Festival of Deaths in Ibadan, Anambra, Abuja: The Missing Link

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

By David Timilehin

In the field of research, the term “missing link” is not unfamiliar. It refers to a crucial piece of information, data, or evidence lacking or not being discovered, which is necessary to complete a theory, prove a hypothesis, or understand a phenomenon. Viewed from another lens, it could also mean a virgin land of knowledge that peasants of intellect have not dived into via shift cultivation.

A biblical story pertinent to this piece comes to mind here: There was a time when there was a great famine in Samaria, the capital city of Israel, following the besiege of the city by King Benhadad of Aram with the corrosive effect of the people resorting to consuming donkey’s head at the cost of eighty shekels of silver, and dove’s dung at the cost of five shekels of silver. The genial climate of the evening transposed into an apocalyptic darkness of the night when the king while passing by one day beheld the spectacle of two women bickering and brawling over the obstinacy of one to fulfil her own part of a contract of delivering up her son for consumption after benefitting from the other woman’s performance of her own side of the illegal bargain.

Heart-rended, the king placed himself on a curse if he allowed the head of Elisha– the prophet– to remain in his body if he [Elisha] did not do anything about the precarious situation.

At last, Elisha showed up and prophesied that: “About this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria, six quarts of fine meal will sell for a shekel and 12 quarts of barley will sell for a shekel.” The king’s right-hand man who was a first-class Economist and Finance expert with sound knowledge of the nitty-gritty of market dynamics as well as market forces remarked in utter disbelief: “Look, even if the Lord were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?” Enraged, Elisha replied to the man on whose expertise the king so much relied, “You will in fact see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat any of it.”

At the end, in fulfilment of Elisha’s prophecy and the pronouncement over the king’s right-hand man, it was recorded that when food became plenteous, the man was assigned by the king to man the gate and the people while scrambling for food trampled upon him till life was snuffed out of him. The account narrated here can be found in 2 Kings 6:24-33, 7:1-20.

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From my observation when I looked introspectively into the above story, I discovered that save for the man who was skeptical about God’s ability to suddenly command abundance in the face of excruciating austerity, there was no record– at least from available works of literature– about any other person who died from stampede while the people of Israel were in the fray for food, despite their long wait for a respite amidst a protracted period of hunger and privation. If a people who have been famished to the extent of eating each other’s children can refrain from a mad rush for food during the period of availability, how then do we explain a situation whereby Nigerians were scrambling for ₦5,000 and two rubbers of rice and some through that route transited to the land of no return? Is hunger the causative factor? I don’t think so. Or should we blame President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies for these tragedies? Partially yes but majorly NO! Should we blame the organisers who out of their hard-earned money deemed it fit to provide succour to the poor during the yuletide? Absolutely No! For to do so will be to punish the compassionate for his humanity. Who then is/are to blame? The victims. You heard me, right? Yes, the victims!

Nigeria is a country of disorderly people and a clime where the culture of anything-goes enjoys supremacy. This is a country of folks who have a penchant for cutting corners: When it favours them, they christen it ‘grace’, ‘luck’, etc. But if it goes the other way, they term it ‘cheating’, ‘corruption’, or ‘impropriety’, and you name them. In this part of the world, unhealthy and chaotic competition –which is irrefutably the law of the jungle– is the other of the day. From fuel stations to churches to offices, to schools, to banks, to campaign grounds, and other social gatherings, patience here is construed as docility.

A few weeks ago in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, about 35 children met their early deaths following a stampede that occurred during a funfair organised by the duo of Oriyomi Hamzat, the proprietor of Agidigbo FM; and Ooni of Ife’s ex-queen, Naomi Silekunola. Reportedly, there were mothers who flung their children across the fence into the venue of the event. What a height of unexampled irresponsibility!

Meanwhile, one would think that the Ibadan tragedy would serve as a deterrent against similar tales oozing from other parts of Nigeria. But that was not all. In that same week, two of such-like tragedies occurred again in quick succession – one in Anambra State and the other in Abuja, the nation’s capital. The gory sight of the lifeless bodies of the victims of the Anambra incident (mostly young ladies and women) in a video I watched sent shivers down my spine. Indeed whoever eats the (tiny and boneless) head of a tortoise will have tears in his eyes. Then the news of the Abuja tragedy blew torrentially like a whirlwind.

The intervals at which the above heart-rending incidents happened are conclusive proofs of our temperaments and proclivities as a people. What exactly were the hapless victims of these misfortunes looking for? Is it the meagre grains of rice? Or the beggarly amount of money to be given out? Painfully funny, it is not absolutely correct that the victims, cannot afford the items being distributed, but when the psyche of a people has been so programmed to leap at an angle for freebies, the result will always be what we have now.

Without prejudice to the works of literature that precede this piece on the subject matter, this is the missing link. I hope we do better next time. May the soul of the departed find eternal rest.

Timilehin David Abiodun writes from Okitipupa, Ondo State, Nigeria. He can be reached via email: at davidtimilehin2019@gmail.com or through his mobile number: 08134394720