[Photo:A scene from venue of disaster reported by news media under the title “Bloody Saturday In A/Ibom: 200 Worshippers Dead After Church Collapses, How Governor Escaped Death By A Whisker“]
Vanguard quoted an eye witness who said: “I saw Apostle Weeks, Governor Emmanuel and other officials escape through the vestry, while the roof fell on some of the people,who did not know what happened” – Source: Read full news report/see more photos (Warning: Very GRAPHIC)]
Given the scale of this latest “religious retreat” avoidable disaster (Hint: Remember TB Joshua’s Synagogue?), I believe a need NOW exists in Nigeria, to exercise major caution in accepting invitations to attend large crowd “religious” functions, at newly constructed venues one is not familiar with.
We may need to do this, not because we don’t care, or because we feel superior to others…but because it is becoming increasingly obvious that irresponsible and/or incompetent “experts” continue to win contract rights to execute such big budget construction projects in Nigeria.
There is simply too little regulation happening, and too few checks and balances in place to protect the interests of the majority
For instance, reports available indicate that the builders rushed the completion of this project so it could be used as the event venue. This collapse suggests the quality of materials used and/or work done were below the standards required.
Whether that happened inadvertently or deliberately, we may probably never know.
One thing is however almost certain:
Little or no quality control due diligence verifications were done BEFORE people were admitted into that area.
It’s almost as if these people assume that since they will be worshiping Him in their newly built (or construction-in-progress) edifice, God would send Angels to correct any deficiencies, that they are unwilling to make out time to find and rectify themselves!
As has happened before (remember the Synagogue Church Of All Nations event?) the hundreds of unsuspecting attendees had no inkling of all the hazards.
But even if they had suspected anything or asked questions, they would probably have been told not to fret over such things in a place of wiorship – where Men Of God would be present.
Yet it happened and hundreds of lives have been lost, with many injured!
The irony? Well, the “Men Of God” reportedly escaped via the vestry, before the collapse!
I thought they would have seen it coming and warned their “trusting” followers?
Will anyone be held accountable for allowing this avoidable disaster to happen?
Are any lessons going to be learnt to avert disasters of this nature in future?
Or do human lives matter so little to us in Nigeria that we – especially regulatory agencies in charge/the government itself – could not care less if they continue to get wasted in this crazy manner?
I certainly hope not – for all our sakes, because tomorrow it could be you, me or any of our own loved ones that ends up injured, or worse, because we took no (or failed to demand for) corrective action.