2024 End-Of-Year Tragedies

The Year 2024 is ending on a mixed note. For at least 45 years now, I have heard people lament that Christmas items were more expensive than they were the previous year.

The lamentation this year is louder and rightly so. The removal of the fuel subsidy and floating of the naira are two of the major policies that have thrown more Nigerians under the bus of hardship than any other government policy I can remember.

Unfortunately, discussions on both policies have been enmeshed in political, personal and ethnic lines rather than the real issues. I am no economist and I do not pretend to be one, so I tread carefully when discussing economic issues. But what is obvious is that it has been a very difficult year for many Nigerians.

You do not need to be an economist to know that the current economic hardship contributed substantially to the avoidable deaths at Ibadan, Abuja and Okija. As an insurance practitioner, reverence for life comes to me naturally. In motor (third party), builders liability insurance and occupiers’ liability insurance, there are specified limits for compensation in naira to damage to properties belonging to third parties. But in the case of death or injuries to third parties, there are no limits of liability (compensation). The implication is that you cannot place value on life, loss of limbs, etc. Compensation is usually paid based on negotiations.

It is very traumatising when you hear Nigerians dying during stampedes to collect food items for Christmas. In Ibadan, 35 children died. You know what that means? How many children do you have? Very few Nigerians have up to 35 children. Okay, let’s say all your father’s grandchildren (your children, nephews and nieces)? Some of us still do not have up to 35. These are the children who died avoidably in one sad incident.

Reports say some of the children arrived as early as 5am with or without their guardians. My main problem here is that the dead are children. We all owe one another a duty of care and when children are involved, the duty of care is higher. The planners, with all their good intentions, should have had this in mind.

Let us move to Okija in Anambra State. The foundation has been giving food items to the people for the past 14 years without hitches. So, why was 2024 different? For me, it is the increasing hunger and desperation. One of the organisers said that the “announcement was made in all the 30 villages in Okija for people to come over and get their palliatives on Saturday and the people were assured that there were enough palliatives for everyone. The event was scheduled for 9am on Saturday, but as early as 12 midnight, people left the comfort of their homes and slept at the gate of the foundation.”

If the organisers of an event that has gone on hitch free for 14 years tell you there is enough for everyone, why the desperation? For me, this goes beyond the pervading hunger in the land. Some families had the husband, wife and children at the venue, why? The organisers said there is enough for everyone, so it cannot be a case of if, father does not get, the wife or children would. Let’s call a spade a spade, that is greed.

When you go to ceremonies, the celebrants share gifts in bags. Each guest is entitled to a gift bag, but when the ceremony is over, you see some guests going home with as many as seven gift bags. That is the attitude people who went to the venue with many family members have. In any case, my advice to the organisers is that they should decentralise the distribution and do it in each of the 30 villages subsequently to avoid stampede.

Also, same day in Abuja, another tragedy struck when 10 persons died during an annual Christmas food-sharing event at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Maitama. The food sharing was organised by St. Vincent de Paul, a society renowned for catering to the needs of the poor irrespective of religion, denomination, ethnicity, nationality, etc. Everywhere, there is a Catholic Church parish, there is St. Vincent de Paul Society. They have been doing this every Christmas and at all times. That is what the society is all about: supporting the poor, orphans, widows and other vulnerable members of the society. Other parishes in Nigeria and worldwide, I dare say, did what Holy Trinity parish did this Christmas. So, what happened? They were probably overwhelmed by the crowd this year.

Where human lives are involved, politicising issues irritates me. Ibadan in Oyo State is under the control of the People’s Democratic Party. Okija in Anambra State has Professor Charles Soludo of APGA as governor and the Federal Capital Territory has Chief Nyesom Wike, a PDP member, serving in an APC-controlled federal government, as minister.

Leave out politics and blame the system. What crowd control and safety measures do they all have in place? Commiserations have been all over the media. Have government officials visited the bereaved families to commiserate with them personally. During electioneering campaigns, candidates visit voters at home to solicit for votes, so condolence visit is no big deal. The desire to get food items for Christmas drove many of the dead to the venues where they met their untimely death; has government and the various groups who organised these events taken food items to the living members of the affected families?

I want summarise with my take on all the incidents. One, there is unprecedented hunger and hardship in the land. The twin factors are the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira. With the commencement of the operations of the Dangote Refinery, the resumption of production at the Port Harcourt Refinery we already have enough for domestic consumption and even export. I expect petroleum prices to drop further, so subsidy removal is the right move.

Two, economic experts say the naira is undervalued. The federal government should put in place policies that will help put the naira at its real value. This will automatically increase people’s purchasing power and lift more people out of poverty. There is too much poverty and too many vulnerable people in the land. Government has put some policies in place to ameliorate people’s suffering, but they are not enough. A lot more needs to be done.

At tough times like this, people forget that Nigeria is a federation. What are the states doing with the huge allocations they are getting? The welfare of the people should take precedence over any other projects. Also, every state in Nigeria, including Lagos with a small landmass, has arable land. States should invest heavily in agriculture. If there is abundance of food, prices of food items will go down and make them more affordable. It is a simple law of demand and supply.

The local governments areas are nearest to the people. What are they doing with the humongous monthly allocations you get? Many of the local governments have agrarian communities. They should liaise with the federal government, state governments and other relevant agencies to get fertilisers, higher yielding seedlings, cassava stems, etc, for farmers. Let us use a multi-prong approach to drive hunger from our land.

Finally, charity is good and God bless all the givers. But some people are naturally greedy and desperate and there is nothing you can do about that. But you can put adequate security and safety measures in place to neutralise that desperation and greed. The New Year celebration is just four days away. Subsequently, there will be Muslim festivals and Easter celebration. Thunder must not strike the same spot again. Individuals and groups must put safety and security measures in place to make their benevolent activities joyful activities, not sources of pain and sorrow.

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