Yesterday, April 14, 2014, it was a breaking news by both local and international news organizations on the early morning blast at the outskirt of Abuja, Nigeria, that claimed "scores of lives" (we are yet to know the actual number of victims, both living and the dead). This tragedy gained greater attention because of proximity to the seat of government. The senseless attacks have persisted, for a long time, in different parts of the country, especially in the North, and the wanton waste of lives has been spine-chilling.
In a country so blessed with human and natural resources and a fantastic weather year round, man-made disasters have constituted a big clog to our development as individuals, families, communities and nation.
While the relevant security agencies tackle the insurgency menace with our support and best wishes, it is important to highlight here the importance of disaster preparedness at the national level in dealing with both the injured and deceased. Usually, more efforts are concentrated (for good reasons) on rescue operations to save the living but even that sometimes falls short on coordination and facility. The worst hit is plan for the deceased. Incidentally, the ability of affected loved ones, families and communities to come to closure and carry on with life following disasters is dependent on the manner the dead are managed. A comprehensive plan for taking care of survivors and deceased is not an exercise to be undertaken during disasters; it is put in place before disasters occur. Unfortunately, man-made disasters of savagely nature frequently visited on Nigerians and other African countries is a sad reality of manifestation of deranged communication, negotiation skills and ideology (more of lack of it!). It's hard to get round how some people could justify killing of hapless, unharmed and innocent folks going about their business. It can never make sense.
However, it'll be a double tragedy, both to the families/communities of the deceased and to the investigation process to resort to mass burials, often commonplace in Africa,especially Nigeria. It is important to state that this practice is partly fueled by certain myths (topic of a different discussion) about dead bodies especially the one that "...dead bodies cause epidemics".
The following provisions should be urgently looked into as a means of planning:
1. Setting up high capacity mortuary, one in each geopolitical zones of the country and Abuja. The existing mortuaries attached to some government hospitals do not have the capacity to handle mass deaths. Appropriate site should be located in conjunction with experts to build such mortuaries that can become a "reference" facility in preserving high number of bodies and should be equipped with requisite modern facilities for postmortem examination especially in disaster victim identification (DVI). No person should be buried as "unknown" or in a mass grave without every effort made to achieve identification. The right of the deceased to dignity, even in death, should be preserved and the right of loved ones and families to be presented the correct remains of deceased for proper burial must be protected.
2. Forensic Laboratory: Forensic death investigation is supported by forensic laboratories. There is need for government to set up functional forensic laboratories where forensic toxicology, DNA profiling, and other forensic science services required in forensic death investigation and DVI could be undertaken. In addition to saving cost, it'll also also build capacity and experience of local experts in such services.
3. National Institute for Forensic Medicine and Science: The need for forensic services abounds in Nigeria and in most of Africa. A local specialized training institute will ensure adequate number of specialists in this field are trained and retrained and the essence of team work, in a multidisciplinary fashion, in forensic services will also be emphasized.
We've found ourselves in a difficult situation and as humans we need to start putting in place more measures in dealing with the challenges. Some approach could be preventive and others involve actual management of the incidents. Unfortunately, disasters (and regrettably man-made disasters) are inevitable and before the next one occurs, there is need to put in place plans to manage the deceased in addition to a robust rescue operation for the living.
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