Martin A. Nkemngu
27 October 2009
Last week was terrible for Cameroon. The week was filled with reports of death, death, death. On Wednesday October 21 it was reported that a boat carrying 25 passengers capsized in Lake Guerre, Mokolo in the Far North Region. 19 persons drowned in that accident.
On October 22 a road accident at Sa'a claimed 32 lives. As if that were not enough health authorities announced that 59 people had died following the outbreak of a cholera epidemic in the North and Far North Regions. In all, the nation had lost more than one hundred of its citizens within a few days in tragic circumstances. And that was only the reported cases. If one were to record complete statistics across the country, the figure would be more alarming.
Our area of concern here is not the deaths of these citizens. Far from it. Our concern is the attitude we adopt concerning the news of the tragedies. When asked why government failed to declare a day of mourning in memory of the tragic deaths of so many compatriots, a senior staff in the Ministry of Territorial Administration said, "So many people are dying these days that we tend to consider death as normal. How often shall we declare days of mourning whenever people die in accidents?"
Perhaps the presence of death everywhere appears to have numbed our feelings of compassion. Yet it is difficult to understand why our society has become so insensitive to the loss of human life. How often do we hear leading world media organizations like the BBC, RFI or CNN begin their news casts with news of the death of two or three people in a train accident, a terrorist attack or a car crash? And for such happening, state resources and forces are mobilized to investigate what went wrong or to pay due tribute to the fallen compatriots. Elsewhere, the loss of life would constitute big headline news. In our society it very often receives low-level treatment or comes as a mere footnote. There is no doubt that this attitude to human life is a misplacement of our sense of values.
The attitude translates into the manner in which public officials treat matters affecting the lives of persons. How often do we find that traffic signs on dangerous portions of the road are allowed to break down without replacement. Even in big towns, like Yaounde and Douala, there are no road signs indicating some important neighbourhoods which often accounts for accidents by visitors to town. People tend to handle issues relating to the protection of human life with unexplained nonchalance and negligence. An overloaded boat, a rickety truck without adequate lighting or a badly parked vehicle ought to draw the attention of a citizen who cares about safety. A prompt reaction to such irresponsible behaviour could save innocent lives. One doesn't need to be a policeman or a gendarme to react to potential danger that might cause the loss of life.
It is time we re-examined our conduct towards the value we place on human life; after all, life is the most precious gift from God.
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