Agenda Papers Editorial: Curtailing deaths via public food sharing occasioned by economic hardship & hunger in the land—By Austine Uche-Ejeke

The last few days and weeks have not been the best for the country as a result of sudden and untimely deaths caused by scramble for free food and money by vulnerable Nigerians.

It all started in Aba on November, 24 when over 15 people lost their lives in a Catholic Church feast of Christ ceremony. According to reports those who died were struggling to get a grisp of naira notes being tossed in the air by some questionable individuals.

From there it looked as if it is an epidemic or pandemic that will live with us for a very long time if something drastic is not done to curtail it.

As such in less than one week the country recorded about nothing less than 82 deaths resulting from the free give away of food and other items to hapless and hungry Nigerians.

Recounting the series of events the police noted that at least 10 Nigerians which included four children died in a scramble and stampede during free food distribution by the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Maitama, Abuja.

As Nigerians were still trying to absorb the shock of the Abuja tragedy the news of the loss of about 22 lives in Okija , Anambra state trickled in. The occasion was the annual distribution of rice and other items by known billionaire and philanthropist Obi Jackson.

The above two incidents happened in the heels of the Oyo tragedy where over 35 lives were lost when the ex wife of Ooni of Ife Queen Naomi tried to dash out free food and cash to some people at Islamic High School in Ibadan.

Moving a bit backwards we recall the death of seven Nigerians last year or early this year who lost their lives in the struggle to buy Customs auctioned bags of rice at a reduced price.

Imagine Nigerians who has suffered from January to December and about to enter the new year dying few days into the new year. It’s very painful to say the least.

With all these happenings being recorded the question on the lips of many is when and where will the next tragedy occur because the root cause of all these is poverty and hunger in the land. From all indications the government of the day has not shown any commitment to tackle the problem of hunger and want head long.

The point must be made clear here that there is absolutely nothing wrong in the government or privileged individuals doing give away of food and other items to vulnerable Nigerians as the intention may be to help bring succour to those who cannot afford those items.

Give away and free food distribution/donation does not only happen in Nigeria or to the so called underdeveloped countries but it also happens in advanced countries. For instance in Canada it is called Food Bank programme whereby churches, registered NGOs organize well coordinated programme of monthly distribution of free food and other household items to low income earners particularly to those who just came into the country and are trying to settle down and adjust to life. No story of stampede or deaths has been reported in their free food distribution and it has been going on for years now.

But coming down to Nigeria and to actually locate the root cause of this problem one may not need a rocket scientist to deduce that.

The cause of all these is the result of the policies, actions and inactions of the present regime as one can say with a reasonable certitude that we didn’t have these kind of occurrences few years ago. Nigerians are very hard working and proud people that if it were some years most people involved in struggle for free food will shun it as they will tell you that it is something they can afford.

Why do we say so and our judgement is predicated on the fact that few years ago Nigerians were buying bag of rice for N8,000, N15,000 or at most N20,000. As such many people could afford it and not the current cost of N120,000 per bag of rice which many cannot afford.

Also few years ago Nigerians could afford to move about doing their business as cost of fuel and transportation were not that high. They were buying fuel for N87 per litre and at worst N195 as at May 28, 2023!

But today fuel is selling at over N1000 per litre and this is making life excruciating difficult for millions of Nigerians. This has made it possible that whenever there is information on distribution of free food anywhere the crowd will be overwhelming that organizers of such programme may not be able to control them.

In essence there are no better way to describe these tragedies than to put it at the door step of failure of the Nigerian government. The government has failed these hapless and vulnerable Nigerians including innocent children who have lost their lives in search of food to keep their body and soul together.

In this 21st century it is unthinkable and extremely pathetic that Nigerians will be dying just to get food for their sustenance. This is highly unacceptable and condemnable as the country is vast and rich enough in natural resources that can take care of it’s citizens if properly managed.

It is in line of this seemingly avoidable tragedies that we condemn it intoto and say enough is enough and let there be no further repeat of these ugly incidents.

But we may not just be satisfied to mouth it and go to bed without advocating some measures to be put in place to curtail it or totally avoid future happenings.

One of the ways is to provide adequate security particularly to farmers so that Nigerians can go to their farms freely without fear of being killed by marauding helmsmen or their crops being eaten up by cows. This will make food to be in abundance and also affordable for Nigerians to buy.

Closely related to this is that government should do everything humanly possible to see that price of petrol is drastically reduced to at most N500 per litre. This will not only ease the movement of Nigerians in going about their normal businesses but also make people who need it for their work use the fuel to empower themselves.

The president should also have a rethink of his so called economic reforms. It must be stated that reforms are supposed to be for the living and not for the dead. The over 82 Nigerians who have died in the struggle to get food will not enjoy the reforms if it will actually yield positive result. They are dead and gone and cause of their death remotely linked to hunger and hardship in the country as a result of the reforms

If government is able to do all these things then the security agencies should be coopted or carried along by organizers of palliative or free food distribution. The police or any other security outfit should be involved in crowd control so that there will not be ugly incidents of stampede that will lead to deaths .

Also organizers of free food or palliative distribution should take crash courses in effective crowd control for them to manage whatever crowd that comes to their programme.

It is on this note that we remind the government that hunger is a major security risk in any country and that it can destabilize any government if not well managed.

Nigerians should not be turned into beggars in their own country who will now die painful death of being trampled upon while struggling for handouts from either government, church, organizations or individuals.

Nigerians have suffered enough in recent times and to add painful exit through free food struggle stampede should not be added to it.

***Austine Uche-Ejeke a public affairs analyst and publisher of Agenda Papers wrote vide eaustineuche@yahoo.com