The sad and horrible occurrences alarmingly protruded several times. Like the volcanic eruptions, they left behind colossal damages affecting goods and properties. The victims were always rendered hopeless and miserable. Their future darkened and obstructed on a very large scale. Eventually, they tried to begin a new living, with a very minor set of optimism.
Indeed, incessant fire outbreaks in our markets have become a natural disaster that has consumed huge losses across the country. Only recently, the popular Singer Market in Kano was again razed down by ravaging fire, resulting in millions of naira loss, re-enacting the blazing flames of mass destructions. What efforts are we exerting to curb these recurrent devastations? Are we seeing fire as a disaster that is curable or incurable?
Between November 2020 and August 2021, over 50 fire outbreaks were recorded in different markets in Nigeria. One can imagine the enormous loss in terms of goods and properties and how this negatively impacted on the economy. In two years alone, market fire losses amounted to 41.54 billion naira across the country. This havoc was rising at a time when the country’s economic fortunes were dwindling.
A breakdown of the scenes of market flames reveals a very pathetic scenario. In Lagos alone, the famous Balogun Market recorded the incident of fire outbreak every year from 2015 to 2021. It persisted and became a domineering disaster phenomenon. In 2016, a fire that engulfed the Sabon Gari Market in Kano lasted for 12 hours, destroying over 4,000 shops, amounting to two trillion naira. The cause of the Inferno was attributed to an electrical fault. The victims were left to their fate and lived counting their humongous losses.
At the renowned Wadata Market in Markudi in 2019, goods valued at over one billion naira were destroyed, consuming 600 lock-up shops. Also, in 2021, no fewer than six markets were gutted by massive fire in Abuja.
It was a bad signal that even the nation’s capital could not be saved from the damages done by fire outbreaks in our markets.
The scenes of fire outbreaks in markets are horrific and sympathetic. The poor and devastated victims are sighted wearing a gloomy face that expresses deep shocks, sorrows and despairs. Their deplorable conditions are a strong manifestation of breaking away from a delightful past to an unhappy present. Their eyes speak the language of a great fear of the future. They are forced to carry the burden of their tremendous losses on their shoulders and rebuild another hope entirely. The reconstruction of another optimism, however, takes a great deal of mild pleasure in gigantic sadness.
Rebuilding this hope is magnificiently tasking in inspiration and painstaking in actualisation. The codes of this optimism cannot be quantified in terms of the danger of thinking of the future. The hazard of the past was that infernos had already erupted and decimated the brightness of the future. The echoing of the disasters that devastates the human heart is not a closed discussion, as the victims keep counting their losses with a broken heart so that all stakeholders must response to the call of a fire free market.
That most recorded fire outbreaks occured in the night unravels the secret of this natural doom. That the still night instigates and facilitates major infernos in our markets compels us to use power of ideas to conquer the power of fire. While the night is more governed by possibility of fire than the daytime, it is to our dismay that little preventable measures are strategized and executed. Whether in the night or day, fire outbreaks don’t just happen, they are caused by notably human factors and the same human factors can be harnessed to stop the rampage of burning fire. In other words, if fire possesses and controls destructions, we can possess the causes of fire and control them to save our markets of this lingering horror. The wanton and terrifying expression of fire is the mass destructions incurred and our only counter expression is to put fire occurrence under strict vigilance and secure our markets.
How these ugly incidences keep resurging showcases a firm laxity on the part of all stakeholders to take proactive measures to halt the growing danger. We have lived not to the expectations of averting the phenomenon of fire disasters in our markets. We have failed to ensure and enhance a fire free market environment, a prolific and active catalyst for Gross Domestic Product process.
When natural disasters are preventable or can be reduced to the barest minimum, our rapid economic development is rest assured. If we are not prepared for the next fire disasters by averting their reoccurrences, saving lives and properties, then we will end up playing with fire. Markets are institutions where the knowledge of buying and selling goods and services promotes national cohesion as Nigerians from all walks of life unite for a purpose such as in survival.
Authorities should liaise with relevant agencies, departments and groups to focus on remote causes of market infernos. An emergency declaration must be pronounced to save our markets from becoming the theater of destructions of goods. We ought to avert the sustainance and endurance of flames in our markets to boost our economy. Our markets should not be made to look very cheap to fire, easy to fire and common to flames as we have persistently witnessed.
The vulnerability of market fire incidence must be addressed by developing relevant working values, instruments, instructions that can check the menace of fire outbreaks. The trader’s future is a great asset which can only be guaranteed by having a secured business environment, contributing to the national economic growth. The economic power of the trader can no longer be the uncertainty of the safety of his or her commodities. The business risk should not be allowed to escalate through consistent market flames.
A task force for everting fire outbreaks should be constituted for each major market. It should be the creation of a strong law comprising of experts drawn from different disciplines which are related to dangers posed by market environment. It should be fully funded, empowered to enforce local edicts that regulate collective behavior to cultivate cardinal principles for effective market management. We should arm ourselves with the artelery of prevention to manage fire disasters in our markets. It is no longer a disaster when market fire is reoccurring, but it is a real disaster to lack the collaborative will to end market infernos. For the authorities in particular, markets are not just an avenue for revenue generation, but are also a place to guarantee safety by unfolding and executing the appropriate measures.
We must find safety for our markets so that markets can provide safety against fire outbreaks. Markets are not meant to be consumed by infernos, but are meant to serve the forces of supplies and demands.
Abdullahi writes from Ringim, Jigawa state via [email protected]
