FOUR the many families that lost loved ones, it could not have been a merry Christmas. I sympathise with them and offer my condolences. All of those who died in the stampedes were in search of wherewithal to make the season as merry as possible. Sadly it was not to be. In all, no less than 67 persons lost their lives, including women and children, in three different locations in the country.....Click Here To Read Full Article >>
About 35 persons, mostly children were killed in Ibadan, in the week preceding Christmas, while the following Saturday, about 22 also died in Okija, Anambra State, at a giveaway event organised by business magnate and philanthropist, Dr Ernest Azudialu Obiejesi. In Abuja, the national capital, another 10 people died at another giveaway event organised by a parish of the Catholic Church.
As is usual here, the authorities have been quick to apportion blames, saying the organisers did not put effective crowd-control measures in place. As a result, organisers of the Ibadan event, are currently behind bars in a police station. They are a popular broadcaster and operator of Agidigbo FM in Ibadan, Alhaji Oriyomi Hamzat, and former wife of the Ooni of Ife, Queen Naomi. It is not known whether similar fates have come the way of Anambra and Abuja organisers where people also died in stampedes.
As the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo once said: “Problems are like plants. They have roots.” What was the cause of the stampedes? A deeper look beyond the surface would reveal that apart from the disorderly attitude of our people at such events, the principal cause is deep-rooted poverty. Most families are struggling with the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis in more than five decades since the end of the civil war. Between 2015 and 2023, the national economy was virtually run aground by the administration of Muhammadu Buhari.
Under the watch of this taciturn general, the country raced back into the debt trap from which it had been freed from during the Obasanjo administration. In addition, insecurity soared sky-high as bands of marauding herdsmen militias roamed round the country and drove farmers off their lands, and in the process, created huge shortages in food supply, which led to the remaining available food being sold at high prices.
The country was thus set on the road to famine. In addition, bands of kidnappers were also operating without let or hindrance; it became a dangerous undertaking to travel from one point to another, and for a country that depends a lot on trade among the various states, another deathly blow was dealt to economic activities. As experience has shown, a 50-kg bag of rice which sold for less than N8,000 when Buhari took over governance in 2015 was selling for nearly N50,000 by May 2023 when he left.
If that was not bad enough, in his inaugural speech as president, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu peremptorily announced removal of subsidy on petrol. The marketplace reacted very viciously to this as transport fares skyrocketed while prices of food items, transported mostly by road, headed for the sky, burst through the homosphere, and made for outer space. At the moment, a 50-kg bag of rice is selling for between N103,000-108,000. In a country whose minimum wage is N70,000, just how many can afford that? And rice is a staple!
Is the president aware that university lecturers and many company executives have resorted to sleeping in their offices to cut costs of transport? Is it also known by the president that a man with four children in primary and secondary schools in Lagos needs as much as N4,000-6,000 daily for childrent to go to school and return?
In his maiden media chat aired last Monday, the president spoke about the deaths from the stampedes, saying it was a “grave error” by the organisers.
“It is very sad that people are not well organised. We just have to be more disciplined in our society. Condolences to those who lost members, but it is good to give,” Tinubu said. “I’ve been giving out foodstuff and commodities, including envelopes in Bourdillon, for the last 25 years, and I’ve never experienced this kind of incident because we are organised and disciplined. If you know you won’t have enough to give, don’t attempt to give or publicise it.”
This is where the president got it wrong. Of course, I do not expect him to say that his policies are behind the burgeoning poverty in the land and that is why he needs to be told so. Saying that he has been doing giveaways for 25 years without incident is rubbing salt into injury. How accessible is Bourdillon in Ikoyi, Lagos? That is a very exclusive part of Lagos. VIIRA (Victoria Island & Ikoyi Residents Association) is arguably the most powerful community residents association in Nigeria, with the country’s most well-heeled people as members.
The association, many years ago, got the Lagos State Government to ban okada and danfo from operating in their precincts. If not, the Bourdillon giveaways would turn to bloodbaths as people throng the president’s residence for their share of his giveaways! I challenge the president to attempt a giveaway at Agege Stadium or somewhere else in Alimosho in Lagos and see the results. Let the truth be told: the president and his government must take responsibility for the deaths of our hapless people during the giveaway stampedes. His policies are also responsible for deepening poverty in the land, and I hereby urge him and his government to triple their efforts at working the economy to bring relief to the people. TGIF.
Apart from the disorderly attitude of our people at such events, the principal cause is deep-rooted poverty. Most families are struggling with the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis in more than five decades
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