Avoidable tragedy

This tragedy came just a few weeks after a group of people, including a couple, raised an alarm on social media after being trapped in an elevator in Lagos.

In 2023, a young doctor, Vwaere Diaso, fell to her death from a faulty elevator at the General Hospital in Lagos Island.

The national outrage at the time stemmed from the fact that the elevator had been dysfunctional for a while. Sadly, there seems to have been no conclusive investigation and right punishment meted to those found culpable.

In 2021, an elevator crash at the famous Cocoa House in Ibadan, Oyo State, left two people dead and three others seriously injured.

Technology is man-made and can develop fault at any time. However, we are concerned that while we are ready to buy into the ease provided by technology, we seem as a country to ignore maintenance, supervision, and other requisite human actions that go into making certain infrastructure like the elevators more modern, functional and safe.

The litany of elevator tragedies with no conclusive investigations into reasons for the dysfunction is a systemic malaise that must be corrected.

Even this one under review is couched in secrecy. Ideally, in other climes when such tragedies occur, the police and other agencies are always on ground to give accurate report to the public. Investigations are carried out and even those in government like the local government where the incident occurred are always on ground to take necessary prosecutorial actions as a means of holding citizens and corporate bodies to account.

In this particular case, much of the information came from the social and orthodox media, and many angles have been given to the incident; some factual, others assumptions and rumour. This should not be the case in an era of information technology. Why have Nigerians not heard from the hotel? If the world gets global updates of events in seconds, it is not too difficult for the Nigerian system to maximise the use of technology in the area of information management.

These tragedies remind us of the need for proper maintenance and supervision of social infrastructure. This is not just about the elevators in this instance.

Nigeria has one of the highest rates of road accidents globally. Accidents happen but they are not a natural disaster that cannot be prevented, or at least controlled. Most of our roads are not regularly maintained and in some cases, the state of the roads is the cause of the accidents.

Many public buildings are in despair or abandoned over the years.

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There are agencies and ministries paid to carry out maintenance works on public infrastructure and supervision of private buildings; tragedies like elevator trappings killing victims can be minimised if those charged do their duties.

It is public knowledge that Nigerian civil servants often do not act professionally while all the blame is heaped on politicians. This must change. The civil service is the heart of every functional economy. The civil service of old was famous for diligence and patriotism. Something seems to have shifted for the worse.

Public and private buildings are all used by everyone and anybody can be a victim of any dysfunctional infrastructure. We must be seen to be concerned about our environment and spaces in ways that we do our part and ensure that we are aware of our environment. Why didn’t the hotel seal off the dysfunctional elevator?

The law enforcement agencies must begin to step into these accident scenes without waiting for formal invitations. Part of their constitutional duties is maintaining law and order. They must be seen to hold citizens accountable.

We await a thorough investigation into this sad incident and the prosecution of all those found culpable. That is the only deterrent to others in ways that can forestall future tragedies.