State governments and other stakeholders in the distribution of food assistance to needy Nigerians have been taken to task over the handling of the exercise which has increasing become tragic, leading to the untimely deaths of many.
LEADERSHIP Friday reports that at least eight persons purportedly died in a stampede at the annual Zakat distribution organised AYM Shafa Foundation in Bauchi.
LEADERSHIP Friday gathered that most of the victims who died were women and children who trooped out en masse to the Shafa Holdings head office located along Bauchi-Jos Road to collect a token of about N10,000 as Zakat from the foundation.
However, their excitement soon turned to sorrow as the crowd, projected to be more than 1,000 persons – mostly women – became uncontrollable as the scramble to get the token on time became fierce, according to eyewitness accounts of the incident.
Similarly, some alleged that police operatives, who were supposedly stationed at the venue to provide security and control the crowd, fired teargas canisters, sparking panic and pandemonium at the venue with many intended beneficiaries running for cover.
Zakat, one of the pillars of the Islamic faith, requires all Muslims to donate a portion of their wealth to charity. However, they must meet a certain threshold before they can qualify for zakat. The amount is 2.5% or 1/40 of an individual’s total savings and wealth, which is thereafter given out to the needy, orphans a, travellers, and the like.
Our correspondent reports that Shafa Foundation had planned to distribute about N40 million to the beneficiaries this year. It had done a similar exercise in the previous years during Ramadan, also with some casualties.
Dr Ibrahim Disina, one of the leaders of the AYM Shafa Foundation, said the incident was an act ordained by the Almighty, not a deliberate attempt to endanger the lives of the poor.
He, however, admitted that the exercise will be reviewed to forestall future similar occurrences.
The Foundation under Dr Disina had compensated families of the victims with N250,000, two bags of 25kg rice, and one bag each of maize and millet.
In Nasarawa State, where some undergraduates died during food distribution, the state government has said it will continue to put in place measures aimed at alleviating the hardship the people are going through following the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government.
It said the unfortunate incident at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK), which claimed the lives of two students of the institution, was regrettable and that it had since extended its condolences to families of the late Miss Grace Dandaldi and Ruth Michael over the development.
Speaking with our correspondent in Lafia, the Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs in the state, Margaret Elayo, said the state had been the first to extend the palliatives distribution exercise to students, stating that initiative had been seamless until the NSUK incident.
“We started with Lafia where we recorded tremendous success which motivated us to reach out to other schools. NSUK was supposed to be the last school we will go to but sadly before we got there, the incident happened,” she explained.
According to her, the state government will devise a different means of approaching the exercise during the second phase which is expected to commence soon.
“On our part, we have learned to do better. We are going back to the drawing board to see what we can do to avert the Keffi situation. We might be doing something differently for the students in the next phase of distribution.
“We have commendable feedback from the community distribution exercise and even the school initiative, which is the first of its kind in the country as far as palliative issues are concerned where the students get to benefit. When we go to school like that it is not just for the rice, we also support the students with some token,” she stated.
She said 4,000 beneficiaries were targeted at NSUK alone.
However, some Nigerians have said that the whole idea of palliatives distribution by the federal and state governments as a measure to cushion the effect of subsidy removal is ill-conceived and unsustainable.
The executive director of Society for Family Health in the state, Mrs. Mary Ashenanye said the way forward would have been for the federal and state governments to boost food production, introduce cheap mass transportation and regulate prices of commodities.
She said the security challenges in the country led to food shortages as it became impossible for farmers to access the farms.
“When I was neck deep in farming, I was producing 60 bags of rice yearly before insecurity set in,” she explained.
Also, Suleiman Dagana, a student in one of the tertiary institutions in the state, while commending the state government for factoring in the interest of students in the initiative, called for the removal of tuition as palliative for students instead of rice distribution.
“It will be more impactful if the state government can waive tuition for a session for all students; that will ease the pressure on both us and our parents,” he said.
Hardship, Food Price Hikes Responsible For Stampede
In Lagos, when Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) discounted the price of foreign parboiled rice to Nigerians at its zonal headquarters, Harvey Road, Yaba, seven people reportedly died from the stampede while struggling to buy the products.
The stampede was said to have occurred in the evening after the day’s sales as hundreds of Nigerians tried to forcefully gain entrance into the venue to buy the discounted rice.
Speaking about her experience, a Lagos resident, Yetunde Logunleko, said trouble started when Lagosians decided to force their way into Customs’ facility.
According to her, people were seen scaling the fence while others who had already gained entry into the facility were searching empty containers in a bid to evacuate available bags of rice.
It was, however, gathered that people who fell in the process were trampled; two people died at the entrance gate while four others lay dead on the entrance of the zonal office.
“There were a lot of people who fell in the process of forcefully gaining entry into the Customs’ facility and many fainted alongside. This is due to the inability to adhere to instructions.
“Everybody was struggling to get hold of a bag of rice. In fact, two people collapsed and others trampled on them to get into the selling point.
“If Nigerians had maintained orderliness to the end, this wouldn’t have happened. We were orderly until the Service asked everyone to go and return the following day but everyone wanted to get hold of a bag of rice,” she said.
Speaking on the stampede, a clearing agent, Ikechukwu Anaba, called for food security and opening of the land borders to food importation.
Ababa, a foremost clearing agent at Tin Can Island Port, stated that if food is surplus, people won’t waste their lives queuing for discounted food items.
According to him, the hardship and astronomically high prices of food items were a trigger for the stampede.
“Government should open the border and allow food items to be legally imported into the country. The hardship and skyrocketing prices were responsible for the stampede. If grains such as rice are readily available, no one will queue for Customs discounted rice, rather, we will all go to the market to purchase readily available food items,” he stated.
Also, one Hakeem Abdullah said insecurity in the northern part of the country was responsible for scarcity of food items in the country, which had led to Nigerians seeking cheap and readily available food items.
“In the North East, Boko Haram, in the North West, banditry, North Central, herdsmen, and they are the ones feeding the country with various agricultural produce. If insecurity is tackled head-on, we may not even need to go to neighbouring countries to import staple food items. So, until insecurity is tackled in the northern part of the country, we may be unable to tackle acute food shortage,and stampedes like this will continue to occur anywhere the government or individual introduces discounted food items for the teeming hungry populace.
“No matter how the crowds are controlled since food is out of reach of the people, they will fight themselves to get it cheap,” he stated.
NEMA Asks Organisers To Engage Community Leaders
Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has called for the involvement of community leaders and other relevant stakeholders in order to avert the unwarranted deaths and injuries during the distribution of palliatives.
While speaking with LEADERSHIP Friday on how NEMA has successfully distributed interventions, palliatives and humanitarian needs over the years without news of deaths, injuries or struggles, the head of media, NEMA, Ezekiel Manzo, said there must be proper collaborations with leaders in the community, who will in turn help coordinate their people properly.
He further explained that the agency is a professional body and works with highly trained individuals, who know how to handle such situations.
Manzo called for the involvement of security agencies and other relevant stakeholders whenever palliatives are shared, noting that dealing with the public is a difficult task and requires the services of all relevant stakeholders.