As the world prepares for talks on disaster reduction and risk management in Cancun, Mexico next month, Nigeria has received a boost that will assist her fulfil the requirements for the 15-year Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).
The blueprint offers the way forward to prevent and reduce disasters. It also offers a solution to saving lives and assets as well as reducing the burden on the government.
The framework is an international document, which was adopted by United Nations member-states between March 14 and 18, 2015 at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan and endorsed by the UN General Assembly in June 2015. It is the successor agreement to the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005–2015), which had been the most encompassing international accord to date on disaster risk reduction.
A voluntary, non-binding agreement, the blueprint recognises that the country has the primary role to reduce disasters but that the responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders, including local governments, the private sector and other stakeholders
For Nigeria, it was, therefore, instructive when, last week, stakeholders, under the aegis of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) with the support of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), converged on Keffi, Nasarawa State, where, after a two-day workshop, validated the National Plan of Action on the implementation on Sendai Framework on DRR, structure and framework for the national Platform on DRR and National Policy on Disaster Risk Reduction.
The documents include: National Plan of Action for the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030); Structure and framework for the National Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction; National Policy on Disaster Risk Reduction.
As part of the Eighth Country Programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria/UNDP Plan of Action, NEMA developed these policy documents with the UN agency.
Among the resolutions of the meeting was the need to set up a technical committee to produce a structure for the National Platform. Another resolution was the need to develop a National Programme of Action for the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030).
At the event, NEMADirector-General, Mustapha Maihaja, expressed optimism that the country would have in place a “validated policy document, implementable action plan and workable structure for the National Platform that meet requirements of the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Management”.
He revealed that the country instituted the National Platform for DRR in 2010 as an off-shoot of the global platform for DRR, which was first held in 2007.
“At a similar meeting of African countries, the Sixth Session of Africa Regional Platform on DRR was hosted by Mauritius on November 22-25, 2016,” said Maihaja.
UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, reaffirmed the belief of the UNDP in the crucial role of a fully functional National Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction in Nigeria.
“This meeting as well as others held previously will reposition and revitalise the platform towards the development of a Programme of Action for the Sendai Framework, strengthen the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and SEMAs, while laying a good foundation for better multi-stakeholder response and management of disasters in the country,” he said.
Kallon, also the Resident Representative of the UNDP Nigeria, commended the resuscitation of the platform by NEMA, which he said, was coming on the heels of the Africa regional meeting in Malabo. He described the development as a clear indication of “Nigeria’s strong commitment to the regional outcomes and the leading role it is playing in Africa”.
His words: “It is expected that the platform will leverage the momentum from the regional platform to articulate a national plan of action, national implementation plan for the Sendai Framework as inputs into the upcoming meeting in Mexico.”
At the workshop, sessions and presentations were anchored by Soji Adeniyi, Linda Akpami and Seth PTA. Some of the presentations included: “Presentation and consideration of recommendations for review structure of the national Platform for DRR”, “Presentation and consideration of the National Plan of Action for the implementation of the Sendai Framework”, “Presentation on data management for development planning and data integration strategies”, “Presentation and consideration of National Policy for DRR” and “Update and plans to finalise preparedness planning process”.
The Honorary Adviser to the President of Dangote Group, Joseph Makoju has warned that if the existing structure in the power sector is not fundamentally changed, the nation risks disaster.
Speaking at a two-day Power Sector Stakeholders Interactive Dialogue convened by the National Assembly in Abuja, Makoju, who was Special Adviser to three presidents on Power, canvassed for a fundamental structural change, as against the current path of tariff increases and government’s bailouts.
He said: “I want to stress that, I do not wish to be alarmist; but if we continue on the current path of tariff increases and government bailouts without fundamental structural changes, we will soon be dealing with a disaster. What assets are on ground will depreciate, financial positions will deepen, and eventually we will all come back to these same conclusions but after much more harm has been done.”
Makoju pushed for adequate funding and restructuring of the power sector so as to achieve relative stability in electricity generation and distribution
He said the power sector is bankrupt to the point of even threatening the health of financial institutions and the wider national economy.
To restructure the sector for effective services, Makoju advised a reduction in the distribution zones.
He said the failure of the power sector under government management was not technical and commercial management of the business but the absence of sustained and adequate funding of the sector. According to him, despite the privatisation exercise six years ago, the problem of the sector remained the same.
“Most of the private sector investors in the power privatisation had no specialist knowledge or understanding of the power sector, which has eroded the technical and managerial competence in the industry. And the funding problems have persisted and even become exacerbated as they now even threaten the stability and health of the nation’s banking system as well as the entire electricity sector,“ Makoju lamented.
While noting that the distribution end of the value chain is the most inefficient and has suffered the greatest neglect, he described it as one which underpins the financial viability and sustainability of the entire sector. “To get the sector moving forward we need to improve its liquidity position, and this can only be accomplished through satisfied, paying customers,” he said.
Still on adequate funding for the sector, Makoju said the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) reports that as at last December, the funding gap in the power sector is over N1 trillion and as such, advised that funding must be looked at from the perspective of new equity and debt financing arrangements and structures, and internally generated revenue maximisation.
As a lasting solution, he also canvassed new capable players working in a reconfigured power sector while also considering residual government shares for bringing in long term funding.
While urging the government to declare a state of emergency in the sector, he sought for the engagement of industry experts and policymakers to draw up a comprehensive power sector master plan building on past provisions and arrangements to deliver an electricity industry fit for current and future needs.
Nigeria’s Flamingoes rounded up a disastrous U17 World Cup when they were trounced 3-0 by North Korea Saturday in a final Group C match.
Striker Ri Hae Yon plundered a hat-trick to book Nigeria’s flight back home.
The Flamingoes, captained by Rasheedat Ajibade in her second U17 World Cup, were never really in this contest.
Nigeria failed to score a goal in their three matches and managed only a goalless draw with England to finish on a solitary point.
The Flamingoes, who reached the quarterfinals in the last three editions of the competition, suffered from lack of international exposure as they did not play any international warm-up before Jordan 2017.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) said they did not have the cash to arrange any international games for the team.
The Lagos State Government has allayed the fears of residents over the torrential rainfall witnessed in the State on Sunday, saying that necessary steps had been taken to avert any incidence of flood disaster in the State.
The State Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, in a statement on Sunday said that the State Government had in recent times carried out intensive tour of some flood prone communities in the State to clear up blocked drainages and canals.
The commissioner wondered why any right thinking person would be dumping refuse on water courses and drainages created for free flow of storm water, saying the numerous campaigns against such practice was for the interest of the residents.
“Canal is a storm water channel for the conveyance of storm runoffs, they are God’s natural protection for holding water during massive flood and it is not a place for anybody to build a house or dump refuse. Those in the habit of doing such must stop henceforth,” Adejare said.
Allaying fears of teeming Lagosians apprehensive of the rain, the Commissioner said that indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the gutters had caused a lot of environmental disasters, warning that the government would no longer tolerate the building of illegal structures along channel right of ways in the state.
To this end, he said the government had since begun demolishing illegal structures and shanties erected on the drains especially in flood prone areas.
Adejare, however, urged residents living on wetlands and flood prone areas to be cautious and careful, urging them to limit their movement if possible and to move to higher ground if need be.
He explained that it is their responsibility as a government to protect lives and property, appealing for the cooperation of all Lagosians in their quest to avert any flood mishap in the state.
SIR: I read Kunle Abimbola’s article with the above title and I must say it was quite brilliant. Let me start by stating categorically that the Niger Delta region does not possess and never possessed any environmental activist. They’re all opportunists who thrive on their people’s ignorance, the federal government’s apparent weakness, cowardice and oftentimes collusion with the law enforcement agents and undue media hype of their activities to make huge money. They easily take up arms and are always willing to fight but very unwilling to die fighting. So, the only language they understand is superior fire power. The government must not continue to dialogue with them and must not show weakness in dealing with them.
Again, it’s not true they’re faceless. Everybody and I mean everybody in any community were attacks occur know the people responsible for it and so the government must hold them responsible and these include the law enforcement agents, the traditional and political leaders and youth representatives. It’s the weakness exhibited by the Yar’Adua’s government that has turned these men who before then were merely small time thugs used by PDP governors in the region for election rigging into multi-billionaire criminals and the most frightening part is that they’re now seen as role models to the young ones in the region.
The same treatment used in dealing with the ANPP thugs in the North-east called Boko Haram should immediately be applied in the South-south and be sustained. Amnesty is not and should not have been an option in the first place. Don’t be surprised that while government maybe looking for them in the creeks, their operational headquarters maybe any of the governor’s lodges in the region. Majority of them do not live in the creeks. They only go there to commit crimes, leave false trails for law enforcement agents and disappear to their mansions in the cities sometimes with law enforcement agents acting as security to them. They’re all cowards and should be dealt with without further delay. The government must show law abiding and hard working indigenes of the region that crime against the state does not pay. A million amnesties cannot solve the problem because it will only breed another set of criminals waiting to be settled. The government must ignore all those so called NGOs with their human rights balderdash because they’re all working together. These criminals have men in different positions of authority even in the presidency and judiciary. Some of the men and women in positions of authority today were their former comrades so the president should not expect to get total support from all angles. These economic saboteurs must be fought unconventionally with a select group of highly trained officers with the help of informants within the region like the US did in eliminating Osama bin Laden and his group. The time to act is now.
•No lessons learnt on deaths at verification centres
It’s certainly a familiar narrative, and this compounds the tragedy because it suggests that the lessons of similar tragedies in the past were not learnt. It is always doubly tragic when preventable death occurs because it could have been prevented.
An April 6 report said: “Two pregnant women collapsed and died in Bauchi on Tuesday while waiting to be screened by the verification team from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Bauchi State government. The two pregnant women were among the about 6,000 teachers in the state who were asked to assemble at the state government education secretariat for screening before collecting their salaries”.
An eyewitness was quoted as saying that “the first woman who was about seven months pregnant, fainted when the crowd were pushing to be verified, a situation that triggered a congestion during the exercise”.
With proper planning and organisation, there should have been effective crowd management rather than the disastrous congestion that caused death. The eyewitness further said: “We all assembled at the local government education authority to be verified because we have not been paid for three months. People came from the local government areas of the state so there was a massive crowd that gathered at the venue.”
The eyewitness painted a picture that suggested lack of planning: “The verification exercise took us by surprise because we were in the classroom teaching when we were called upon to be screened. That was why there was a large turnout of people” The alleged suddenness of the exercise was untidy, and reflected unsystematic thinking.
The method was not only unimaginative; it was, paradoxically, designed to bring trouble. The consequences of this pedestrian approach are too weighty to be trivialised by fatalistic philosophising. The deaths happened in material conditions and can be explained in material terms. Indeed, it could be described as a disaster waiting to happen.
The eyewitness said: “Some of the people who came early were lucky enough to be verified, but as the crowd kept increasing, people began to push each other, not minding who was standing close. In the process, an unidentified pregnant woman fainted and went into a coma.”
Another eyewitness, Abubakar Yusuf, was quoted as saying: “As we were yet to recover from the tragic incident that befell the first woman teacher, another pregnant woman collapsed and had a miscarriage instantly. The two pregnant women were rushed to the hospital for treatment. We later heard that they died.”
Who organised this unorganised exercise? It was bad enough that the victims died; the deaths were even more tragic because of the victims’ pregnancies, which meant that even the unborn also died.
Given the circumstances of the deaths, it makes sense to demand compensation even while acknowledging that life is priceless. The families of the victims ought to pursue the matter of compensation in order to make the point that every life is important. Furthermore, public-spirited lawyers can take up the case in the larger interest of society, and insist not only on compensation for the affected families but also on punishment for those that should have acted to prevent the deaths.
It is lamentable that teachers are made to experience hell on earth in the name of verification exercises. There should be more decent alternative methods that would not lead to suffering and death of workers.
Moreover, it is high time people got punished for the acts of commission or omission that result in such wastage of life. To insist on some form of retribution in this case is in line with the concept of justice and the imposition of sanctions should help to prevent the preventable.
First Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Seyi Akinwunmi has poured cold water on rumours of the uncertain future of coach Sunday Oliseh following the team’s poor outing at the CHAN 2016 in Rwanda.
Akinwunmi told footballlive.ng that sacking a coach when his team falls short of expectations is not a culture the NFF was hoping to enshrine.
The football chief thereafter said the federation will however wait for the technical report from the Super Eagles handlers before the next line of action will be taken.
•Lagos State must do something urgently to avert epidemic at Iponri
If the report on the deplorable condition of the sewage plant servicing the Iponri Housing Estate, Surulere, Lagos, is indeed true, then a serious health and environmental disaster looms over the estate, which harbours over 500 residents if something is not done urgently by the appropriate authorities. The sewage plant built to evacuate dirty water from the soakaway on a regular basis, has been non-functional for the past three months. The implication is that the estate is frequently flooded by effluents from the soakaway, causing a foul odour that pervades the entire area.
According to the President of Iponri Housing Estates Residents Association, Mr Abdul Razaq Osho, the sewage plant was impeded from functioning when the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) cut its power supply due to unpaid electricity bills by the Lagos State government. In his words, “The sewage plant has been under the government care since we bought flats in this estate and the government has not told us it can no longer maintain it. Presently, the dirty water has flooded everywhere in the estate. We cannot even pass some routes because of the flood”.
Should Nigerians be frequently subjected to this kind of experience? We feel in particular for the children forced to live in that kind of environment with impassable roads and a foul odour perpetually in the air.
If the Lagos State government maintains the sewage plant as representatives of the Iponri housing estate claim, it becomes necessary to find out which arm of government is responsible for the plant. And also which officials should have ensured prompt payment of the plant’s electricity bills to EKEDC to avoid the kind of unsavoury conditions now prevalent on the estate? Any official found to have been derelict in this regard should be appropriately punished. However, it is equally surprising that EKEDC does not have officials who could effectively relate with appropriate government officials to pre-empt and avert this kind of unsavoury situation.
Perhaps what is most alarming is the health implications of the sewage plant failure at the estate. It makes the residents vulnerable to all kinds of communicable diseases; leading ultimately to shorter life span. A widow living on the estate, Mrs Alake Oshodi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that one of her daughters took ill recently and had to be admitted at a private hospital. In her harrowing words, “I am sure the illness was as a result of the dirty water and bad odour in the estate; the government should help us before we all catch cholera”.
But it would be a mistake to think that the plight of the residents is their cross to bear. The truth of the matter is that the looming health disaster at the Iponri estate could easily spread to other areas because Lagos is a mega city with constant mobility of people from one part of the state to another.
Equally critical are the harmful consequences for the environment, the negative implications for the economic life of the area and the psychological trauma being experienced by the residents. We urge the appropriate authorities to take urgent steps to make the sewage plant functional and thus prevent disaster.
Beyond this, however, government should strengthen its capacity to monitor all housing estates in the state continuously to ensure they adhere to strict environmental, hygienic and other standards.
The government should be in the vanguard of safe environment; it should not be seen to be causing environmental pollution.
Survivors of Jos chlorine gas disaster relive ordeal
We first thought we were being attacked by terrorists’
The people of Plateau State woke up last Saturday to a strange kind of disaster. A chlorine gas cylinder exploded at the Plateau State Lamingo Water Board treatment plant.
The incident sent a wave of shock across the entire country not only because eight people were confirmed dead while scores of others were injured but also because of the unfamiliar nature of the incident. At the last count, more than 100 victims had been rushed to the intensive care unit of several hospitals in Jos.
Among the victims were children, students of the University of Jos and students of the Nigeria Film Institute who reside within the vicinity of the plant. A source from the Nigerian Film Institute said: “Two of our students lost their lives in the disaster. We buried one yesterday and we going for the wake of the second one today.”
Most of the victims were rushed to the nearby Plateau Specialists Hospital Jos. Others were taken to Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) and Bingham University Teaching Hospital (BUTH) and Our Lady of Apostles Hospital Jos. All the eight victims who lost their lives after inhaling the poisonous chemical were seen with their mouths, noses and ears foaming. Others who survived the gas leakage were brought to the hospital coughing or vomiting, according to the hospital attendants.
Bystanders found it difficult to help the victims, knowing full well that the gas leakage would not spare anyone. Security agencies and disaster management officials could also not come close unless they wore protective masks, which were not immediately affordable. The poisonous gas also affected domestic animals like goats and dogs, which were found within the vicinity. Poultry keepers in the area also lost their birds.
The chemical disaster had happened in a way that no one had premonition of it. It was a weekend and most residents were in relaxed mood. After their business activities on Friday July 24, residents had bid one another good night as everyone prepared to marry their beds in the hope of sound sleep that would prepare them for the next day’s challenges.
But the residents around the state-owned water treatment plant never suspected that any form of danger awaited them. As a matter of fact, it had never occurred to them that they were at risk as neighbours to a water treatment plant. Neither were they conscious of any lethal element called chlorine gas which could endanger their lives even though some of them had lived in the neighbourhood for 20 years.
But disaster struck as the people were enjoying their sleep. Unknown to them, poisonous chlorine chemical had been let loose from its cylinder. The gas from the chemical filled the atmosphere within a few minutes of leakage and the entire environment became polluted and harmful for both its human and animal inhabitants.
It was difficult for residents to breathe in oxygen as the air had already been poisoned by the leakage. The closest neighbours to the water treatment plant were the occupants an Immigration Staff Quarters and other privately-owned houses behind the plant. Altogether, more than 500 people resided in the vicinity of the plant.
An Immigration officer from the staff quarters, Simon Bawa, said: “It was God that saved us. We woke up in the dead of the night because no one could breathe comfortably. One of us thought the strong odour was coming from his room. He then decided to open his door only to find that the odour was stronger outside. We soon discovered that we were in trouble.
“At that point, the only thought that came to our minds was to evacuate our families from the vicinity, so everyone ran as fast as possible.”
According to chemists and medical experts, “chlorine gas is a highly irritating, greenish-yellow halogen element existing as a diatomic gas, and capable of combining with nearly all other elements, produced principally by electrolysis of sodium chloride and used widely to purify water, as a disinfectant and bleaching agent, and in the manufacture of many important compounds including chlorates, sodium hypochlorite, and chloroform.”
Dr. Mahmud Shuaibu of the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) said: “Chlorine is very poisonous, being highly irritating to the nose, throat, and lungs, and causing suffocation. It is used in purifying water, as a disinfectant and bleach. The chemical is also used in the production of industrial consumer products like plastics, solvents for dry cleaning and metal degreasing, textiles, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, insecticides, dyestuffs, household cleaning products, and so on.”
However, in spite of its usefulness to the society, experts say it is a lethal substance; a toxic gas that irritates the respiratory system when inhaled directly. Because it is heavier than air, when inhaled at a very close range, it leads to coughing and vomiting, quickly damages the lungs and can aggravate the respiratory system. Exposure to the gas can also irritate the eyes.
All over the world, chlorine is presently an important chemical for water purification. It works effectively in killing harmful bacteria in drinking water. This is why the chemical is stored in large quantity in any water treatment plant. That explains the risk anyone living close to water treatment plant may face. The chemical is widely used in public and private swimming pools for the purpose of purifying them.
The story is told of the chlorine chemical being used as a weapon during the First World War. Soldiers who had experienced the chemical in a war would say that the chemical produces “a distinctive smell of a mixture of pepper and pineapple. It also tastes metallic and stings the back of the throat and the chest. The chemical can be made into bomb and detonated, targeting the enemies in a war.”
Chlorine gas has also been used by insurgents against the local population and coalition forces in the Iraq War in the form of chlorine bombs in 2007. On March 17, 2007, for example, three chlorine-filled trucks were detonated in the Anbar province killing two and sickening over 350 persons.
The above facts about the positive and negative capacity of chlorine gas will help to imagine how lucky the survivors of the leakage in Jos, which affected about 200 residents and killed eight of them, were. One of them, Miss Franca Charles, said: “We were two in a room: myself and my school mate Ifeoma, a 200 level Political Science student of the University of Jos. We were sleeping that night when all of a sudden we could not breathe properly as we started inhaling some unpleasant air.
“As we woke up, we started hearing cries and wailings from our neighbours. We thought it was an attack from terrorists. I opened the door to our room and started running. I ran towards British America Junction while my friend ran towards the water board. I was able to survive the explosion but my friend Ifeoma did not survive. She died and her corpse has been deposited at the Plateau hospital mortuary.
“As a matter of fact, as residents ran out of their rooms in the dead of the night, they were just running to no clear direction since no one understood what was going on. People were just running towards any direction the air was conducive for breathing. Many survived it but some collapsed along the way and never recovered from it. Some others were revived in the hospital.”
•A teenager victim of the gas disaster
“It was like an end of the world experience,” said another survivor, Benjamin Azi. “Some residents woke up to the poisonous odour but lacked the energy to even move because they were already intoxicated with the gas.”
One of the victims who was revived by a team of medical experts at the Plateau Specialists Hospital Jos, Titus Ayuba, said: “I swear I have never witnessed this kind of thing in my entire life. I don’t know how I was brought to the hospital.
“All I can remember is that I woke up in the middle of the night and I could not breathe. I ran outside to see some other people outside. We were still thinking of what to do when I collapsed only to discover myself on the hospital bed the next day. I would have been dead by now but God said I should live. This is a miracle to me.”
It was the same miracle that helped the occupants of the Nigeria Immigration Staff Quaters to escape the disaster. They are the closest neighbours to the plant with a distance of just about 20 metres between the fence of the plant and the Nigeria Immigration Staff Quarters. Most of them fled their homes that night and never returned home until four days later.
Most of the victims were revived at the Plateau Specialists Hospital Jos. The wave of the gas was miraculously diverted towards the free space behind the plant. They did not have a full dose of the poisonous gas like their other neighbors behind the plant.
Four officials of the water board, made up of two guards and two plant workers, were said to be on duty when the incident occurred. The workers quickly protected themselves with masks provided by the ministry. That was how they escaped the horror.
Even when the state governor, Simon Bako Lalong, had to visit the site after the third day of the incident, he had to wear a mask. The governor, after going round the facilities and visiting the victims, said the state government would constitute a committee to investigate the incident.
Governor Lalong, who passionately commiserated with families who lost their loved ones in the incident, said: “The committee will be expected to unravel how and why the leakage occurred. The idea is to find out what actually happened to enable government work towards averting a reoccurrence.”
The governor was briefed by the Permanent Secretary, Plateau State Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs. Hanatu Dantong, on his arrival at the plant. She told the governor that the leakage was alleged to have occurred as a result of a rusty nozzle which fell off from one of the chlorine cylinders. She added that the incident occurred around midnight on Saturday and affected four water board officials and residents of the area.
The Permanent Secretary however, told the governor that the residents around the water board area were trespassers into water board’s land who had refused to heed all warnings by government to vacate the place.
Meanwhile, the state ministry for water resources is battling to convince residents of Jos that its water is still fit for consumption. There has been rumor in the city that the water generated by the ministry has also been contaminated as a result of the chemical leakage. But the permanent secretary said: “Residents should ignore the rumor. The water is fit for consumption. There is absolutely no problem with the potable water being pumped out.
“The chlorine gas leakage has in no way infected or affected the water we pump out. In fact, it has absolutely nothing to do with the water we pump out.
Meanwhile, the Acting Chief Medical Director of Plateau Specialist Hospital, Dr Filimon Golwa, where most victims of the chlorine explosion were taken, told newsmen that the death toll was still eight, while 113 persons had been discharged.
According to him, 121 persons were admitted after the incident on Saturday. He further disclosed that Governor Lalong had settled the medical bills of the victims.
•There should be no cover up; Nigeria has been embarrassed by it
Although it seemed self-serving and opportunistic, President Goodluck Jonathan’s visit to The Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN), in Ikotun, Lagos, ostensibly to offer his condolences following a tragic September 12 building collapse, further highlighted the multiple dimensions of the disastrous incident. It is uncertain whether Jonathan, who flew into Lagos for the Southwest unity rally of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), would have made such a move outside his political schedule.
However, his appearance underlined the magnitude of the tragedy which, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), consumed 90 lives, including 84 South Africans. The crisis agency said there were 131 survivors. Shockingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly given the circumstances of the calamity, the death toll remains inconclusive and the South African government said 115 people may have died.
The collapsed guest house on the church grounds was reportedly occupied largely by visiting South Africans who numbered 349 at the time of the disaster. Significantly, South African President Jacob Zuma captured the distressing scale of his country’s loss in a statement: “Not in the recent history of our country have we had this large number of our people die in one incident outside the country.”
It is laudable that the collapse is being investigated by the Federal Government, prompting the Lagos State government to suspend its own probe. Especially creditable however is the role played by the state governor, Babatunde Fashola, whose presence at the scene helped to establish a proper emergency response by excluding obstructive members of the church. It is regrettable that official emergency responders were initially handicapped by church members who unreasonably viewed the happening as an internal affair.
In this connection, Nigeria must learn from South Africa’s demonstration of overseas crisis readiness. A South African team of experts in forensic science and disaster management promptly arrived in the country to focus on specific areas: “body recovery and repatriation, victims listing and confirmation, post-mortems as well as assessing of injured persons to determine the medical condition and the required levels of care”. In furtherance of this timely intervention, 25 injured South Africans were flown back to their country to continue treatment.
Curiously, the church leader, Prophet Temitope Joshua, came up with stories that sounded far-fetched in his effort to clarify what happened. He released security camera footage which showed a “strange aircraft” flying over the church a number of times before the building collapsed. He also presented an email suggesting an earlier failed plot to bomb the church by the Islamist guerilla force Boko Haram, which is promoting terroristic activities in the country, mainly in the northern region.
This apparent appeal to pity and the discernible objective of painting a picture of victimhood, apart from being unsupported by persuasive proof, critically failed to address the more fundamental and evidential issues surrounding the crumbling of the building. The church will not only need to show that it obtained official approval for the modification of the collapsed guest house; it will also have to provide evidence of compliance with best practices. Reports said the affected building was originally a three-storey structure which was being raised to accommodate three additional floors.
Without being judgmental ahead of the final results of the ongoing investigations, it is noteworthy that the General Manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency, Mrs. Abimbola Animashaun, was quoted as saying, “We have investigated and found that they had no approval for the additional structures. Even the main church, which they have added about three floors on, was sealed two days ago, but it is now open.” In this context, it is unclear why the agency allowed the opening of the main church.
Besides the importance of individual responsibility and accountability in the erection of buildings, the overriding value of institutional regulatory roles should not be trivialised, which is the central lesson to be learnt from this possibly avoidable tragedy. The investigations should not be one-sided; and individual negligence as well as institutional dereliction of duty must be effectively punished.
