The Bayelsa boat tragedy

THE passengers on the wooden boat identified as ‘Godbless Dickson’ aimed only to do their lawful businesses in Bayelsa State last week, but they met a gruesome end. The ill-fated cargo boat laden with farm produce from a rural settlement and over 64 passengers was on its way to the Swali market in Yenagoa, the state capital. The vessel exploded and plunged into the depths of the sea, leaving 20 people dead. The tragic incident occurred along the Ezetu 1 community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa. Chairman of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, Bayelsa Chapter, Mr Ogoniba Ipigansi, said that a rescue team of the union consisting of two speedboats had been dispatched to the scene to assist the passengers on board, adding that several people on board were yet to be accounted for. The spokesman for the Bayelsa command of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), ASP Musa Mohammed, also said that there were ongoing rescue efforts by the marine unit of the force. The unit later recovered the decomposing corpses after 48 hours of intensive search in which it was joined by local divers. The corpses were conveyed to Yenagoa in body bags and deposited at the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre.

Following the incidents, residents of the coastal town of Ezetu I sent desperate appeals to the state government and the humanitarian agencies, saying that as a community predominantly populated by fishermen, they had temporarily ceased operations because of the pollusion of the river. The Community Development Committee (CDC) chairman of the area, Richard Emmanuel, said getting foodstuffs to the community had become extremely difficult. He said the situation applied to other satellite communities within the region. On its part, the Bayelsa State government banned cooking in local wooden boats. It also announced the mandatory use of life jackets and the provision of life buoys for all boat operators in the state.

Deputy governor of the state, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, said that the  government would no longer tolerate the presence of illegal inflammables in boats, and would only allow the quantity of fuel needed for any journey. This, he said, would forestall future fire incidents. He said: “All travellers must have life-jackets, whether speed or wooden local boats. All boats must also have life-buoys, and the ban on night travel is still in force. All boats must also be checked for inflammables. We believe that these measures will help save life and property, which is the main duty of government.”

Last week’s incident is, to say the least, distressing. Underprivileged Nigerians on their way to the market met a sad end on the waterways, a metaphor for the terrible state of affairs in Nigeria’s governmental firmament. Time and again, Nigeria’s ruling class has proved to be quite adept at issuing impassioned statements after tragedies, then resuming its usual business of doing exactly nothing, thereafter. Boat operators, intent on filthy gain, having criminal leverage over passengers’ lives, and being not particularly averse to alcohol, ride the waves in a fit of rage, carrying on like pirates. They overload their vessels at the slightest opportunity, and officialdom is not in sight to stop them. Accidents are routine, costing the country huge losses in human lives and in property, and constituting a menace to the natural ecology. From the North to the South, boat accidents keep happening, and politicians keep lamenting and issuing pacifist promissory notes that turn out to be sheer bunkum.

In the current case, the conclusion cannot be avoided that the loss of lives was needless. If there had been government officials monitoring proceedings at the point of loading, they would no doubt have prevented the overloading of the wooden vessel— that is, if they did not look in another direction following a bribe. We are sick and tired of calling on the authorities to do the right thing; to enforce the law and be the government they pretend to be, if only just for once. Time and again, we have called for the upgrade of the facilities for safety on the waterways instead of the culture of lamentations after tragedies. But our patriotic calls have been met by callous indifference, if not outright disdain. Perhaps somebody somewhere will be concerned enough to arrest the regular harvest of blood and bones on the waterways, and restore sanity to water travel.

Until then, things will go on as usual, and lives will be lost as usual. What a tragedy!

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