Last week, the Lagos State government outlawed the burial of corpses within residential premises across the state. This, it said, was part of the measures enacted to prevent the transmission of communicable diseases. It has also prohibited the use of residential areas as morgues. This was disclosed by the Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Law Reform Commission, Ade Adeyemo, who noted that the prohibition had become imperative as the state sought to step up to the 21st century realities of preventing communicable diseases. Adeyemo added that the commission arrived at the measure after careful consideration and review of the laws addressing the immediate and peculiar needs of Lagos residents. She said: “The commission, after review, found it expedient to ensure that the Lagos State Public Health Law was expanded to include present-day disease outbreaks like Ebola, Lassa fever and other communicable diseases.”
Actually, the announcement by the Lagos State government is nothing new. In December 2013, the state government had similarly warned residents to desist from burying their dead in their compounds and to comply with laws prohibiting the burial of family members on private properties located within their communities. According to the government, such a practice posed a major challenge to the government in relocating such corpses in the course of future road expansion and reconstruction projects. The then state Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, gave the warning at Mushin Local Government Area of the state, shortly before the then Governor Babatunde Fashola handed over 16 completed networks of roads in the council totaling 10.127 kilometres.
The world over, dead bodies, particularly of loved ones, are treasured. Thus, in burying them, people ensure that they are as close to their graves as possible. In many places, the resting places of folk heroes are in fact the site of pilgrimage, as people identify with the strides of such heroes on behalf of the community and even take pictures in such sites, often located in residential areas. In Nigeria, the practice of burying the dead in residential areas seems to date back to the precolonial society. This is partly because the ‘world’ of the country’s ethnic groups consists of the dead, the living and the unborn, and graves are in fact sites of linkage with the living. In most cases, the dead are believed to be part of an ancestral community endowed with power to mediate in the affairs of the living, particularly in tempestuous times. Against this backdrop, the fact that the dead are buried in residential areas till today is easily understood.
However, it is important to recognize that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) empowers federal and state governments to make laws to guarantee public health, morality, safety and orderliness. To that extent, no matter the level of attachment to the dead, particularly parents and spouses, the law must be obeyed unless set aside by a court of competent jurisdiction. In this regard, it is important to note that the law outlawing burial in residential areas is not a new one in many states of the country, even though it has tended to be observed more in the breach. But this law is not an absolute: people intending to bury their loved ones in a residential area may obtain special permission from their state governor to do so. In this regard, it is instructive to note that the Oyo State government, in the wake of some controversies that cropped up following the demise of the immediate past governor of the state, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, in June this year, explained that it had bent over backwards to allow the former governor to be buried at his residence in Oluyole, Ibadan. Admittedly, even though it is illegal to bury people in residential areas, most Nigerians, including highly educated persons, are not even aware of this. State and local government authorities therefore need to step up enlightenment campaigns on the matter.
To be sure, we recognise that death is a rather uncomfortable topic for most people. But it is a fact of life nonetheless and must be treated as such, particularly as the state as an entity has seen the need to enact laws regulating various issues related to it. However, it is one thing for states to outlaw burial within residential areas, but quite another for them to ensure that grieving families bury their dead at reasonable cost, and with minimal hassles. Given the typically Nigerian practice of cashing in on situations, it is incumbent on state governments to ensure that people are not ripped off while performing the emotionally tasking but necessary practice of burying their dead. They must avoid situations that recall the sonorous yet sobering lines by the Afrobeat king, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: “Double wahala for dead body, and the owner of dead body.”
