ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES
I have kept off from commenting on the Asaba boat mishap, following my appointment as the secretary of the Association of Movie Producers Fact-Finding Committee on the incident. I didn’t want to be seen as prejudiced or give out what might be confidential information, given the access I had to some information that might not yet be public. Thankfully, we were able to wrap up our assignment and our report has been submitted to the AMP leadership.
It is good that families of the victims of this tragic incident have got some level of closure, as proper funerals have been performed for them, following interventions by governments of their States and some kind Nigerians. However, this tragedy doesn’t have to be swept over with the conclusion of the funeral of the most famous of them, Junior Pope.
After all the noise and showiness, with many people creating contents with the sole intention of exploiting the tragedy for financial profits, many people have moved on. Many of those who should be concerned about the incident seem to have closed the chapter, even with the damning report from the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) which directly indicted the boat driver and the boat company for the accident.
Among other findings, the NSIB explicitly stated that the driver of that boat was not a certified boat skipper, hence shouldn’t have had any business piloting the boat. The report also found that the fibre boat which was involved in that accident was not registered with the National Inland Water Authority, while there were no trained divers at hand to expedite rescue operations which might have increased the chances of saving the lives of those Nollywood heroes.
While Junior Pope is the most popular of the victims of that tragic incident, he might not have been the most heroic, if we take into account the histories of the other four victims.
The other four victims of this accident are among those who suffer the most to make the movies we like to watch, even though we hardly hear their names or even recognise their faces, but without them, there wouldn’t be these celebrities you hear their names. Many of them are paid pittance for their job, but they are the most passionate filmmakers. Sometimes, they work for over sixteen hours everyday and long after the shooting is done and while the actors have long gone back to the comfort of their homes, these great souls continue to assist in the post-production to cobble together what you see on your screens.
These less known victims of the boat accident were also young people who resisted the lure of other easy but less honourable paths to wealth and chose the dignifying but strenuous path to make ends meet. They all started off at the lowest rung of the ladder, and they could all be thankful for the growth they have experienced, because, that production was a big production by Nollywood standard, and to be part of it means that they have all made some good progress in the industry and were forces to reckon with in their own departments. Unfortunately, they didn’t live long enough to reap the benefits of their sacrifices.
While we have all expressed so much admiration and sympathy for Junior Pope, at least in public. We have even fought publicly for those we feel didn’t show enough solidarity to him and we have seen good people who walked out on the funeral ceremony when they noticed that it was turned to a content market place where all kinds of contents were been created for money by his supposed colleagues. Yes, we have shown enough anger, we have displayed unusual solidarity and we have mourned his death and probably those of others, but if we do not put in commensurate efforts in fighting for justice for him and the four others, then, we would have failed them, and it might not be long before we experience another avoidable tragedy.
Do not just say “God forbids!”. The truth is that if we do not do what we should do, if we do not hold people to account, then, such disasters are bound to repeat. Going by the report of the NSIB, it is clear that the boat company takes all the blame for the avoidable accident and not the movie production crew like had been variously insinuated. The government is primarily guilty because they failed to enforce its own regulations by allowing unlicensed boat riders to operate on our waterways while boats could also operate without being registered with the necessary authorities. The unavailability of professional divers and the delay in getting a rescue team to the site of the accident are also sticking points in the NSIB’s preliminary report.
What we can do is to invest some of the energy we had put into castigating Nollywood producers as careless and guilty for an accident they had no control over, to demand justice for these heroes whose deaths were wholly avoidable. There should be an overhaul of operations on the waterways, while the owner of the boat that was involved in that accident should be banned from operating on that water. Also, the compulsory usage of life jackets should no longer be optional but compulsory. If Nigerians do not demand these actions, they will not be taken, and we will continue to experience these sad happenings.
May the souls of the Nollywood Anam 5 find pleasure in God’s sight, that their sins may be forgiven and their souls accorded good rest in God’s right hand. Amen.
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