I HOPE WE ALL STILL REMEMBER THIS STORY. PLEASE READ ON ! WHAT IF THE CHILEAN MINERS WERE NIGERIAN? October 24, 2010 at 2:40am Some miners were trapped in a cave in Chile recently when the mine in which they were working caved in, and collapsed, burying them deep in its rubble. Mine accidents are not strange, neither are they a rare occurrence. Mines cave in lots of times and in lots of places, China, and the United States inclusive, so I wasn’t really perturbed the first time I heard the news. I had just regarded it as one of those abstract tragedies that CNN never fails to report. More so, it happened in a distant place. I know Chile is situated somewhere in Southwestern South America. That was the extent of my knowledge about that country that enthralled the whole world for some months. The miners, thirty-three in all, were trapped in that hell hole for a total of sixty-nine days, and indeed for the first seventeen days, nobody knew if they were alive or dead. The outpouring of grief was massive, and was palpable throughout the nation. Not only their families and loved ones cried for them, but the whole nation stood in unison at those dark moments of grief and uncertainty. Candles were lit and prayers were offered, as the people hoped for the safe return of the miners to ‘light.’ After a while, the miners were able to communicate with the people above ground, and food items and other accessories were sent to them beneath the earth. They were just thirty-three, but the Chilean government acted as though its whole citizenry was trapped underground. They did everything they could to make sure that these ‘ordinary miners’ with no political value were rescued and re-united with their loved ones. Now, I need you to pause for a minute, and coast your mind back home to Nigeria. On the 1st of October 2010, when our ‘Great Nation’ populated by ‘Great People’ was celebrating her fifty years of independence from Great Britain, two car bombs went off in the nation’s capital claiming about fourteen innocent Nigerian civilian souls, and leaving about sixty-six others injured. My God! That’s not all! The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed responsibility for those dastardly acts of terrorism, and announced that they had sent warnings to security agencies prior to the bombings. As a matter of fact, some foreign nations had also gotten wind of the intended attacks, and they relayed same to the local authorities. But what was done with this piece of information? Nothing! The Nigerian security agencies, which are funded by taxpayers money, did nothing while countries like England, prevented their nationals from attending the celebrations because of the prior warning they had gotten. This unforgivable laxity would have attracted stiff reprimands in saner climes, but not so in our darling nation. Rather than commiserate with the grief stricken who had lost loved ones, our leaders engaged in horse-trading, throwing blames around like fufu during a food fight. President Goodluck Jonathan absolved MEND of blame even when the militant organization claimed responsibility, and dropped the sack of blames at the doorstep of his political opponents. In no time, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, the campaign manager of IBB’s presidential bid and chairman of DAAR Communications, was arrested by the State Security Service (SSS) and detained for interrogation. After the first two days, nothing more was said about the original victims: those who paid the price of life just for coming out to celebrate with their nation. This kind of incident makes me sad, and pained. I feel terribly grieved at how life has been cheapened in Nigeria. I didn’t lose any loved one to the blasts, but I can imagine the lifelong grief and anguish the affected families will experience. Will those families ever pray for Nigeria, despite the fact that the government ‘magnanimously’ offered to offset the medical bill of the injured? No, I doubt it. Over two weeks after the incident, the perpetrators have not been brought to book despite the deluge of threats and blames by the government. Life goes on, right? I have said it before, and I wouldn’t mind repeating myself at the risk of sounding too much like a broken record: we cannot really progress as a nation unless we attach importance and sacredness to human lives. Every Nigerian soul is priceless, damn it! If those Chilean miners were ‘unfortunate’ enough to have been Nigerians, it would have been Nunc Dimittis by now. The Chilean government demonstrated the love it has for its citizens by devoting time, money, manpower, and every other thing you can think of to ensure that those miners didn’t die a horrific death. Why, the Chilean president was on hand to receive the miners when they were brought out from the hole. Can, or will Nigeria do the same if such a situation was to repeat itself here? The answer is blowing in the wind. Nigeria of today has too much of a resemblance to George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm,’ where all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. Nobody gives a hoot about unnecessary deaths, unless they affect the high and mighty. We need to change that stinking mentality!
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 10:31:27 +0000
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