Date Published: 01/17/10
THE HUMAN TRAGEDY IN HAITI By Joe Igbokwe
The world woke up on Tuesday morning of January 12 2010 to be devastated
with the horrible news of human tragedy in Haiti. I have seen earthquakes
in other climes but the one I saw in Haiti humbled and devastated me. It
devastated me not because it has never happened before but because it
happened to a country that does not know how to handle such natural
disasters. When I saw the magnitude of the disasters (both human and
material )and when confronted with the obvious and painful fact that Haiti
has no political, economic and social capacity to deal with such
monumental problems, I ran away with the thinking that some sovereign
states are just equal to suffering states (SS = SS). People should correct
me if I am wrong!
Haiti is the poorest Caribbean country in the Americas with a population
of nine million people occupying a total land mass of 27560 Sq km. But
there is no reason why that country should be poor if not because of
inept, corrupt and wicked leadership. I have been trying to imagine if
Haiti will still be where it is today if it is still a colony of either
the United States or France. When I saw the helplessness and hopelessness
of the leadership in Haiti, I realized that some countries have no
business being a sovereign nation. In many sovereign countries on earth
including Nigeria leaders punish, humiliate and enslave their people. But
the world must never because of this ignore the totally devastated Haiti.
The world must reverse the idiotic leadership in Haiti and similar
countries. I saw the massive preparations and the speed by the world
leaders led by USA, France, UK, Russia, China, Israel, Germany etc to rise
to human demands of Haiti.
It was unprecedented but the world has no choice. From what I have seen
since Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of people would have been killed in
this tragedy. The earthquake knew no wife, daughter, son, boy, girl,
baby, Bishop, Minister, Commissioner etc. It knew no religion as
Catholics, Baptists, Anglicans, Pentecostals, Born-agains etc perished.
It knew no house, as the Presidential palace, the best building in Haiti
was brought down and even the headquarters of UN Peace-keeping force was
not spared. Roads, cars, trucks, animals, schools, hospitals, Churches
were not spared. This is human tragedy in the worst form, and the world
must pay attention.
The catastrophe in Haiti is a lesson for Nigeria. It can happen here and
if it happens how prepared are we? How responsive and responsible are we
in case if we wake up one morning and witness this kind of disaster?
Nigeria must not wait to be caught unawares because climates are changing
and natural disasters are proving scientists wrong. To continue to believe
that it can never happen here is to challenge God. Let us start now to put
structures in place as if disasters will be here tomorrow. Before a wise
man ventures into a pit, he lowers the ladder.
As at the time of writing this, I have not heard of any official response
from Nigeria on Haiti’s unfortunate predicament. President Obama says
the Haiti crisis calls for American leadership and declared that enormous
structures of the government have been deployed to assist and encourage
the Haitians who now sleep on the highways and open fields. Some sleep
among piles of dead bodies. Nigerian must rise to take up a leadership
position like other countries have done since Tuesday but we have no
President to take the decision.
Joe Igbokwe
Lagos
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