Evidence that Nigerians are yet to imbibe the critical culture of crowd management as an essential part of everyday living emerged at a recent stampede at the Port Harcourt Polo Club where 31 people reportedly died with several others sustaining life-threatening injuries. This was an unfortunate incident that could have been prevented if the organisers had been well grounded in crowd control skills and cared about safety measures.
The event occurred at a church charity exhibition on Saturday, May 28, 2022. The programme, organised by the Kings Assembly Pentecostal Church, involved many people who were seeking assistance and so attended the annual “Shop for Free” charity programme coordinated by the church. Such events are common in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, where more than 80 million people live in abject poverty, according to government statistics.
The charity activity was to commence at 9 a. m., but dozens of people arrived as early as 3 a.m. to secure their places in queues. Somehow they broke open the locked and secured gates, resulting in the painful incident. Videos from the scene displayed the clothes, shoes and other paraphernalia meant for the beneficiaries, including the lifeless bodies of some victims.
The 31 persons may have died due to stampede but the real cause of the deaths is hunger and poverty in the land, nothing more, nothing else. It is only hunger that can push people to deprive themselves of their precious sleep and go out to queue up for food at 3 a.m., a clear six hours before the event was billed to start.
The government owes the citizens a duty to provide jobs for the youths and pull them out of the poverty bracket. It is also the responsibility of the Nigerian government to check the rising inflation, which is the reason the masses can no longer afford to buy basic food items and have to resort to free food to feed their families.
This episode is highly regrettable. Nevertheless, the question is, how was the church unable to anticipate the number of people that would show up at the venue? We are asking because offering indigent Nigerians free items like foodstuffs indicated that there was going to be a very large crowd turnout, especially with the horrifying figures of high unemployment and hunger in the country.
While we appreciate churches and other voluntary organisations that strive to fill in the gap that exists in the living conditions of the poor in the society, we make bold to insist that such organisations should entrench safety considerations into whatever they do. Organisers of such tremendous events should plan well and possibly involve the police to avert similar calamitous deaths and injuries.
Despite past occurrences that claimed lives, the trend has persisted, either during sporting events, religious gatherings or political rallies. People are often encouraged to leave the comfort of their homes for an event potentially capable of attracting gigantic crowds without adequate consideration for their safety. Worse still, after tragedy must have struck, everybody goes home to await a future re-enactment of the calamity; essentially, no lesson is learned.
At a campaign rally of President Muhammadu Buhari in Port Harcourt towards the 2019 general elections, 14 people reportedly died. Also in 2019, a rally at the Jolly Nyame Stadium in Jalingo, Taraba State, was recounted to have left five people dead, following a stampede. In Kano, when the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, visited, it was by sheer providence that death was averted after nine people slumped, following another uncontrollable crowd turnout.
As can be seen, many religious groups have not fared better, as a few incidents would confirm. In November 2013, no fewer than 28 people were recorded dead after crowd trouble that occurred at a crusade ground of the Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry, Uke, in Idemili Local Government Area of Anambra State. The event, attended by the then governor, Peter Obi, allegedly attracted a larger crowd than usual, leaving organisers at their wits’ end.
A similar situation happened in Benin City, back in 1999, when renowned evangelist, late Reinhard Bonnke, came calling. No fewer than 14 persons were feared dead as people came to listen to the fiery German preacher speak at a crusade held at a sports facility in the Edo State capital. Despite the number of casualties, more people were said to have turned up again the next day, even when the preacher decided not to attend.
Perhaps, the most contemptible of all was the Immigration interview organised by the then Internal Affairs Minister, Abba Moro, in which about 19 Nigerian job seekers lost their lives. In one of the most audacious and exploitative ventures, no fewer than 520,000 applicants from all over the country were corralled into stadia nationwide for a job interview for only 4,556 slots, after each of them was charged N1,000. The deaths occurred following stampedes.
While the tragedies mount, and valuable lives are lost, nobody seems to mind about asking individuals to defend their roles in what, in other climes, amount to national calamities. No one is punished. This is where the situation in Nigeria differs from what obtains in other locales. In the United Kingdom, for instance, which also used to have a lot of crowd trouble, especially during football matches, measures were introduced that reduced it drastically.
Though the Kings Assembly had good and noble intentions, and it is strongly recommended that such a gesture should continue regardless of the incident; however, the truth is people died, precious lives were lost all due to some fatal errors emanating from improper planning. Hence, the fundamental question to ask is, as fantastic and kind as the programme might be, does it absolve the church from liability? Certainly not.
Therefore, Governor Nyesom Wike should inaugurate a probe panel forthwith as he rightly indicated in his response to the disaster. Such inquiry should specify the direct causes of the rush and whether there was criminal negligence. Police Commissioner, Eboka Friday, should act likewise by compelling his men to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter. Those found to be culpable must be prosecuted.
The way out is to ensure that people are not admitted beyond the capacity of an event arena. Once the venue of an occasion is full, entry should be disallowed. Again, there should be crucial measures to guarantee that entrances and exits are flung open before and after an event, so that a stadium, no matter how crowded, could be emptied of its occupants within a few minutes of a critical event. Since political rallies and church programmes are now held in stadiums, these crowd control measures should apply.
Our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims. And may God grant the souls of the departed eternal rest!