again in Abuja at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Maitama district, where lives, including four children, were reportedly lost during a charity event for festive gifts. Similarly, in Okija, Anambra State, a stampede at a rice distribution event organized by Philanthropist Chief Earnest Obiejesi, claimed lives, leaving over 30 injured. In all these cases, the victims were vulnerable citizens, driven by desperation to secure the basic means to celebrate the festive season. These tragedies could and should have been avoided
We cannot afford to continue to beg issues in Nigeria! Our intervention on issues has to be direct because from all indications, it is clear we are talking to the deaf and the dumb whose minds are not open to the realities of life. Then therefore, we need to be direct and speak truth to the power. Except we want to put up a game of deceit then we could play the ostrich game of being economical with the truth. Death has come knocking and knocking so hard that we refuse to heed and take necessary political cum economic steps to address. And our pretence not to hear and take action is a direct invitation to chaos and the resultant effects are opened cancer to what our leaders had been trying to prevent from happening for a long while.
Spontaneous happenings across the country with the stampedes in Ibadan, Abuja and Okija within a space of three days is an invitation to a peoples revolt. How does one explain the deaths of chilren, women caught in preventable circumstances by citizens struggling for sustenance to keep life going! Struggling to get shares of free food for the Christmas period!
In this piece we need to be as factual as possible in examining the core of the problems that stem from bad governance.
I would want to look through the issue from the lenses of a reggae lyrics by a Jamaican musician, late Peter Mackintosh popularly known as Peter Tosh in his single album released in 1987 which comes in handy as the purveyor of this piece. The lyric goes thus:
“Gotta find a solution to this pollution
Gotta find a solution to this pollution
Gotta find a solution to this pollution
Gotta find a solution to this pollution
The poor man feel it
The poor man feel it
The poor man feel it
The poor man feel it
Gas gone up
Bus fare gone up
The rent gone up
For meal gone up?
Lighting gone up
The tax gone up
Car parts gone up
And me can’t take the first law
Gotta be a solution to this pollution
Gotta find a solution to this pollution
Gotta find a solution to this pollution
Gotta find a solution to this pollution
Only the poor man feel it
The poor man feel it
The poor man feel it
The poor man feel it
Only him feel it – yeah
Time gone up
Scallion gone up
Onion gone up
Red beans gone up
Black pepper gone up
Chicken gone up.”
Starvation and hunger have seized the land…things have never degenerated to this level when the likes of I.K.Dairo, the Nigerian an highlife musician in the 60s sang
Ilu le o, ko sowo lo de, okunrin kigbe, Obinrin nkigbe, kaluku lo nkigbe owo” which literally translate thus “men and women lamenting the paucity of money in the land, and no money anywhere.” That was a decade earlier before the rastafarians came up with a clearer perspective of the problems ravaging their land. No one knew all these would become prophesy applicable to the future which is now!To us, the most populus black race and who the famous global opinion poll described as “the happiest people in the world less than decades later, the lyrics was amplified to the world by Peter Tosh adding voice to the escalation of dangerous trend to human living with the gradual down turn in economic situation and the speed at which the ravaging issues have impoverished millions of people world over. Two decades after the refrain had gained traction of deadly turn which may eventually lead to what our leaders have been trying to avert.
Peoples revolt is beckoning at a faster speed with the happenings of these stampede. This, certainly, is not a joke. The warning signals had been looming for a while but by our attitudes and nature, we refused to pay attention. We prefer to turn blind eye and deaf ears to empirical details of these emerging warnings. Within the space of 3 days death tolls has rising to 87 and still counting, while few others are still lying critical injured in the hospitals across the country as a result of hunger in the land.
For the first time ever, Nigeria is in dire trouble state. Many walking corpses are on the streets, starvation is the name not just hunger! People in hundreds of thousands are dropping dead every second for lack of nutrients necessary for survival. “Palliatives,” our endeared euphemism for wrong government policy formation, is no longer the solution to these pollution in the land. What we have at hand is a result of our leaders collective failures over the years and the results of bad governance reaching its peak. The bubbles may soon burst sooner than later. It is an open sore vastly festering. The attempt to conceal and paper the cracks by some good samaritans seems not working as the numbers of less privileged is soaring by the day while the few handouts could not cater for the numbers of souls that are in dire need of foods to keep body and souls together is multiplying geometrically. With these multiple challenges of finding means of proffering solutions on ways to survive the pangs of hunger pervading has imported and improved the word “stampede”into our lexicon being witnessed across the land. Though l am not a prophet of doom, this may be the first leg of what we are yet to see like the singers quoted above have prophesied.
Emergent scenarios that have come up through reportage of stampede across the country of women with their infants strapped to back as victims were victims of the rush to get something to eat runs contrary to good governance. No sane or rational human being would sit back, arms folded and believe all is well in country full of plenty, but lack the political will to structure, organize and get its act together to live out its endowments to better the lots of citizens.
For how long do we continue to beg the issue while the fear of death is taking the sail out of us to speakout as a people? Death is the necessary end of humanity. Death is a sure end of every mortal, only the kind of death is what we don’t know and it would come when it would come. Death of children and women because of lack of food induced by lacklustre and myopia resulting in hundreds of thousands lives lost on charity is baseless, wicked if not inhuman self-centred leadership decisions in political considerations. What then does the future hold when our tomorrow, our young ones, are dying right in our very before? Seemed we forgot too soon that UNICEF warned last year of impending over 45 million Nigerians who were at high risk of food security. As usual our leaders play round the issue talking about palliatives and supply of grains as panacea to the problem. No one foresaw the spontaneous occurence of charity campaigns in the offing choosing Christmas period to call out people trooping for handouts.
These were not planned outreaches at different centres in the country. What an unprecedented casuality to round up the year on a sad note.
These incidents occurring within days and tied to the common thread of desperate citizens scrambling for basic necessities are an indictment on the government’s failure to address the scourge of hunger, poverty, and economic inequality in the land.
Our leaders have turned the sad situation into a comedy of competition to out-do one another and into a mockery of some sort, mocking the bereaved – saying I’m cancelling birthdays celebration or one engagements to mourn our children that lost their lives and their loved ones in such a terrible circumstances – what manner of heartless rulers and leaders has God fostered on us as a nation? Sending condolences, ordering investigations, or making arrests is not what matters. What is there to investigate in a nation where hunger and poverty are so rampant that citizens risk their lives for a bag of rice or a cash handout? The failure lies squarely on government that has prioritized political theatrics over genuine governance. It is shameful that in a country blessed with vast resources and potential, families are reduced to mourning during a season meant to share banters and celebration. These tragedies are not isolated incidents, they are the direct indictment on a government that has failed to uplift its people.
Is our conscience upright in the quest of building a nation where peace and justice can reign? All these signals are direct invitation to revolution either now or in very foreseeable time.
Infants are crying, no breast milk to nurse and nurture them, mothers are starving. Husband are submitting to suicidal mission because there’s no hope to fend for the families anymore. Youths are taking to crimes and we are crying for a sane society. Where would it come from? With people that have being badly traumatised and trampled upon while the gap between the rich and poor no longer exists? Only the rich and their cronies are the just to live in Nigeria.
Would the security apparatus in the country be able to curtail or contain the upsurge of people as fallout if these snow-ball into a bigger crisis? Of course the consequences would be enough to serve round. The critics will have their own shares as we are buried in the midst of the people who live in squalor and abject poverty. Theirs is even worse than those at corridors of power.
Hunger! Hunger!! is the message on the lips of people and the vibes resonates in every nook and cranny of the land. Time is fast running out, government needs to be awaken from its slumber. The clock hands is tickling away, Nigerian is not ready for the breakout of any seeming revolt which would furthermore worsen the already tense situation. This might sound alarming, truly it’s not a joke. Let these tragic events be a wake-up call to leadership at all levels: the time for change is now!
The incidents highlight the alarming conditions that many Nigerians are compelled to face. The tragic stampedes that took place during funfair in Ibadan, Oyo State, Abuja and Anambra during food distribution events. These devastating incidents, starkly highlight the alarming conditions that many Nigerians are compelled to face.
“The panic at these gatherings underline the extreme poverty and desperation that exist in our society—conditions that have been exacerbated by years of persistent and systemic misgovernance” l said earlier on in one of my articles on this subject.
A stitch in time, as the saying goes, saves nine.
*Lanre Ogundipe, a Public Affairs Analyst, Journalists writes from Abuja.
