This rice thing in Nigeria
Nigeria’s Christmas season has slowly spiraled into chaos with multiple deaths recorded across the country in purely avoidable circumstances. First, to usher in the season of death were children who gathered to celebrate the season in Ibadan. Christmas is ordinarily a special and important feast for all Christians. But there is no demographic it belongs […]
Nigeria’s Christmas season has slowly spiraled into chaos with multiple deaths recorded across the country in purely avoidable circumstances.
First, to usher in the season of death were children who gathered to celebrate the season in Ibadan. Christmas is ordinarily a special and important feast for all Christians. But there is no demographic it belongs to more than children. Yet, when they thronged to the grounds of the venue in Ibadan, over 35 of them were served death and injuries.
The autocade of death soon swiftly moved to Okija in Anambra State, and that was where rice set in and sat in. The distribution of rice donated to his community by businessman Obi Jackson soon turned deadly as a stampede snuffed the life out of beneficiaries. Images from the stampede stamped with death soon flooded the internet, sending chills down the spines of Nigerians.
The convoy of death soon moved to the Federal Capital Territory, even overpowering the otherwise supremely organized Catholic Church. This time around, about 10 people were trampled to death as the distribution of rice rained fatalities in Maitama.
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What is it really with Nigerians and rice? Historically, a staple food, the soaring price of the commodity has made it a luxury commodity which has become more and more unaffordable as Nigerians have sought to navigate complex economic realities precipitated by calamitous leadership at all levels.
Yet, Nigerians feel they must eat rice. Worse still, they feel entitled to it as palliatives from a government that has failed to do more than systematically deepen the mendicancy that has stripped Nigerians of dignity. Earlier this year, about four students of the Nasarawa State University Keffi were trampled to death as they sought free rice. Even ivory towers are not vaccinated against the rabies that rice has become.
Following the tragic deaths where those who went to search for sustenance sustained fatal injuries instead, opinions have again been sundered, as with everything in Nigeria. But as the debate rages on, the worst losers are those who cannot contribute anything because they are as dead as doornails, only because they joined the struggle for rice.
Since rice has turned Nigerians into rabid raccoons that can rip their brothers and sisters apart in a moment, can there be competing alternatives? Rather than distributing rice, can there also be fufu, amala, ukwa, okpa or even yam as alternatives?
Nigeria is on the lookout for victims to fill the metaphor for a mortuary that it has become and for everyone, the overriding duty is to stay alive; the overwhelming one.
Following the needless deaths, many people have blamed President Bola Tinubu. Maybe ripple effects. Perhaps, just frustration. As disappointing and disjointed as his government has been, he was nowhere near Okija or Maitama as Nigerians trampled each other to death. He was in faraway Lagos where it is impossible that rice will be an issue.
For years, Nigerians have known that those who supposedly lead them sell snake oil. Since it is clear that they now sell rice too, Nigerians must let self-preservation, that most primal and precious of instincts, kick in. There is no other choice. The dead do not speak or eat rice, of course.
Ike Willie-Nwobu wrote from the mail [email protected]