Let’s curb the high cost of dying
By Nnamdi Nwigwe
In the midst of the economic throes in which our dear country finds itself isn’t it intriguing that the disposal of the dead in some communities still continues to be celebrated like a royal banquet?
Burials are conducted in a manner that beggars the mind of a people where the majority is unable to relish three square meals a day.
To begin with new morgues and mortuaries are sprouting up in many parts of Southern Nigeria because it has become a trend to warehouse corpses for months, and in a few cases years, while arrangements are made to conduct “befitting burials” of the dead.
And in the quaint thinking of those concerned frivolous exuberance and bacchanal feasting approximate to their definition of “befitting burials.”
Some people who had lived in cities and towns over the years only remember to build houses in their villages when their parents die. The lucky ones that have plots of family land begin building immediately.
Others begin frantic quest for land to buy before house construction begins.
Some people in the country side who are privileged to have swathes of farmland begin to look for buyers of some plots to raise funds to bury their loved ones.
On the day of the burial proper, you need to witness unconscionable profligacy at play.
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In anticipation of the large crowd that obviously would be at the “Happening Place” the mourning family rents a playground and litters it with canopies of different classes – the normal, the special and the V. I. P. grades – appropriately labeled for visitors to position themselves as they await the ubiquitous catering groups to release their servers.
Women come with their bags and hand bags into which canned drinks and packaged food quickly disappear as they swear that they haven’t been served.
Some refined “gentlemen” go round to mop up leftovers which they claim are for their non-existent dogs.
The Very Important People’s (VIP) canopy is more gorgeously decorated and festooned with resplendent flags and plastic flowers.
Indeed lately some of the VIP tents are equipped with air conditioners and facilities for big standing fans.
Yours truly has witnessed burials in the village where horse-drawn wagons were deployed to ferry the caskets to the Church.
Only those concerned know how much it costs to transport horses and their chariotiers to parts of Igboland where horses are only seen in books and televisions.
As icing to the cake, giveaway items of various qualities are handed to the sympathizers as mementos inscribed with THANKS FOR COMING!
These usually don’t go round and so there’s always a scramble for them. The harassed stewardesses distributing the articles struggle to protect their wares and as well keep their balance from being pushed down by the indecently rowdy guests.
The level of merriment with the backing music from different live bands and cultural dancing groups determines how successful and befitting the burial was.
Two or three days to some burials, when the bereaved family is putting finishing touches to the burial preparation, loafers start straggling in and milling around.
Some are sensible enough to help with some menial jobs like sweeping, picking fallen leaves from trees and even fetching water from nearby boreholes.
They thus register their presence and qualify to be served food and drinks. Some may get themselves ensconced in the compound for as long as the burial had not taken place.
Unfortunately a lot of the revellers at the funeral events don’t know what condolence support means.
It’s only those from the cities that bring drinks or ‘envelopes.’
Mind you, in many parts of the Igbo nation, burials at home are preceded by obligatory meetings of the kindred and later the village to be formally told of the death of one of their number.
At such meetings the requirements could include a specified number of cartons of beer, palm wine, kola nut and a sizeable cooked meat.
Families that are well off may present a cow to their village of which the kindred has one whole limb of it. The maternal home of the deceased person also has a share if anyone from that area is around when the cow is slaughtered.
The expenses our people get into for burials should be seriously reviewed by the Communities with the objective of trimming the primitive opulence some families display in burying their loved ones.
The Churches had made some spirited efforts in the past by compelling their adherents to organize burials within a specified period following the death a member.
But that advisory was generally observed in the breach as those concerned invented all manner of gimmicks to outwit the authorities as to the true date of death.
The good intentions of the religious leaders to obviate long tenancy of corpses in the mortuaries with the attendant high cost were thus thwarted as affected worshippers lied through their noses about when their relations died.
In the light of the grinding economy of Nigeria today which has even led to massive countrywide protests and violence, and fatalities, should the wasteful display of false wealth at burials not be curtailed?
What an irony that the people battling with the spiralling cost of living also have to cope with the peer-pressure of an even higher cost of dying!
- Mr. Nnamdi Nwigwe, a veteran journalist, wrote in from Owerri, Imo State and can be reached via nnamdinwigwe7@gmail.com; 0803 702 4609