The dead must be treated with dignity
Last week lamentation by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, that corpses in mortuaries of some Nigerian Army barracks across the country are decomposing says a lot about our country. It is even more scandalous because it has to do with power supply. Yet, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), one of the ways to offer respect for the dead is for mortuaries to give each corpse the dignity it deserves through freezing, cabinet placement and proper labelling for easy identification. Unfortunately, these cannot be provided in facilities where the remains of those who served and died in defence of the country are kept.
Lagbaja who visited the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, to seek intervention on the N42 billion owed to the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) noted that some barracks and cantonments have been in total blackout since January. "Corpses in the army mortuaries are decomposing and the owners of the corpses are protesting," said Lagbaja. This is an issue that deserves urgent attention by relevant authorities. It is shameful that we cannot accord a measure of dignity to the bodies of our fallen heroes. But this is a general malaise in our ill-maintained mortuaries across the country. Apart from the health hazards associated with this situation, congestion takes dignity away from the corpses.
In most countries, premium is placed on the lives of those who not only serve but are also willing to stake their lives in promotion of the ideals for which their nation stood. And when they die, they are buried with pomp which presupposes that their bodies would have been well preserved. There is no reason why this should not be the same here in Nigeria. Meanwhile, the fact that thousands of unclaimed corpses are lying in different morgues in Nigeria, some for years, has encouraged a lot of unwholesome practices by mortuary attendants, many of whom are unprofessional. Besides, many of the mortuaries are housed in ramshackle buildings, reeking of filth and decaying bodies, and attract swarms of flies.
In Nigeria today, the treatment meted to the dead is troubling, utterly contemptuous, and traumatic. Bodies are washed in the open, to the gaze of everyone, and kept in unrefrigerated and dirty containers, making them to decompose at will. To compound the situation, water used in bathing the dead is improperly disposed of as it is carelessly poured on the ground where it can easily seep into shallow wells. These dead bodies are also piled on top of one another with fluids from those on upper cabinet dripping to the bodies underneath.
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While hundreds of corpses stay in mortuaries for years without anybody coming forward to claim them, some new corpses are dumped at these ill-maintained mortuaries by relatives or security operatives who bring in dead accident victims or dead armed robbers, thereby increasing the burden on these facilities. This development constitutes a major health hazard for communities living around such an environment, especially at a time the country is battling bouts of disease outbreak.
While it may not be the fault of the health authorities in the states that there are large unclaimed bodies in mortuary facilities, they should make conscious efforts to ensure every corpse is buried with dignity irrespective of how long they may have been abandoned. Beyond that, however, there is the immediate issue of how we treat the remains of those who died in active military service. We must embrace a more dignifying culture of treating their bodies.
