The last one week has been rather sad and sobering. Even if the
unfeeling head of a tortoise is your delicacy, you are not likely to
ignore the avoidable deaths in Uyo and the tragic drama shows in our
Senate chamber. I see the two events as parts of a continuum in our
morbid romance with disasters. How many people really died in the Uyo
church collapse? We may never know because the dead were just bits of
wood. The names of the dead, can you remember one? Dignitaries escaped
the harvest of death because the elevated part of the church was little
affected. When the poor die as happened in Uyo, you are likely to see
the kind of mellowed emotion you got from the officials of state. We
celebrated big the escape of the big men and shed dew tears for the many
ordinary souls that went down with the crash. The state discriminates
with everything and in everything. Even death has class. Any stupid
death of the big attracts state mourning, flags at half mast. But when
the poor die in tens and scores, the state reacts with stale statements
cloned from similar faded stories. In life and in death, the weak don’t
make headlines. It is exactly situations like this that make the wise
vow never to lose his head in any crowd.
You have read the classic called Death in the Cathedral. That one occurred in the realm of fiction. Several murders are committed by pious men in holy places. The ordinary die ordinary deaths in cathedrals and are buried in shallow graves. No noise. Such avoidable deaths in the house of worship dots the landscape of history. You remember Synagogue in Lagos last year? You remember the several deadly stampede in Mecca during Hajj? It is an irony that people who seek security in worship end up in the belly of insecurity. These man-made tragedies are easily repeated because no one really gets punished for them. We do not have a justice system that values deterrence. We easily exonerate man and blame God for our acts of criminality. Someone’s negligence and, possibly, greed crashed the Uyo building. And when it happened, we asked just why and moved on, waiting for the next disaster and the next why. The Uyo tragedy won’t get anyone punished because no big man crashed with that iron roof.
I was getting worked up asking how and why? A friend wondered why I was burning valuable energy in a recession over a disaster that wasn’t the first and won’t be the last. He reminded me that the worst fire disaster in history occurred in a church 153 years ago. It was in Santiago, Chile. Can you notice how history replicates itself across space and time? The Nigerian tragedy was on December 10; the Chile disaster occurred on December 8, 1863. The point of departure was in the severity of the loss. The Chile tragedy took thousands of worshippers. It took 10 days to remove the remains of the dead. How many died in the Uyo incident? We are still counting. How did the Uyo crash occur? It was sudden. Death descended on animated worshippers, the roof with its iron bars came crashing, crushing skulls. How did its Chilean ancestor happen? It was at a Church of the Company of Jesus celebrating the Feast of Immaculate Conception. Worshippers were deep in prayers for the good things of life and for salvation after death. But death was right there in the cathedral cocking its gun. A gas lamp ignited a window curtain, someone rushed to put it out. Something went wrong and the fire quickly spread to the wooden roof. Commotion. Everyone wanted to escape. Terrified worshippers went for the doors. But the doors had been closed and won’t just open in the confusion of the moment. Commotion. Confusion. Panic. Pushing and greater push. The front people fell, becoming a pile of crushed corpses. The dead soon formed “a wall of bodies” effectively sealing the fate of the remaining ones. “Three hours after the fire started, the roof collapsed, killing the remaining survivors. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people were killed, mostly women. Entire families were wiped out and the damage to the bodies made most unidentifiable – meaning they had to be buried in mass graves. It took 10 days to remove all the bodies from the church.” That was over 150 years ago. It sounds so contemporary that you question time and civilization!
When tragedies like the above happen, sober societies don’t just mourn and move on as we do here. They ask questions, learn and use what has happened to redesign the future. Chile, even as remote as 150 years ago, asked hard questions. Today, the Chilean fire brigades are “composed of volunteers that were formed in the aftermath of the tragedy.” It was their take-home from the disaster. In our own case we would rather seek private gains from national tragedies. Don’t freeze if soon you read that some men of piety are already quietly asking for donations to rebuild the house for God. That is why the world would agonize over the humanitarian crisis in our North East and we would rather see in the IDP camps meaty soup pots for big men to fight and die over. I am referring to the alleged N200 million bush clearing contracts in IDP camps in the North East. You see how the world can be very unfair? As I write this, many in that North East are clearing invasive weeds with empty stomachs as a routine. They have never been paid and do not expect to be paid. It is communal service. But big men are fighting in the Senate and in the executive over weed clearing contracts and on whether it was true or right to make big money from the misfortune of the displaced.
Too many tragedies assailing our sensibilities at the same time.
There was also the Magu confirmation controversy. It may be too soon to comment on this but shouldn’t I ask if what we have in Abuja is truly a Fuji House of Commotion? These reports that fly about, how much of them are known to the family head? Or shouldn’t he know that these harmattan fires on the mountain are not for anyone’s good? There are lots of questions but what is certain is that the days ahead won’t be quiet. Not everyone says goodnight in silence. Some yell.
As we continue to relish the delicacies of the Abuja power-play going on, a lesson I spot there for very big men taking dubious sides. One must stand for something at critical moments. Whatever stand one takes in tumultuous moments like this has a way of defining the person. It once happened to a certain creature called Bat. The world sees him as neither a mammal nor a bird. But he sees himself as belonging to the two worlds and seeks to take the benefits of the ambiguity of his existence. So it was in history that a war between mammals and birds exposed his duplicity. He fought alternatively on both sides, cherry picking who was likely to win. “Whenever the birds won a battle, Bat would flap his wings and go with them. Whenever the mammals won a battle, Bat would bare his teeth and side with them,” said the story teller. As he shamelessly switched camp and loyalty, the groups in combat noticed and waited. In the end, a truce was enforced between the warring parties and treacherous Bat faced trial. He got a judgement: “Because you could not choose your friends during war, you will not have them during peace.”
You have read the classic called Death in the Cathedral. That one occurred in the realm of fiction. Several murders are committed by pious men in holy places. The ordinary die ordinary deaths in cathedrals and are buried in shallow graves. No noise. Such avoidable deaths in the house of worship dots the landscape of history. You remember Synagogue in Lagos last year? You remember the several deadly stampede in Mecca during Hajj? It is an irony that people who seek security in worship end up in the belly of insecurity. These man-made tragedies are easily repeated because no one really gets punished for them. We do not have a justice system that values deterrence. We easily exonerate man and blame God for our acts of criminality. Someone’s negligence and, possibly, greed crashed the Uyo building. And when it happened, we asked just why and moved on, waiting for the next disaster and the next why. The Uyo tragedy won’t get anyone punished because no big man crashed with that iron roof.
I was getting worked up asking how and why? A friend wondered why I was burning valuable energy in a recession over a disaster that wasn’t the first and won’t be the last. He reminded me that the worst fire disaster in history occurred in a church 153 years ago. It was in Santiago, Chile. Can you notice how history replicates itself across space and time? The Nigerian tragedy was on December 10; the Chile disaster occurred on December 8, 1863. The point of departure was in the severity of the loss. The Chile tragedy took thousands of worshippers. It took 10 days to remove the remains of the dead. How many died in the Uyo incident? We are still counting. How did the Uyo crash occur? It was sudden. Death descended on animated worshippers, the roof with its iron bars came crashing, crushing skulls. How did its Chilean ancestor happen? It was at a Church of the Company of Jesus celebrating the Feast of Immaculate Conception. Worshippers were deep in prayers for the good things of life and for salvation after death. But death was right there in the cathedral cocking its gun. A gas lamp ignited a window curtain, someone rushed to put it out. Something went wrong and the fire quickly spread to the wooden roof. Commotion. Everyone wanted to escape. Terrified worshippers went for the doors. But the doors had been closed and won’t just open in the confusion of the moment. Commotion. Confusion. Panic. Pushing and greater push. The front people fell, becoming a pile of crushed corpses. The dead soon formed “a wall of bodies” effectively sealing the fate of the remaining ones. “Three hours after the fire started, the roof collapsed, killing the remaining survivors. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people were killed, mostly women. Entire families were wiped out and the damage to the bodies made most unidentifiable – meaning they had to be buried in mass graves. It took 10 days to remove all the bodies from the church.” That was over 150 years ago. It sounds so contemporary that you question time and civilization!
When tragedies like the above happen, sober societies don’t just mourn and move on as we do here. They ask questions, learn and use what has happened to redesign the future. Chile, even as remote as 150 years ago, asked hard questions. Today, the Chilean fire brigades are “composed of volunteers that were formed in the aftermath of the tragedy.” It was their take-home from the disaster. In our own case we would rather seek private gains from national tragedies. Don’t freeze if soon you read that some men of piety are already quietly asking for donations to rebuild the house for God. That is why the world would agonize over the humanitarian crisis in our North East and we would rather see in the IDP camps meaty soup pots for big men to fight and die over. I am referring to the alleged N200 million bush clearing contracts in IDP camps in the North East. You see how the world can be very unfair? As I write this, many in that North East are clearing invasive weeds with empty stomachs as a routine. They have never been paid and do not expect to be paid. It is communal service. But big men are fighting in the Senate and in the executive over weed clearing contracts and on whether it was true or right to make big money from the misfortune of the displaced.
Too many tragedies assailing our sensibilities at the same time.
There was also the Magu confirmation controversy. It may be too soon to comment on this but shouldn’t I ask if what we have in Abuja is truly a Fuji House of Commotion? These reports that fly about, how much of them are known to the family head? Or shouldn’t he know that these harmattan fires on the mountain are not for anyone’s good? There are lots of questions but what is certain is that the days ahead won’t be quiet. Not everyone says goodnight in silence. Some yell.
As we continue to relish the delicacies of the Abuja power-play going on, a lesson I spot there for very big men taking dubious sides. One must stand for something at critical moments. Whatever stand one takes in tumultuous moments like this has a way of defining the person. It once happened to a certain creature called Bat. The world sees him as neither a mammal nor a bird. But he sees himself as belonging to the two worlds and seeks to take the benefits of the ambiguity of his existence. So it was in history that a war between mammals and birds exposed his duplicity. He fought alternatively on both sides, cherry picking who was likely to win. “Whenever the birds won a battle, Bat would flap his wings and go with them. Whenever the mammals won a battle, Bat would bare his teeth and side with them,” said the story teller. As he shamelessly switched camp and loyalty, the groups in combat noticed and waited. In the end, a truce was enforced between the warring parties and treacherous Bat faced trial. He got a judgement: “Because you could not choose your friends during war, you will not have them during peace.”
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