500 people are thought to have died in Lagos yesterday, while trying to help themsleves to fuel from a vandalized oil pipeline.Sighs. Much as i feel the pain of these people and the loved ones they left behind , time we asked ourselves when are we going to stop chasing a dime while losing a dollar? Fuel is a volatile, highly combustible liquid and to vandalize a pipeline carrying such material or to try to physically collect it the way people do at home is surely a grand exercise in lunacy.
Ok i know some might argue its easy for me to say this because i live abroad while people in naija have to do whatever to get by.But people have been getting by somehow before this particular pipeline was attacked. Would the few nairas the dead looters would have made from the pilfered fuel make all the difference in their lives ? No!Am talking calculated and weighted risks here.To mess with such a thing as fuel is not only risking your life but the lives of everyone in that vicinity.Not to mention the overall effect on the industry.
The stupendous ignoramuses who masquerade as our leaders share a big part of the blame for the fundamental reason why people are driven to such desperation in the first place. Most are involved in pilfering the thing anyway. Just that they do not have to attack any pipeline or risk their lives in the same way the desperate man in the street would. They just get tanker allocations.Dont ask me how i know, trust me that is how it goes.
You can read more about the tragedy here.
