THE SHIRORO MINING PIT COLLAPSE
The authorities have to do more to improve on responses to emergency situations, and save lives
Exactly a month after the collapse of a mining pit in Galkogo Community, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, dozens of the labourers are still buried beneath the 400-metre dip hole. The mines, owned by African Minerals and Logistics Limited, and located in the bandit-ravaged enclave of Shiroro area, collapsed on 3rd June after torrential rains. Even though the company and the government made some efforts to clear the pit through to the tunnel, they could not access the victims because of some huge boulders. The Niger State Commissioner for Mineral Resources, Garba Yahaya listed only 14 miners as being trapped and pledged that the team “is working tirelessly to ensure the safe rescue of the remaining trapped individuals.” But weeks after the tragedy, most of the victims or their bodies are yet to be recovered.
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According to reports, many worried locals have resorted to manual labour to excavate the rocks in search of their loved ones. “What they do is to remove stones and pass them on to one another until they take them out. It is the same way they are bringing out the dead bodies because excavators cannot take out stones that fell on the victims,” according to a family member of one of the trapped miners who has been part of the rescue efforts. Some bodies have allegedly been recovered but chemicals are repeatedly poured into the pit to douse the unpleasant odours of already decomposing bodies. A pressure group in the State, Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) has described the failure of the government to rescue the victims as a sheer abdication of responsibility.
Ordinarily, emergency care systems provide timely and relevant care to the injured when tragedies occur. In many countries, emergency response time is usually quick enough to rescue victims that are still alive. Unfortunately, it is a different kettle of fish in Nigeria. The concern is that this is not an isolated incident. Across the country, rescue efforts after road accident, building collapse, fire accident and others always pose serious problems. And if it is in a difficult terrain as being ascribed to the Shiroro tragedy, the ineffectual response could be very costly.
Indeed, while the rescue effort is still on in Shiroro, another mining facility collapsed in another area of the state which claimed three lives. Repeated scenes of funerals and the vulnerability of the living in many communities in Zamfara State due to illegal mining activities, have not made emergency workers to sit up. Not long ago, nine illegal miners of gold were buried beneath the earth when a mine pit collapsed on them at Dogon Daji village in Maru Local Government Area of the state. There would have been no trace of them except for the fact that there was a lone survivor who was partly buried and had to be subsequently rescued.
From lack of adequate equipment to poor road network and shortage of personnel, emergency services are, to say the least, deficient in many of the tragedies that befall the country. According to Emergency Response Africa, a non-governmental organisation, Nigeria loses more than 1.2 million lives on a yearly basis to preventable deaths, resulting from accidents and illnesses. Indeed, the World Health Organisation (WHO) ranked Nigeria 191 out of 192 countries in the world with unsafe roads, at 162 death rates per 100,000 population from road traffic accidents.
To the extent that it is the responsibility of government to rescue every single citizen in distress matters, the authorities must deploy all necessary resources and equipment, and men in the search for the trapped miners. Regardless of whether they are alive or dead.
