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Cemeteries Where The Dead Are No Longer Safe |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Wednesday, 15 February 2006 |
By Olaseni Durojaiye,
Correspondent, Lagos
Since it is generally agreed that death is a debt all mortals must pay some day, the cemetery could well be said to be everybody’s final home.
As usual, any bereaved family would definitely grieve at the loss of a cherished relative irrespective of age, and would expect sympathy to flow freely towards them like an unhindered stream courses its way to the river. Whatever sympathy is expected or got from people stops at the doorstep of gravediggers.
It is said that different breed of human beings earn their daily bread from working at public cemeteries. Whether as gravediggers or night guards, these set of people, many believe, don’t just belong to our world. They seem alienated from other denizens of our cities by virtue of what they do for a living, and appear to be exploiting that fact to show the minutest mercy, if at all, to people whom fate brought in contact with them in their line of duty.
Findings have shown that the graveyards have become some sort of goldmine for those who mind the place and the controlling councils. Some of those spoken with, who were sympathetic to the councils and the staff, pointed at local government allocations still being withheld by the Federal Government as one major reason why the councils are seeking avenues to raise funds even if they negate the philosophies of the institutions.
Recently, allegations of sharp practices cropped up between two councils in Lagos State. According to reports, the management of Yaba Development Area of Lagos was paid certain amount it was not supposed to paid. When efforts were made to have its sister council refund the money, the council boss directed some staff of Mainland Local Government to take over control and manage the popular Atan Cemetery in Yaba, Lagos, until they gross as much funds as the amount the Yaba Development Centre got as rent from the said property, which was reportedly given to the Mainland Local Government Council during asset sharing exercise.
Observers said the feud that caused the two councils’ helmsmen to end up at the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) Panti, Yaba, underscores the lucrative nature the cemetery services have become instead of a public utility.
According to findings, cemeteries are categorised as social responsibilities of the local government councils just as parks are, though the parks have since disappeared.
It was gathered that in every public cemetery separate sections are allocated for both Christians and Muslims and another for the military for burial of any officer that dies in service, especially those felled in foreign lands and are brought back to the country for burial. An open space reserved for mass burial is also statutory in the layout of any public cemetery.
But when we visited both Atan and Matori cemeteries in Lagos metropolis, attendants at the places told Daily Independent there were still places, but declined to show the places. Rather, the attendants at Matori Cemetery asked us to get clearance from the supervising local government councils. At Atan Cemetery, staff of the private firm that runs the place as revenue-generating venture blatantly refused to show us the place.
Investigations revealed that the Nigerian public has lost confidence in the public cemeteries, with cases of theft of human parts that is now rampant in public cemeteries. A source in one of the cemeteries visited told Daily Independent that the loss of faith in the cemeteries was a major factor for the emergence of private cemeteries like the Victoria Court Cemetery and another private initiative by a successful undertaker, Dehinde Harrison.
“Either the Labanese or the Indian community used to have a portion in Atan Cemetery where they bury their dead, but has relocated it somewhere in Otta, Ogun State,†the source added.
However, more alarming is the discovery that with the advent of privatisation of public cemetery, the initial procedures favoured by the first generation of Chief Park and Cemeteries Officer, largely due to the training they received from colonial masters as regards vaults may have been rubbished. Before now, a family that procures a three-chamber vault (burial space) can be rest assured that it still belongs to it anytime the need arises. But a graveyard attendant, who spoke with Daily Independent anonymously, said that might not be possible anymore.
“These days the private contractors don’t keep proper records, so if a family that bought a three-chamber uses one of it and comes back for the remaining two vaults, it might not be allowed access because the records might not be traced at the cemetery,†the source who gave his name simply as Baba said at Atan Cemetery, Yaba, Lagos.
Responding to a question that cemetery attendants trade in human skulls, Baba said that is not entirely true. He explained that people found in possession of human parts are grave robbers, who capitalise on the rot in public cemeteries. According to him, “When some people lose their relatives and come for burial, they prefer temporary sites, but when they failed to come and normalise the temporary site into permanent vaults, whenever other people come for burials and there is no space available the former graves with corpses in various stages of decomposition would be exhumed for the new corpse,†he said.
However, findings showed that Baba might be economical with the truth. A knowledgeable Park and Cemetery official hinted that the gravediggers and cemetery attendants resort to nefarious acts because their salaries are nothing to write home about. It was also gathered that their jobs are probably the only government job that requires no certificate, and the entry point is put at the minimum wage of N7,500.
The source, who is a civil servant said, “It would be difficult for them not to succumb to the temptation of taking home a large sum of money they could not possibly earn in six months when those who have need for such human parts come calling, especially when the corpses are still lying on the ground and they did not have to exhume it.â€
Meanwhile, back in those good old days, those who came to inter their dead only needed to pay a token to perform that time-tested human practice. All that has changed now. Cemeteries, like public parks now form a large chunk of the internally generated revenue of many local government councils in Lagos State. The councils worsened matters with their decision to privatise the cemeteries by handing them over to contractors to manage.
At Atan Cemetery, investigation showed that the place has not only been commercialised, patrons of the place are made to pay through their noses for whatever they went there to do.
A single vault is believed to cost between N10,000 and N15,000 whereas it used to cost less than N5,000 before the contractors were brought to run them. For a two-chamber vault, the Park and Cemetery officer told us it now goes for between N30,000 and N40,000 whereas it used to hover below N15,000. The three chamber vaults were said to naturally cost more and the present cost even though it was said to be negotiable, was put at nothing less than about N60,000.
Nevertheless, it was gathered during investigation that some families, having lost faith in the public cemeteries usually return to exhume the corpses of their long buried relatives for permanent burial elsewhere, more often at their residences. This service, we were told, has now become a veritable source of income for cemetery managers.
An insider told us that statutorily, when people go to cemeteries to exhume corpses for reburial, the normal thing to do is to inspect such places to make sure it was suitable for the purpose because it is unconstitutional to inter the dead at private residences. But that is not the case, our source declared.
“What they do is to ask the people to pay varying amounts of money, which they arrived at based on the appearance of the people that came to exhume the body.â€
Investigation, however, showed that of all the public cemeteries located in Lagos metropolis, Abari Muslim Cemetery in Lagos Island is most favoured by Muslims. One of the workers there told Daily Independent that this is so because it remains the foremost among Muslims of Lagos Island descent. According to the elderly man, many prominent sons and daughters of Lagos were interred there and their living relatives, who are in government, ensure it is not desecrated by miscreant who trade in human parts.
The elderly man said he had been working at the place for over 15 years and has never traded in human parts and would not now begin to do so at his age. When asked whether the original layout, which includes portion for the military and mass burial were available, he said he would not know, then reminded us that the place is strictly for the Muslim deceased only.
What we could not get to know is who the patrons of grave robbers are and whether or not red blood flows in their veins or whether they have conscience. Even so, it is now clear that the dead is no longer safe.
http://www.independentng.com/life/lsfeb150601.htm |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“The good he scorn'd Stalk'd off reluctant, like an ill-us'd ghost, Not to return; or if it did, its visits Like Those of angels, short, and far between.” Robert Blair (1699-1746) from
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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