Without captions, the television pictures, videos and still photographs seem at first blush like scenes from Gaza, evoking the merciless, round-the-clock bombing that has reduced that enclave to rubble.
Homes obliterated, with the windows and doors of those that were still standing totally shot; a once-thriving community reduced to a scorched landscape of smouldering carcasses of cars and deformed remains of household objects; vehicles upturned and balanced delicately on large plastic water tanks.
Mangled remains of roofs, fixtures and fittings strewn all over the place. Whatever was not obliterated was hurled out of place or bent out of shape.
But that locale was several thousand miles removed from Gaza. Nor was it even a theatre of war, recent or ongoing.
The locale is the Old Bodija area of Africa’s largest city, Ibadan, the setting of arguably the most productive exercise in self-government that fell just a tad short of sovereign rule ever conducted in any colony in the British Empire.
The genteel, upper-middle-class suburb has retained its character and defied the intrusion of hot new money and crass elements of urban sprawl and is home to some of the most accomplished retired and serving elements of Nigeria’s professional class – university professors, judges, lawyers, military officers, political leaders. retired public servants, technocrats, and cultural figures.
A house gutted by fire here, and a storm-damaged home there: that was just about all that all you would expect in Old Bodija. You had little reason to suspect that it would be the epicentre of the massive blast that tore through that section of Ibadan last Tuesday and was felt miles away.
Most residents, unless obligated by the terms of their mortgage, probably reckoned that they had little to gain, and probably a vital chunk of their income to lose, by insuring their property.
The fortunate among them are being treated for their injuries or are counting their losses. The less fortunate lost everything. Now refugees in the twilight of their eventful and productive years, they have become wards of their children, their relations, and the public health system.
A week ago today, at about 8 pm, local time, an explosion of elemental proportions ripped through Old Bodija and the surrounding areas, sending residents scurrying out of their homes for safety, leaping over or sidestepping the jagged remains of objects that had defined and structured their lives.
Going by the accounts of law enforcement officials and first responders, five persons were killed and 75 injured in the mayhem. If this is true, Providence must have supervened. Only that could have accounted for these figures, given that no fewer than 50 residential homes were obliterated. And in a city where most residents are home by late evening, the figures could have been much higher.
I suspect that the casualty figures will rise when salvage vehicles lift the collapsed beams and pillars and emergency workers sift through the rubble.
There has been no accounting for the missing. Some indication of the number should emerge when traumatized residents recover sufficiently to step forward to file their concerns. But do not expect a comprehensive or even reliable accounting. We do not keep vital records here.
Officials have been saying that the last was triggered by explosives stored by a mining company with business offices in the neighbourhood. This explanation raises several questions.
For how long have the explosives been in storage? Who owns the house in which they were stored? Who are the registered owners or proprietors of the mining company? Was the facility authorized to carry on that kind of business in the locale? If so, by whom? Was it subject to periodic inspection to ascertain the condition of the explosives?
Regardless of the answers, the existence of the explosives in that location constitutes a twin failure of intelligence and security, and a clear and present danger to lives and public safety.
Some analysts have questioned the official account. According to them, one solitary, thunderous bang from a single source must have caused the devastation. There were no secondary explosions and no chain reaction, the type that would have occurred if one exploding package had ignited the next package, and the next,
It was just one huge, convulsive bang, and then, silence.
To produce the effect reported in Old Bodija, a single object packed with explosives would have had to be detonated, most likely by remote control, the analysts are saying. In short, only a bomb could have caused the devastation.
Their explanation may, to many of our jaded compatriots, smack of the conspiracy theories being injected into public discourse each passing day to account for the angst and the disequilibrium in society.
But it is worth examining. Indeed, to get to the root of the matter, every theorem should be examined carefully.
Days after the blast, the Malian entrepreneur officials identified as the head of a mining syndicate in Old Bodija and his local confederates are yet to be apprehended.
Forensic evidence that could help determine the origin, manufacturer and properties of the blast instrument lay strewn all over the place and was trampled on repeatedly. By now, it would have been compromised irredeemably.
The watch was desultory. They fenced off the immediate perimeter, but only the fear of being caught up in a secondary blast or being whipped kept the motor park crowd and gawkers and those hunting for items of immediate value at bay.
Skillful deployment of heavy equipment to facilitate the search for persons who might have been trapped under the rubble was rather tardy. Minutes can spell the difference between life and death when incidents like the Bodija blast occur.
Given the poor record of law-enforcement agencies and the courts in matters relating to crime and punishment, a special prosecutor with powers of subpoena will have to be appointed to conduct the investigations into the blast under the aegis of a commission of inquiry. It will conduct its hearings in public, and its findings, less material that could compromise public safety and security, should be published.
That is the best way to ensure that the matter is not swept into the musty cabinets of the bureaucracy nor spun into another “inconclusive” narrative. This is no occasion to create an illusion of momentum.
The authorities must rise to the challenge of rehabilitating the victims of the blast, especially those who served Nigeria to the best of their ability, often going beyond the call of duty.
