Stampedes: No requiem for the dead FEMI ADEOTI COLUMN

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Come let us reason together. Let’s begin the year on this note. Let’s have a sober reflection of the last days of the immediate year before.
It’s excruciatingly painful. Still, don’t let us agonise. We can do it this unique way. Common, let’s make a worthy trial. It’s for the souls of the departed:
No. We’re not remembering you. For we’ve not forgotten you. No. We’re not mourning you. For you did not die in vain.
We’re celebrating you because you died struggling for survival. You didn’t survive the struggle, because the system failed you. Yes. We failed you.
But more importantly, your rulers failed you. Hold them accountable. Report them to your Maker. Let your Creator hold them responsible for your souls. Oh yeah! They are the ruiners of our time. And they ruined you.
They knew they ruined you. But they will continue to live in self-denial. They feign ignorance; claim obliviousness. That’s their stock in trade. That’s the absurd way they live their lives.
But we, the society, we’re honest to accept our fault with honour. We cannot deny ourselves. The society has its failings too. And we can’t run away from ourselves.
The three-legged stampedes remain fresh forever. Of the trio, that Ibadan stampede stood out. It was tragically outstanding. It scored first in all ramifications. The most gory; the most pathetic. And with the highest casualties.
Oyo State lived to its billings, but in the negative this time around. Upsetting and traumatic. It’s “unOyo.” It sets the pace, aka The Pacesetter. It dates back to the days of yore. It lived to its mantra: Pacesetter State. That’s what its vehicle registration number plate proudly showcases.
Hitherto, Oyo State had carried this with stateliness, decency and all sensibilities. But that Wednesday morning tragedy shattered everything. It made a wrong display of it that day. There was a great crash. All collapsed like a pack of loose cards. Till now, the centre is yet to find its bearings. Will it ever find it?
For sure. And we are convinced. That’s not what God meant this season for. It ought to be the season of giving, sharing, celebrations and jubilations.
That’s what the holy book, the Bible tells us. Jesus Christ was and still, the season. The ultimate reason for the season. He is the symbol of the season. That’s what it is all about. All over the world, except our endangered clime.
But that changed for the worst for us. We are leaking our deep wounds all alone. From Ibadan, Oyo State, to Okija, Anambra State. Until it ended it in Abuja. The season is the same. The story is the same shame. The chaos the same, the tragedy the shame. Stampede is it!
It was shared in reckless abundance. The common denominator is poverty-driven hunger. It synergises with anger. That’s its perfect soul mate.
It ravages through barriers of tribe, race and religion. No limits, no bounds. The identity does not differ. It’s deadly. It cares less whose ox is gored. Or brutally bruised.
Still rampaging. The drumbeats are becoming louder by the day. Its frequency is climbing at alarming speed. Truth is: It’s fast getting out of control.
See the manner the three cousins manifested. All in just four days. You will marvel at their ferocities, atrocities, brutality and barbarity.
The darkness first landed that early morning in Ibadan. Islamic High School, Bashorun, was the abattoir. At the last count, 35 children were slaughtered. On a gold platter! December 18, 2024, was the day we fear and hate to remember.
The bait was enticing enough for the kids. And for their parents, it was quite inviting. What way to lift them up financially. Even if temporarily!
We thought that was it. That it would end it there for good. And never again should we be careless that way. We goofed. We erred.
We never knew. Okija and Abuja were merely waiting with bated breath.  They were patient for one to bell the cat. And Ibadan did show forth. It would not disappoint.
This time, Oyo State lost it completely. Certainly, it’s not how to set a pace. Yet, Anambra and Abuja fell for it in that disastrous order.
Immediately Oyo set the tragic pace. Things began to fall into calamitous and unpleasant places. The centre was let loose. And there was thick darkness in the land. Courtesy: Okija and Abuja.
The duo could not hold it than to follow suit. It was more than devastating. They happened the same day. And in quick succession.
Anambra fell into the trap first. It made it happen in the East on the morning of Saturday, December 22, 2024. It chose the notorious Okija, Ihiala Local Government. There it exhibited its catastrophe.
It was indeed spine-chilling. At least, 22 people lost their lives. Struggling to secure a plate of rice each. Just a meal! And they all became history instantly. This life is cruel.
Flashback: Remember the gruesome Okija shrine ritual killings in August 2004? That Okija, not its shrine, shot back to prominence, 20 years after. It was here again.
Its second coming became a horrid reality on Saturday, December 22, 2024. It was inadvertently encouraged by the Ibadan stampede, four days earlier.
When its harsh dust finally settled. Police claimed they discovered “body parts, skulls and more than 50 corpses. Some partly mummified, in a forest.”
The then police spokesman, Kolapo Shofoluwe, offered more insight: “The dead already found were all adults. At least, one body and four skulls appeared to be from people killed recently. All the bodies were found unburied in coffins. At least three were headless.”
That was the gory narration of the Okija shrine killings. Twenty years after. Nothing seems to have practically changed. The shame of the same!
That Okija, not its shrine, shot back to prominence, 20 years after. Its second coming became a horrid reality on Saturday, December 22, 2024. It was inadvertently encouraged by the Ibadan stampede, four days earlier.
The North refused to be left out. It chose the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). And it was a done deal.
That same Saturday. Before it rolled away. Abuja picked its own share of the disaster. And the site: Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Maitama. It was merciful and considerate enough. It recorded 10 casualties. The least of the three.
In that awful manner. The horrendous circle was completed in just four days. Why are we in synergy in tragedy? The tripod; West, East and North. In that dreadful order, were ably represented.
For the first known time.  Federal character was implemented “fairly” and “satisfactorily.” No fuse, no complaints. Thanks to the three rituals. The rituals were not ordinary. They were self-inflicted. They were easily preventable.
It didn’t start today, not even yesterday. We have been watching it deteriorating over time. There were enough warnings. Adequate indices threw themselves up. That the calamities would happen.
Our leaders are deviant and arrogantly stubborn. Their concern is to rule and ruin. Their policies keep on “weaponising” poverty. They care less on good governance. They are stuck to their weird focus for life. They are kilometres far away from our desires and aspirations. They are distancing themselves from us.
We can easily read their thick lips; full of deceit, falsities and pretence. They speak from the hideous side of their loud mouths. They remain what we knew them to be. Never to be trusted. Never to be believed.
Now. Listen to the narratives they’re pushing hard to the public. And this is quite disgusting. President Bola Tinubu even led the bunch of the narrators.
He told us his story point-blank: “I have been giving out foodstuffs, commodities, including envelopes in Bourdillon, (Ikoyi, Lagos, his private residence) for the last 25 years. I have never experienced this type of incident because we are organised and disciplined.
“If you know you don’t have enough to give, don’t attempt to even give or publicise it.”
Even at that, he still has a soft place in his heart for the departed: “It is very sad that people are not well organised. We just have to be more disciplined in our society. Condolences to those who lost family members, but it is good to give.”
Great pity! They won’t squarely address the root cause. They prefer to window dress it. Sweeping the real issue, as usual, under their dirty carpet. And they will want us to forget it in their weirdest imagination.
They even went abroad to bring home “numerous” cases of such. But in all of these. No stampede.  Not even the slightest ugly incident.
An eyewitness account of a sampler from Canada: “One thousand people were called and over 15,000 people showed up for free fruits and vegetables in Alberta, Canada.
“Police had to help turn people back after 2,000 people were attended to. Thirteen thousand plus went home with nothing.
“The farmer’s son did a video to apologise to those who were not served. They did not call them greedy and ‘uncontented’ thieves.”
That makes a huge difference. And that is where our leaders missed the point. In those foreign climes, their governments don’t make palliatives and distribution of envelopes a policy. Neither is it a fulfilment of campaign promises. They don’t set up a whole ministry (Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation), just to distribute envelopes and hand-outs.
Over there, it’s purely philanthropic, devoid of cheap and elaborate publicity. They know their targets. And how to capture them without being stampeded. It is not politics but strictly humanitarian.
It’s done sparingly. It is never counted as achievement under any guise. Our leaders know this pretty too well. Yet they pretend otherwise. They make theirs monstrous, repulsive and lurid. All rolled into endless macabre. SAD!
It’s given. Anywhere there’s free meal. The crowd is mammoth. That has been the trend. And it won’t stop now. Ours is made worse by the gravity of the hopelessness in the land.
Our crowd control measures are near zero. They are grossly inefficient and badly ineffective. The gory results were the trio of Ibadan, Okija and Abuja stampedes.
The dead won’t accept our requiem. Neither is our dirge useful to them. They are gone.
We made them sacrificial lamps to make our society work. We have to pull the failing system back to life. It’s then that their blood wouldn’t be shed in vain.
Wonders shall never end. As long as the earth breathes. The reason we’re united in tragedy. The calamities effortlessly, seamlessly bring us to the same template. Lesson: When tragedy strikes. It knows no tribe or religion. That’s what the three calamities aptly demonstrated.
This shouldn’t be lost on us. We have to collectively build on our strengths. While we recognise and acknowledge our weaknesses.
That’s the reality we must confront headlong. It’s the way nations achieve greatness. Ours can’t be an exception. And there’s no viable choice. At least, for now.
True and the truth!