Ebi Akpeti: Guilty of Murder… by Negligence

In
March
1993,
photographer
Kevin
Carter
made
a
trip
to
South
Sudan,
where
he
took
the
now
iconic
photo
of
a
vulture
preying
upon
an
emaciated
Sudanese
toddler.
The photograph was sold to The New
York Times where it appeared for the
first time, exactly eleven years ago on
March 26, 1993. The picture, described
as a ‘metaphor for Africa’s despair’,
generated so many controversies
concerning the fate of the girl. So
much so that the newspaper had to
run a special report saying the girl had
enough strength to walk away from
the vulture, but that her ultimate fate
was unknown.
Overnight, Carter became a celebrity.
Friends and colleagues complimented
him on the picture and on April 12,
1994, when the New York Times
phoned to tell him he had won the
Pulitzer Prize for the photo, it
appeared like he was having the time
of his life.
Unfortunately two months after
receiving his prize, the 33 year old
Carter was found dead of carbon-
monoxide poisoning in Johannesburg,
in an apparent suicide. “I’m really,
really sorry I didn’t pick the child up,”
he was said to have confided in a
friend.
I was reminded of this story a few
Sundays ago.
There was a terrible accident on Third
Mainland Bridge involving a Danfo
bus. The driver was still trapped in the
bus, strapped to his seat and was
bleeding profusely from his nose and
ears. I watched horrified as I noticed
that the first set of people that had
arrived at the scene parked their cars
and were taking pictures and videos of
the accident. The crowd were so
excited, the scene so contagious that if
not for the fact that I was driving, I
probably would have reached out for
my phone to join them. The next day, I
learnt that after being in that state for
hours, the man eventually succumbed
to his injuries and died, still strapped
to his seat. Who knows if he would
have been saved if help had gotten to
him earlier?
I have thought about that sad Sunday
many times over and over and I am
asking desperately, what is happening
to us as humans? Has the need to gain
popularity on social media, taken the
place of being social in the real world?
What has happened to our humanity?
When we stand by and watch another
person die just to be the first person to
get that person’s picture on Facebook,
YouTube and Twitter, then it is time to
take a real long hard look at ourselves.
How many times have you been in this
same situation? How many times have
you been in the position to help
someone, but turned away? It is easy
to blame our educational system for
not teaching us basic First Aid, it is
easy to blame law enforcement
officers for their practice of holding
the person seen at the scene of an
accident accountable. It is easy to
blame the government for not
providing enough ambulances and
emergency services. But if we do
nothing and say nothing when we see
somebody hurt and maybe even dying
– are we not also guilty of murder… by
negligence?
Whenever there is an emergency that
has the potential to take a person’s life,
please forget about how viral your
video might go, forget about the
picture that may make you an instant
celebrity. Focus your attention on
saving the person. Do not walk away
from the scene of an accident without
doing something , even if all you can
do is just to make a phone call to help
the victim or victims.
Even if you do not eventually save a
person’s life, you will live with a better
conscience knowing that you have
answered a clarion call in the service
of humanity. Compassion and empathy
is what differentiates us from animals.
Let us not allow social media replace
the need to be a social being.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ebi Akpeti is a Harvard trained Project
Manager and is the author of three
books’ amongst which include Growing
Pains, Castrated and the controversial
book which was turned into a screenplay
“The Perfect Church” and acted by
Ramsey Noah, Funke Akindele, Olu
Jacobs, Ngozi Ezeonu, Nobert Young and
a lot of others. She lives in Lagos,
Nigeria and is currently working on her
fourth book.

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