Evidence that Nigeria is yet to imbibe the critical culture of crowd management as an essential part of everyday living emerged at a recent campaign rally of President Muhammadu Buhari in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where 14 people reportedly died. This was an unfortunate incident that could have been avoided if the organisers had been well grounded in crowd control skills and cared about safety measures.
Despite past incidents that claimed lives, the trend has persisted, either during sporting events, religious gatherings or political rallies. People are often encouraged to leave the comfort of their homes for an event potentially capable of attracting huge crowds without adequate consideration for their safety. Worse still, after tragedy must have struck, everybody goes home to await a future re-enactment of the calamity; essentially, no lesson is learnt.
During the current electioneering, several of such incidents have been reported. A rally at the Jolly Nyame Stadium in Jalingo, Taraba State, was reported to have left five people dead, following a stampede. The All Progressives Congress had to issue a statement promising to “ensure that improved crowd control measures are put in place to as much as possible prevent a reccurrence of this sad incident.” In Kano, when the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, visited, it was by sheer providence that death was averted after nine people slumped, following another uncontrollable crowd turnout.
But on that score, not even religious groups have fared better, as a few incidents recalled would confirm. In November 2013, no fewer than 28 people were reported dead after a crowd trouble that occurred at a crusade ground of the Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry, Uke, in Idemili Local Government Area of Anambra State. The event, attended by the then governor, Peter Obi, reportedly attracted a larger crowd than usual, leaving organisers at their wits’ end.
It was also the same thing in Benin City, back in 1999, when renowned evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke, came calling. No fewer than 14 people were feared dead as people came to hear the German preacher speak at a crusade held at a sports facility in the Edo State capital. Despite the number of casualties, more people were said to have turned up again the following day, even when the preacher decided not to attend.
Perhaps the most scandalous of all was the Immigration interview organised by the then Internal Affairs minister, Abba Moro, in which about 19 Nigerian job seekers lost their lives. In one of the most audacious and exploitative ventures, about 520,000 applicants from all over the country were corralled into stadia nationwide for a job interview for only 4,556 slots, after each of them was charged N1,000. The deaths occurred due to stampedes.
Typically, crowd control problem has been very common in sport and the history of Nigerian sport is replete with stories of deaths at stadia due to unruly crowd behaviour. A very prominent incident was recorded at the National Stadium in 1978, during which about 24 people died after a Challenge Cup semi-final match between Shooting Stars of Ibadan and Bendel Insurance of Benin. It was a classic case of poor crowd management that saw the organisers taking the wrong steps at every turn.
For a match that was played in the night, it was a fatal error for the managers of the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, to have put off the floodlights immediately after the match, triggering a rush for the numerous exits points. Unfortunately, some of these exit points were firmly locked and when people got there, they could no longer turn back as the crowd kept pressing them against the iron steel gates. Those who fell were trampled to death.
Yet, it did not teach people to behave better in future. When the national team, the Super Eagles, moved their World Cup qualifier against Zambia to a newly-built stadium in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, in 2017, there was another crowd trouble in which the number of people dead and those injured were disputed. But during an earlier encounter in which the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna played host to a Nations Cup qualifier between the Super Eagles and the Pharaohs of Egypt, fans reportedly climbed the scoreboard, camera stands and floodlights to watch the match. Some even invaded the track after a stadium built for about 25,000 people was invaded by more than 40,000 fans.
While the tragedies mount, and the country continues to lose precious lives, nobody seems to care about asking individuals to defend their roles in what, in other countries, amount to national calamities. Nobody is punished. This is where the situation in Nigeria differs from what obtains in other places. In the United Kingdom, for instance, which also used to have a lot of crowd trouble, especially during football matches, measures were introduced that reduced it drastically.
One of such measures was ensuring that people were not admitted beyond the capacity of the arena. This they did by numbering the seats in the stadium and ensuring that everybody was seated. Once the stadium is full, people are no longer admitted. Another important measure is to ensure that all the entrances and exits are flung open after the event, so that a stadium, no matter how big, could be emptied of its occupants within a few minutes. Since political rallies and church programmes now take place in stadia, these crowd control measures should also apply.
Holding people accountable when tragedy strikes is also important. When 96 fans of Liverpool died in a 1989 FA Cup semifinal match against Nottingham Forest, it took 28 years to get the culprits. Within that period, investigation did not cease and the victims’ families did not lose hope. Initially, drunken fans were blamed for the deaths. But it was eventually established that poor crowd management in an overcrowded, fenced-in enclosure at the Hillsborough Stadium was at fault. Police chief, David Duckenfield, was held responsible 28 years after for “failures to discharge his personal responsibility.”
Right now, in the UK, crowd trouble leading to death is no longer a regular occurrence. Nigerian law enforcement agents must also learn to hold people accountable for needless deaths arising from crowd trouble. Adequate number of police officers, road safety and civil defence personnel should also be on duty before permission is granted for rallies.
