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blood for tourism
Related to country: Nigeria

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The National Youth Service Corps runs a community development service for its host communities coordinated by the serving corps members.

Three of them had formed a tourism club and led the members on an excursion up Mount Patti.

The mount was idyllic, shot through with history. Located in Lokoja, it rises far above the little city that used to be Nigeria's capital. It is said that Lord Frederick Luggard, the famous amalgamator of Nigeria's north and south protectorates used to climb to the top of the mountain, stand up there and survey the kingdom below in a fashion similar to the king in LION KING standing on the edge of Pride Rock.

The students came up the mount for sightseeing at a television station, ostensibly to see how the news they hear on radio at home is put together.

When they left, most of them did not make it home.

Minutes after they departed, calls came in saying the students were involved in a crash on their descent down the mountain.

The crash was fatal. Eleven students, none above age 18, were counted dead on the spot. Not breathing, not moving, not doing anything..
Their bus had gone off the narrow mountain road, plunged through bush on the edge and plummeted down the side of the mountain, bouncing on large boulders on its descent. One of the boulders was smeared with blood and brain—cells of the same brain that a while ago had been soaking up information about the news production process and saying hi and hello to reporters sitting at their computers.

The carnage seemed senseless. Two people survived. One of them reported that the driver had shut off the engine on their way, obviously to save on fuel. The shut-off engine caused the steering mechanism to lock, and the driver simply lost control of the bus. But he wasn’t found anywhere near the bus once the crash occurred.

When I arrived at the scene, one last survivor to be extracted from the wreckage was lying inside a rescue bus and still screaming through the blood running over her eyes and down her face. She screamed for death. She screamed that she didn’t want to die.

Thirteen students were taken to hospital. One was DOA—dead on arrival.

A father had come running with his wife on hearing about the accident. He met his son been interviewed by reporters. Father and son had tears in their eyes. Neither could say anything. Mother was screaming her gratitude to heaven at the same time trying to hold herself in check so her glee wouldn’t be read as gloating by the mass of relatives who were still to hear any definite word of hope about their children.

Forget all the media blitz surrounding crashes, though it ended up on network television the next morning.

The question is simple. How did a tourist attraction become a death trap? How did a simple field trip turn deadly?

July 7, 2008 | 9:53 AM Comments  0 comments



FIRE IN THE PARK
Related to country: Nigeria


Just last week a popular market named after the Oba of Benin, caught fire. Or maybe it was set on fire. The fire started at one a.m. and burned until the dawn. Everything was gutted. Very few people, only those who lived close to the market, could salvage their wares.
A lot of people have suspected arson. Afterall, there had been acrimonious struggle concerning security arrangement in the market.

A week later, a popular park in the same city was hit. Four personal buildings lining the major road, the same road that runs from Lagos all through to Onitsha, caught fire, again in the middle of the night. No explanation has been given for it. And none seems forthcoming.

market security arrangement is becoming a gravy train for some people desperate to cash in around this city. Not least because women desperate to protect their wares can be browbeaten into complying with fees of any sort on demand. Sleight of hand, outright threat of bodily harm and seizure of stock can force tradeswomen to comply with the socalled hooligans in the marketplace.

Because of the finances involved in securing a market, many young and able bodied men currently run clandestine vigilante services in the name of market security, for which they get paid hundreds of thousands of naira pooled from women traders. And then there have been cases where they enlisted the help of local police to seize goods of "defaulting traders" until demanded payments were made.

Last week it was Edaiken market. This week it was Ramat Park. What market will be next? How do local women whose families depend on their contributions to the family purse start all over after losing everything they ever owned in the inferno? Seriously, there are families that don't eat unless someone, a mother to say the least, goes to market and sells something. Dinner doesn't come easy.

September 1, 2005 | 4:52 PM Comments  1 comments

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