Wealth attracts additional lifestyles that are incompatible with our traditional culture of living.
A child born into Gbaramatu, Forcados, Ogidigben, Otuoke, Ilaje and Lokoja riverine communities would, as from age of two weeks old, accompany his or her mother to the riverside to wash clothes and to fetch water for domestic use at home. While the baby is strapped onto the back of its mother, it innocently takes mental view and assessment of its immediate environment.
In typical Niger Delta communities, let’s take Gbaramatu and Ogidigben communities in Delta State, for instance. Gbaramatu is in Warri South-West local government area of Delta State, while Ogidigben has contiguous boundary with Escravos. Both communities are based in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta state.
As early as three months old, children are familiar with water and its influence on the lives of residents of these communities.
Gbaramatu is home to the ethnic Ijaw tribe, while Ogidigben is inhabited by Itsekiris.
A visitor from a non-riverine community, say, Lagos, will be shocked by the confidence with which children jump in and out of rivers in these communities – children do so without fear of any danger. They have grown up to see the river as their first playground, and are therefore, very comfortable to play hide-and-seek games inside the river. Not so for a ‘township’ boy or girl who has come visiting the community for holidays. A pompous, troublesome ‘township’ boy or girl will be taught a bitter lesson that he/she will never forget, if he/she comes out alive, by his ‘local’ village contemporaries who are expert swimmers.
The dexterity of children of these communities are a function of the earlier exposure to the river as early as age three months when their mother drop them on the banks of the river, while they wash clothes but watch over them with the attention of an eagle’s eye.
Official, documented records of children who died by drowning, are either scanty or not available in Nigeria.
On June 24, 2018, the sad news of the death of the son of popular musician, Daniel Oyebanjo, aka D’banj, lost his son, Daniel Jr. at his home’s swimming pool, while away outside the country to receive an award.
The sad death of little Daniel Jr. reverberated across Nigeria, especially by the cause of death.
On October 31, 2022, tragedy struck. The son of popular musician, Davido, Ifeanyi Adeleke, died at the home of his parent’s swimming pool.
Wealth attracts a new culture and standard of living hitherto not used to by parents. More over, the construction and installation of a swimming pool requires that there should equally be in place, security and safety measures that will protect children and their mates who come to visit. It will not be too much to demand that a permanent security man is daily on guard around the area where a swimming pool is located in the property.
The death of these children is one too many, and should not have happened in the first place – their deaths are preventable!
The deaths of D’banj Jr. and Ifeanyi can be traced to gross indiscipline by their nannies or care givers.
In these days of sleeping on the internet, all in the name of ‘WhatsApping’, ‘facebooking’, ‘Instagraming’ and ‘Tiktoking’, a moment’s lose of attention on a child, could lead to disastrous consequences. Care givers, nannies and every adult member of a family must collectively watch out for the safety of children by constantly monitoring their movements.
According to Mrs. Morgan Miller, “Having an unfenced pool is like having an uncaged lion in your backyard,” mother of Emmy, whose tragic death at 19 months in a friend’s swimming pool in the United States, advises.
No matter of safety pep-talk can stop a child of four years from trying to be adventurous in the pool – for a child of four or five years, adults swimming in a pool must be ‘floating’ on their own without any effort. And so, the attraction and temptation to experience what it is to float in a pool like an adult, as a child, is greatly tempting.
To prevent such sad and preventable calamities in future, parents who intend to install swimming pools within their homes must construct a hedge made of perimeter wires around the pool. Entry points into and out of the pool must be reinforced with locks that can check the entry of children into pools.
Installing a swimming pool in a home facility without fence barriers is synonymous with having “an uncaged lion, prowling in your backyard.” May the souls of D’banj Jr. and Ifeanyi find peace in the bosom of the Lord. May God comfort their parents.