It is Christmas time again; that time of the year synonymous with carols, lighting, shiny decorations, gifts and Santa Claus. But it is also known as a time when the loud bangs of fire crackers rend the air, especially in the night.
The tradition has been popular in many parts of Nigeria, including Lagos, the country’s commercial nerve centre. But while the other things that have become synonymous with the season have continued to endure, the old practice of setting off firecrackers at yuletide may never happen at Jankara market, Lagos Island, again.
Last Boxing Day, December 26, 2012, an explosion reportedly caused by fire crackers, rocked Jankara market, killing at least one person and injuring about 40 others. The explosion started in a warehouse at 45, Ojo Giwa Street, Jankara market, where firecrackers were stored. The building which housed the warehouse was razed to the ground, while about 13 adjoining buildings were badly burnt, some of which had to be pulled down.
One year after
Almost a year after the incident, the mood at the market was still sombre as traders and residents on and around Ojo Giwa Street are yet to recover from the losses incurred through the explosion. Many traders said the incident had changed the community as they declared their dislike for firecrackers.
Should anyone attempt to set off a firecracker in the market area as part of Christmas and New Year celebrations, one of the traders, Obinna Okoye, said the person would be risking his or her safety for the action.
“People will rush and fight anyone who tries to set off a banger here. Nobody plays with banger in this area since the incident. Nobody dares it because we have lost so much. I lost all the electronics I was selling and I had just paid rent for two years in advance and still had about eight months left when the explosion took everything away,” he said.
Another trader, Oluwaseun Shiyanbola, who blamed the incident for his father’s death, added that he would react strongly to the selling or setting off of firecracker in the market, considering his family’s tragic experience.
He said, “I can’t even predict what I would do if I see anyone lighting bangers here, but I know I won’t take it lightly. Nobody does that again here. There has not been a sound of firecracker here this year. In fact, if something like that happens, the police will have to be involved.”
Earlier in the month, on December 12, traders at the market gather to hold a special interdenominational prayer service. A trader, Chigozie Aghalu, described the programme as a “celebration of the lives of those who survived the incident.”
Aghalu, who lost two shops to the explosion, said he had been to hell and back since the incident occurred about a year ago.
He said, “Before now, they used to sell firecrackers here during Christmas period, but this time around, no one can sell or use them here. The incident changed everything for us. Nobody can light a fire cracker here, not just this place, but the whole of the Lagos Island. People will come together to fight the person before the person will be handed over to the police.
“When the explosion occurred, I lost everything and I had a family and my aged mother to feed. For a long time, we were relying on others to feed. Some of us who did not die in the explosion have died from worrying. Some took loans from banks and lost everything in the fire.
“Some are still dying till today because there is no way for them to get money to pay back their loans. After the incident, I went to hell and came back. I’m still not fully back; I’m still on my way back.”
At the makeshift stalls where the affected traders have been putting up since the incident, the stories of loss seemed to have become a binding factor amongst them.
Shiyanbola, who lost his 56-year-old father, Segun, a few months after the incident, said his father had slipped into depression following the incident.
“I lost my father due to the incident because he was always thinking about it. He died in his car but we knew what killed him because he was thinking a lot at the time. We lost about N10m worth of goods and it was a major setback for the family,” he said.
Shiyanbola said the trader using the adjoining stall, also lost her daughter to the explosion. However, Shiyanbola’s neighbour was not in the market when our correspondent visited the place.
Another trader, Mr. Wasiu Ajetumobi, lost two shops and almost lost his life as well, to the explosion.
Ajetumobi said he spent two months at the General Hospital, Odan, Lagos Island, spending about N500,000 on hospital bills. He claimed to have lost goods worth N2m to the fire.
One other issue that the traders were united on was their disappointment in the government for not coming to their aid since the explosion. Ajetumobi, who accused the government of insensitivity, said those affected had waited for close to a year for assistance from the Lagos State government.
He said, “Some government officials from the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency came around January 2013, about a month after the incident to get our names and other data, promising to assist us. But it’s been 11 months since they came and we have heard nothing from them.”
Shiyanbola urged the government to assist affected traders with the provision of funds and good shops to cut down their losses, saying such a move would “positively impact on the economy of the state.”
Since the explosion, the state government has taken a tougher stance on the buying and selling of firecrackers. Consequently, the rate of bursting of fire crackers seemed to have drastically declined within the metropolis.
Jide Daniel, a resident of Oregun, an area famous for its prolific use of firecrackers in Lagos, identified this season as the most quiet he has experienced. He said the bursting of firecrackers that used to be in rapid succession in the nights around Christmas time, had become less frequent.
“Before, at this time of the year, we could hear up to 100 cracks of bangers in one night, but everywhere is a lot quiet this season. Some nights, we only hear about one or two cracks of bangers and sometimes, we don’t even hear any sound of banger at all,” he said.
Also on the Lagos Island and at Agege and Ojodu areas of Lagos, where residents similarly have a reputation for setting off fire crackers, the ambience has been calm in the days preceding the new year.
A resident of Akiode in Ojodu, Segun Oluboyede, who enjoys bursting firecrackers, described the Christmas season as uneventful thus far. According to Oluboyede, the proscription on the sale of fire crackers by the state government has made it difficult to get them.
He added that he had been unable to get to buy firecrackers in his area because they had refused to sell.
“I couldn’t get bangers in all the places where I used to buy before, all they (the traders) say is that they don’t have- they don’t have. I’m sure it has to do with the ban placed on its sale by the state government,” he said.
A trader, Mrs. Kafayat Oyelakin, who used to sell firecrackers at Otubu area of Agege, confirmed that government’s proscription of the products had been largely responsible for the quietness experienced across Lagos in the season. Oyelakin said she had to stop selling for fear of police arrest for flouting government order.
She said, “You will not find anyone selling banger in this area because the police have been arresting people selling or buying them. Government is serious about the ban this year and the police are also taking the enforcement seriously.
“However this is Nigeria, so bangers will still manage to find their way into markets somehow. But it’s not something you will easily see around like before. This doesn’t mean that things will not change by Christmas or New Year’s Day.”
In November, the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, announced that “the state would not compromise the safety and security of the good people of Lagos on the altar of commerce and celebrations.”
“What is commonly regarded as fireworks is in fact ‘explosives’ within the meaning of the Explosives Act,” Ipaye continued.
He added that the Explosives Act and Regulation stipulates that persons engaged in the use of fire crackers must take due precaution to forestall accident by fire and explosion by preventing unauthorised persons from having access to them.
“To start with, firework is a controlled item and therefore, no person can import, manufacture, possess or use, buy, sell or convey the same without complying with the law,” he said.
Investigation, however, showed that some traders still sell fire crackers in large quantities at Iwaya and Mosalasi markets areas of Agege and on Obun Eko and Dosunmu streets on the Lagos Island. Although, many of the traders were discreet about it, some still openly displayed the fire crackers in shops when our correspondent visited these places.
One of such traders on the Lagos Island, who craved anonymity, said the police were yet to pay him any unfriendly visit over his choice of wares. He described his wares as mild and incapable of causing the public any harm.
The trader argued that he was selling ‘mild firecrackers’ which could not have caused such an extensive damage.
He said, “It wasn’t only firecrackers that were in the warehouse; it also contained dynamites. The person who owned the warehouse was also selling dynamites but used some firecrackers to cover them up. But it’s fire cracker that most people believe caused the explosion.”
The spokesman for the Nigeria Customs Service, Wale Adeniyi, said the campaign against indiscriminate use of fire crackers in the season was national one, adding that the move had to do with maintaining security.
He said, “The police have taken some procedures so that people with criminal intent will not hide behind the bangers to foment trouble. In the last two or three years, there have been extra stringent measure to ensure that the bangers don’t go into the wrong hands or used to create destruction of public order. What you’re seeing is not strange; it’s just an enforcement to rationalise how these come and something like that. This is part of government effort to prevent that.”
Adeniyi said fire crackers were not on the list of import probation into the country, but under a category of restricted goods. He added that the agency had ways of monitoring imported goods.
He said, “Some of these things require end user certificates ,for example, so we can monitor importation through that. End user certificate is issued and processed at the highest security management level, office of the national security adviser. So it means an effective management of all these restrictions require the collaboration of all the security agencies involved, the Police, Customs, Army, Navy and then the Office of the National Security Adviser.”
Efforts to reach the General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, were not successful as he did not answer calls nor respond to text messages sent to his mobile phone. Similar efforts made to reach the spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Ngozi Braide, for comments, were also not successful.
Copyright PUNCH.
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