Date: 2013-10-26

What began as a normal day at the Iloffa Road residence of Sen. Abubakar Saraki turned out to be a gloomy day, leaving behind it trails of cries and sorrow. PDP stalwart, mostly vulnerable old women, had assembled at the Iloffa road residence of the Senator to queue up for food, money and cloth as it has been the norm during Salah whenever the Senator is around in the past couple of years. Unfortunately while sharing these items, quite a number of deaths were recorded and different versions of causes of death have been put forward.

According to Mr. Adebimpe, the PDP’s spokesperson, four lives were lost as a result of “the unfortunate incident” different other versions of causes of death have been stampede, suffocation and even some have attributed it to some diabolic spiritual cause. Similarly, the numbers of death have varied depending on whose account you want to believe. While Mr. Adebimpe claimed “4 member of the party were lost to the stampede”, I went on condolence visit to 2 families and participated in the Solatul Janazat of another one, I have heard figure such as 15, 20, 40, and 60 and in some extreme case even 200 being branded around.

The question of how many people died is not even the issue as I believe in the sanctity of human life, not even the life a Kwaran is worth to be lost in these avoidable circumstances. My interest lies in answering the questions “How did we get here? What went wrong? And how do we prevent future occurrence?”

I have listened to many commentators speak, read many blog posts and majority of the commentators sided with the diabolic sacrifice story. Even while I don’t buy this line of thought, I think it requires some reflection and giving these people the benefit of doubt. It is a well-known fact this isn’t the first time this sort of incident is happening. In fact it’s the third time, with similar incident occurring on 27th May 2011 and sometimes November 2010. Yet there was never a record of investigation of the causes of such neither was there a change in the tactics employed in distributing the items in order to mitigate future occurrence like that of 16th October. To think that the 2010 incident also occured during the Sallah festival  gives credence to this conspiracy theory. To make matter worst, none of the statements released by both Senator Saraki and the PDP point to any enquiry into the causes and how to stop future occurrence, just that the Senator suspends the exercise, for what?

Similarly, many people have attributed the incidence to the level of poverty in the land. No doubt majority of our people live below the poverty line, thanks to the political machinery of the Saraki Dynasty over ages which has kept majority in perpetual servitude to the family even though it’s their common wealth that has sustain the family over time. This modus operandi has to stop.  However, I believe poverty might have a factor in the decision of these poor folks, but greed is also a very significant factor. Else what do you say of a woman whose nephew gave 20,000 naira on Sallah day only to die the next day queuing for 1,000 naira? Or what do you say of women given 1,000 naira on that same day by a politician just for them to stay back at home, only for a number of those lots to meet their untimely death later in the day collecting the same 1,000 naira they were given in the morning? How about a woman that tales has it that she actually made “fortune” at the Oke-Ose ram market selling ram feed in days preceding  Sallah, has a shop full of fresh fruit stock for sale and yet lost her life at Ile-Loke while collecting a mere 1,000 naira? I believe the level of poverty in Kwara state in not more pronounced that the neighboring state of Osun, Ekiti et al, what stood us out , albeit unfortunately, is our level of contentment and pride which I must say stands very low.

Having said all this, we should look ahead, learn from this incident, stop apportioning blame and look into ways to prevent future occurrence. It is not my prerogative to tell Senator Saraki how to spend his money, but I think as an urbane young man who has always been on the forefront of changing the way things are run in the part of the world he needs to discard the Almajiri system his father has always used in his philanthropic act. He needs to think of empowering his people, teaching them how to fish and not keep giving them fish.  I strongly believe in the words of Comrade Issa Aremu of the NLC when he said “the poor do not need charity and gift paid for with public funds. What the people need is work and income generating employment initiated by government at all level”. There is no need keeping them in perpetual servitude if truly you have their best interest at heart. These deaths are definitely avoidable.

May Almighty Allah forgive the departed souls and also give the families the fortitude to bear the loss.

Engr. Ajeigbe Abdulrahman  is on twitter as @hospillo