It is exactly one month after the peace of Ibadan, the ancient Yoruba city was shattered with explosives.
No one saw it coming that death would fly so high, so far and so furious in a neighbourhood of the affluent that had known serenity for decades.
January 16, 2024 has gone down as the Day of Armageddon when all anarchy was let loose and for a sad interregnum of confusion, the falcon could not hear the falconer.
For the records, findings have shown that at least, the incident recorded five deaths, with a total 335 injured going by the statistics released by the government-led efforts to unravel what happened and what was lost.
And for the records as well, we were told that the cause of the explosion were dangerous substances kept in a house by operatives of an illegal mining concern. And for the records also, three “persons of interest” have been identified as the brains behind the illegal mining concern that brought misery, death and loss to innocent residents.
So far and about two weeks after the “persons of interests” declaration, the veils are yet to be yanked off the faces of those “persons of interests” at least for Nigerians to know who they are.
Just as in many other Nigerian tragedies, we have all moved on to other headline-grabbing things and there is little or no talks again about the Ibadan tragedy.
Who wants to talk about a month-old tragedy when fresh ones are being minted everyday? Haven’t many been sent to their early graves in Plateau state in one of the worst human carnages in recent times? Or have two monarchs not been killed in Ekiti while another was sent to his ancestors in Kwara with his was wife kidnapped? That was a retired General of the Nigerian Army killed like a chicken in one corner of his palace!
Haven’t our kids been kidnapped on their way from school in Ekiti? Indeed, one of our bankers and his wife and son had perished after their chopper came down in the United states!
And even in the face of those tragedies, haven’t our economic miseries multiplied in few days with prices of gari and bread and eggs hiking in dizzying folds? Our people still spend more time at filling stations than their homes or offices queueing for fuel. Protests against hunger are forming up in Kano, Kogi, Ota and Ugheli. More Nigerian cities look promising to follow in the placards-carrying anger against the worsening economic woes.
Without sounding like a prophet of doom, more worrying incidents still lay ahead of the country in a cacophony of crisis that seem to have gripped the land.
However, we must not forget to get to the roots of the Ibadan explosion if only to honour the memories of those whose lives were cut short; whose lives have been badly uttered, whose fortunes have nose-dived and who have been rendered homeless.
Governor Seyi Makinde, who was quick to tell the world illegal miners brought the misfortune, has the task to see through the needed actions that will ensure that those who shattered the peace of Ibadan do not go unpunished.
As usual, it is at the nick of such tearful times that authorities come up with nice proposals how to prevent such bloody days from coming up again. But sadly, the Nigerian system has a way of allowing misfortunes to repeat themselves over and over again when promises are not kept and officials only play to the gallery on the emotions of the time.
Dr. Oladele Alake, Minister of Solid Minerals and Mines had vowed that his ministry will “double its efforts to tighten the noose around those acquiring explosives and storing them illegally.”
One month after, we want to hope that Alake has followed his words up with actions lest objects of death fly around again in any part of Nigeria. Illegal miners have become parts of all our communities where one resource or another is available.
There were promises to assist survivors to overcome the hardship and dislocations foisted on them by the explosions. Nigerians do not want to hear sordid tales of abandonment by the promising authorities. These have been the patterns in the past.
Above all, Adeyi Avenue must count for some memorials as the epicentre of a hair splitting ‘quake’ for we believe nothing of such magnitude has ever been witnessed in West Africa’s largest city. May the souls of those who died rest well.