Sequel to the economic recession in the country, many people have started thinking of cremation as a panacea to high cost of burial rites in the country. Though the practice is unpopular in the country, yet, few Nigerians want their corpses cremated to avoid extravagant expenses and demands from kinsmen during burial ceremonies.
Cremation, as we all know is the application of high temperature to reduce bodies to basic chemical compounds, and this serves as funeral or post-funeral rites in many countries, especially in Asia.
A freethinker, Tunde Ibrahim, is one of few persons willing to be cremated upon his death to save his children the stress of buying casket, transporting his remains home for burial and spending so much for burial rites.
According to him, there is no need spending huge amount of money to transport his body or buying casket worth millions of Naira that will end up in the ground where it will decay as usual. Ibrahim, father of two, who was shocked to see a casket worth N30 million, said he wouldn’t put his children through such stress.
His decision may have been influenced by his mother’s modesty, who advised him not to embark on elaborate burial rites when she succumbs to the cold hands of death. “I’m not owing anybody a dime, so I don’t want you to waste or borrow money to bury me,” he said, quoting his mother.
He continued: “I will instruct my children to cremate my corpse. I’m dead already and do not know where I am again. So, whatever my children want to do with my body let them go ahead. Some people cremate their parents and put the ashes in cremation uras within their living rooms. It gives them relief that their parents are within their living rooms.” He added that, by this procedure, he would have eliminated cost of transportation and purchase of exorbitant casket from the mainstream of the entire burial expenditure.
“People would always say that burial is for the whole family, but the last burial ceremony I was involved in made me to understand that, though they mention family, yet the actual expenditure is borne by the children of the deceased and not the family as touted,” he added.
More so, Rev (Dr.) Candyfidel Onwuraokoye said as a Christian, there is no portion of the Bible that states that the dead should or not be burnt, saying what is important is where the spirit of the man goes and not what happens to the body on earth. “I do not have any problem with cremation. Yes, my children are free to cremate my body because my soul has gone to the Father. What happens to my body doesn’t matter to me.
What about the Egyptian mummies? Do they return bodies to the ground? I’m really not bothered about cremation. Like I said, my children are free to cremate my body if that guaranties their financial freedom,” he added. An African theologian, Rev Stephens Omekara, said, “In an event of death, I’ve informed my children not to take my corpse home if my death occur in the far land.
I see what Nigerians go through abroad, paying through their nose just to bring back dead bodies to the country, which can easily be buried in the cemetery or cremated. “As a matter of fact, I have instructed my children to cremate my body or bury me in a cemetery if I die far away.
There is no need for them struggling and spending a fortune just to send my body home. It is not worth the troubles. Most missionaries who brought Christianity to Africa died and buried in cemeteries. They didn’t repatriate their bodies, so why should I insist on my body being buried at home at the expense of my children?” An academic, Prof. Jimmy Egbokaria has a different opinion about cremation. He said perhaps, such decision should be taken by the living and not the dead.
He believes that the living determines the kind of burial given to the dead, saying that, such shouldn’t be a reason for anyone to impose cremation on others. He noted that once the soul has departed from the body, whatever remains is the carcass.
He argued that many people have died of fire accidents while others were burnt intentionally and their cremation was supported by everybody. He recalled the issue of the cremated bodies of the Ebola Virus victims in Lagos, noting that, such cremation was not viewed as anything bad.
Funny enough, those who want their bodies cremated upon death are really not sure if they would like to do such as they still want the wishes and the decisions of the living to determine what happens to their bodies after death. Despite the passage of the Cremation Bill into law, which may be cited as the Cremation Law 2013, the practice is still very unpopular among Lagosians and Nigerians at large.
Tagged, ‘Lagos State Cremation Law 2015,’ the law, which came to force on June 20, 2013, is still seen as evil and a taboo in Africa. Especially, in a continent where the dead is accorded so much respect. The Cremation Law is a product of circumstance. This Law was necessitated by the need to free the congested cemeteries and rid the state-owned mortuaries of unclaimed corpses.
At a point, the families of the dead were urged to stop building concrete tombs in the cemeteries so as to create space for more burials. Former Lagos state Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, signed the Cremation Bill into law, which provides for voluntary burning of corpses and unclaimed corpses in the state.
Fashola, while signing the cremation bill into law, after several months of public debates in his Alausa, Ikeja office, said the Cremation Law was voluntary.
Explaining the content of the new cremation law, the Lagos Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General at that time, Mr. Ade Ipaye, said the law only provides for voluntary cremation, whereby a person may signify interest to be cremated when he dies or a deceased’s family members could make such request. Lagosians, who attain the age of 18 years, can decide to have their corpse cremated.
By this Law, it’s legal for the state government to cremate unclaimed corpses in its mortuaries after a period of time. According to the Law, if the owners of the corpses failed to collect the ashes after a 14-day notice, it will be disposed by the state government, subject to the consent and approval of the Commissioner for Health.
According to Section 2 of the Law, Sunday Telegraph gathered that no cremation may take place except in a crematorium established by the Ministry of Health or by any other body upon the recommendation of the authority and approval by the Commissioner for Health.
Also, Section 10 of the law states: the Cremator in charge of a crematorium must not dispose of the ashes after a cremation, except in accordance with any reasonable written instructions of the applicant. The cremator in charge may bury the ashes in a burial ground if, within one year after the cremation, the applicant does not give reasonable written instructions for the disposal of the ashes.
But after the era of Fashola, it appears the current administration is not in tune with the decision to cremate human corpses as nothing has been heard of cremation in the state in the last 18 months. This is a deduction from the fact the ministry in charge is not aware that cremation is under its purview.
Conflicting responsibilities by Health and Environment Ministries When contacted, the Director of Public Relations, Ministry of Health, Mrs. Adeola Salako, said cremation is under the Ministry of Environment and not Ministry of Health. The Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Environment, Dr. Tunde Awobiyi, in a conflicting comment, confirmed that cremation in under the purview of the Ministry of Health.
A return call to Mrs. Salako further confused the situation, when she asserted that the Ministry of Health deals with the living not the dead. “I couldn’t get back to you as I promised to send the number of people in charge. There was redeployment in the ministry and that was why I have not done that.
Let me check and get back but then, the Ministry of Health deals with the living not the dead,” she added. When all efforts proved abortive, Sunday Telegraph, again visited the state Ministry of Health to further get information on what it costs to cremate a corpse at the state crematorium, one of the staff on duty told our correspondent that the Director went out on official assignment. But a senior staff of the Ministry of Health told Sunday Telegraph on ground of anonymity that no record of individual cremation has been brought to them.
“Apart from the bodies of Ebola Virus victims, which were cremated, no voluntary cremation has been conducted. We respect and do not speak evil about the dead. If you have been expecting Nigerians to cremate their dead, you will wait for eternity.”
According to our source, what obtains in Nigeria is befitting burial and not cremation, wondering how a conscientious Nigerian, after seeing the gory scenes or videos of how people are roasted in a petrol fire accident would subject their loved ones to such horror? “In my own opinion, the exercise is wicked and inhuman,” adding that, only unclaimed and decomposing corpses are sent for mass cremation.
The source noted that, even the law did not suggest the amount to be paid for voluntary cremation because the whole idea of the Cremation Law was to decongest cemeteries and mortuaries in state-owned hospitals. Sunday Telegraph’s investigations revealed that some teaching hospitals and nursing schools across the country use some of the unclaimed corpses, under the name ‘cadaver’ as practicals for Medical and nursing students. These are buried afterwards or dissolved, in some cases, in high chemicals.
Strange culture in Nigeria borrowed from Asia
According to the National Coordinator of Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria and former Federal Commissioner of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission, Emmanuel Onwubiko, Nigeria is home to about 250 diverse ethnic, religious and cultural groups all of which pay respect to their revered indigenous African tradition and cultural values.
He identified these respected African cultural values as the sense of community life, good human relations, and sacredness of life, hospitality and religion. Onwubiko noted: “I, as well as other Nigerians with the deepest regard and consideration to our revered culture and traditions, strongly opposed to cremation for the very fundamental reason that it was devoid of support in the African metaphysics of paying the highest respect to the dead.
“Secondly, we cannot borrow foreign customary practice of cremation as it’s done in India and other Asian cultures and superimpose it on our African tradition, customs and cultures,” he said.
A Philosopher with the Lagos State University (LASU), Dr. Thomas James, said, “The law of every country reflects its civilisation and often the diversity in legal systems may be attributed to differences in culture, philosophy, and the conditions of social life. So, it’s inconceivable that such law was made in Nigeria to displace our culture and I ask, will any city in India make its law to favour the Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa cultures? No! We have to be wise.”
According to a Lagos-based Tanzanian Theologian, Laurenti Magesa, funeral rites simultaneously mourn for the dead and celebrate life in all its abundance.
Funerals are a time for the community to be in solidarity and to regain its identity. In some communities this may include dancing and merriment for all but the immediate family, thus limiting or even denying the destructive powers of death and providing the deceased with “light feet” for the journey to the other world.
“There is absolutely no provision for cremation of the dead under any Nigerian culture, likewise other African countries and we should have a rethink on this cremation in order not to progressively allow foreign practices and customs to override our local peculiarities, which make us unique as Africans,” he said.
Also, Rt. Reverend Isaac Ayo Olawuyi, Methodist Church Nigeria, Diocese of Lagos West said it’s expected that the culture of the people is respected, saying, “Cremation is an imported culture into the country. Nobody would be comfortable to see their beloved being burnt to ashes, because cremation to an ordinary man is sending the person to hell. This act could be acceptable to some people but it is anti-cultural.”
…Cremation against Islamic and Christian faiths
While AbdulMojeed AddulKareem, said the practice is a weird culture against Islamic faith and will not only be criticised by all Muslims in the state but will not be recognised by any Muslim.
Reverend Peter Diji of the Life Fountain Bible Church, said cremation is not biblical and should not be practiced by Christians. He added: “It is unimaginable to have the corpse of a beloved one cremated. It is antithetical to our culture, it is retrogressive and unacceptable. Embalmment and burial are biblical and in a situation where there are unclaimed corpses in the mortuaries, then, it is good for the government to embark on mass burial and not cremation.”
…Practice against African Traditional Religion (ATR)
A spiritualist, Victor Onomeregbor, said it’s a taboo to the society and ATR practice in Nigeria and Africa. “Cremation is evil and shouldn’t be practiced; otherwise, the spirit of the dead will not forgive anybody that takes part in such practice. He stressed: “It has grave consequences.
The spirit of the cremated man can forever haunt the people who subjected his body to such desecration. If it were to be a wife that subjected her husband’s body to such without the consent of the husband’s people, it’s enough taboo to send her away from her late husband’s house and be banished for life. “Cremation is not our culture and shouldn’t be practiced when we are not cult members. In some cases, the remains of a cultist could be burnt.
Committing the corpse of a peaceful man to such is sacrilege. The Europeans, with help of our people have destroyed everything good about African culture. If my body is subjected to such, those involved will know no peace.”
He recalled how the corpse of a powerful native doctor from Delta state, Nonso Igbakakwuni, was kept in a morgue in defiance of his advice. His wife disobeyed such warning but quickly adjusted when over seven native doctors offered mortician money to release Nonso’s body to them.
No comments :
Post a Comment