Palliatives of death by Tunde Akande

But now in the yuletide season, small number of deaths is yielding to large numbers of casualties.

It's Christmas season again, a season celebrated with funfair. Although Jesus Christ who is celebrated in the season was not born on this date on 25th December, humans all over the world have continued to celebrate him, even those who don't believe a word of what he taught and who he is. Somehow, whether it's just a creation of some psychological dispositions in the hearts of men or something else, the season brings some calmness with it. Everybody is calm, everybody suddenly becomes generous. Some can steal to celebrate the birthday of a man who came to teach that man should not steal but work to give. But in Nigeria this year the current situation seems to change that psychological dispositions and generosity to one of calamity. Men, women, the poor, the scum of the earth are dying. Nigerians are in a season of palliatives of death.

President Bola Tinubu started it as he sought to wriggle out of the consequences of fuel subsidy removal and the floating of the naira which he obviously didn't think through before he announced them on the platform of his inauguration as Nigeria's 16th president. President Tinubu distributed his palliatives through the state governors and as usual with the country's corruption most of the palliatives ended in private pockets and not with the poor to which they were targeted. Yet in distributing the little that was distributed, some died and some got wounded in the scrambling that attended the distribution. But now in the yuletide season, small number of deaths is yielding to large numbers of casualties. First it started with a preacher turned land merchant, Mathew Ashimolowo whose genuiness as a preacher of the gospel some of his colleagues are questioning who came to Ibadan at the Liberty stadium to preach the gospel and distribute food. Ashimolowo said he was showing love. He distributed more than government did and for a whole week. A factory worker, Waheed Adedeji who daily passes the Ring Road, Ibadan that leads to the Liberty Stadium venue of Ashimolowo's largesse as he goes to work told this writer that each day he saw people with loads of rice, beans, vegetable oil etc on their heads which they got from Ashimolowo's generosity. But the distribution stopped when two persons were trampled to death. Though it was not widely reported, Waheed Adedeji vowed that it happened and it was what made Mathew Ashimolowo cancel the whole exercise.

As if some demons in Ibadan were thirsty for blood, it was the turn of another evangelist, Naomi Silekunola, the ex-wife of Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi to bring generosity to Ibadan. She organized N5,000 naira for 5000 children. She asked Mr. Hamzat Oriyomi, a popular radio journalist to anchor the event. But things turned sour when rather than only children that were invited responding, adults also came along. According to Hazmat Oriyomi, even very old women came too. Thugs also crashed into the event by scaling the fence of the Islamic High School, Orita Bashorun in Ibadan, the venue of the event. In the aftermath of the invasion by thugs who beat the children and some adults snatching the gifts they received and in the process trampling the children, some 35 children were left dead. Alhaji Hazmat Oriyomi was stripped naked according to his own account while he was rescuing the children who had fallen. He also ended in the hospital.

Hazmat Oriyomi blamed the greed of the people of Ibadan, in that adults shouldn't have responded. But it is beyond greed, it is the deep hunger which the Tinubu administration and the insensitive administration of Governor Seyi Makinde have unleashed on the people. It doesn't matter what fence was built, it doesn't matter what the distance the venue is, everyone wanted to be there because that may be the only meal for a few days. The people of Ibadan, the very large city that played host to the successful government of Chief Obafemi Awolowo when he was the first premier of the Western Region in Nigeria had become very poor and highly populated. Progressive governments of Oyo State had neglected education that hold promise to elevate the people from grinding poverty. The current administration of Governor Seyi Makinde is running a free education programme which is more on his lips than in the brains of the students. Schools are dilapidated and teachers are poorly motivated.

Books and exercise books are promised to be supplied free but the promise is never kept. Hardly do students receive four exercise books each in a year. Books are not supplied at all. Parents have grown cold to education because even the ones that are educated up to the university level don't get jobs. They either "Japa" or roam the streets as Yahoo boys. Japa is the new coinage that defines Nigerians who escape abroad by all means fair or foul while Yahoo boys are the internet fraudstars. A combination of parents' lack of interest and government unwillingliness to step into the situation have led to a situation where the students are very poorly equipped for public examinations. The students therefore fail enmasse each year and end up on the streets as urchins either begging money from their friends who use motorcycles for commercial transportation or forcibly take money from them. Sometimes it leads to big fights.

A government that is alive to its responsibility will not close its eyes to social issues in a thickly populated city as Ibadan but the deputy governor of Oyo State, Bayo Lawal who went to see the dead and wounded children at the University College Hospital, Ibadan said the government was not aware of the '5,000 naira for 5,000 children' event. That statement left many indigenes of the city amazed. Where was the State’s Ministry of Women Affairs? Where were the security apparatuses? Where was the governor himself. The deputy governor excused the security service, saying they were not informed. Should they wait to be informed or should they be on top of every situation? That is the bane of security in Nigeria. They want Mohammed to go to the mountain, they will never go to Mohammed. They are ever looking to extort event planners. The event was very well publicized on radio, yet the government is claiming ignorance, another word for saying it lacks interest in the people it governs. Anybody who expects those behind the event to be held into account will wait till Godot. Naomi Silekunola, the sponsor is reportedly with the police but you can be sure she will be back in her house very soon. At the time of writing, the CEO of Agidigbo Radio, Alhaji Hazmat Oriyomi is in the hospital and the whereabouts of Governor Seyi Makinde is yet unknown. He may have travelled abroad to celebrate the Christmas with his family who are based in the United Kingdom.

Palliative of death kept spreading round Nigeria at yuletide. As President Tinubu was commiserating with the people of Ibadan and asking for the ugly incident to be probed; that's the Nigeria standard, massive calamity because of government insensitivity and irresponsibility, then a report which will gather dust forever on the shelves of government offices and then forgetfulness until another one happens and the cycle is repeated again; another disaster happened right under the nostrils of the president. The Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Abuja in the spirit of Christmas decided to give palliatives to indigent residents of the capital city of Abuja. As expected hundreds thronged the venue due to deep poverty and hunger, which led to a huge surge, after which ten people were trampled to death and eight were wounded. The Catholic Church has a reputation for excellent organization, so it must have been that the Church had a crowd it did not anticipate. Another event in Anambra state experienced twenty deaths while distributing rice. Nigerians are very hungry and desperate.

Even the possibility of death cannot scare them away from wherever they will get food to eat neither can it scare them from where they can get petrol to scoop for sale or to put in their cars or generators. Recently some soldiers dressed in uniform were seen in a video scooping petrol from a tanker which fell on the road. The poster put a very beautiful caption on it: who will make arrest now?

Yet President Tinubu is not ready to backtrack. It has become known now that subsidy removal and currency floating never worked in countries that employed them. Experts in economic history have mentioned Germany after the 2nd World War where it was employed and where it led to the Germans changing their currency because the policy made a mess of it. Japan experienced same when it adopted the policy after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagazaki. Why Tinubu and his advisers think it will be different in Nigeria is unfathomable. The signs are showing, pointing to extreme danger ahead. Just recently Tinubu exulted over a 3.6 per cent GDP growth in a particular month but while the president is exulting over this paper growth, there is nothing to show positive effects in the lives of Nigerians. Nigerians have not forgotten how cerebral Ngozi Okonjo Iweala now the Director General of the World Trade Organization after juggling figures arrived at a GDP for Nigeria which instantly put the country ahead in Africa. But it was mere figures, the Goodluck Jonathan government that Okonjo Iweala served as finance minister made no impact on the lives of Nigerians. When will rulers stop to deceive Nigerians? When will Nigerians put a stop to the oppression of their leaders?

First Published in METRO

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Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos.