Monday, December 23

At least 67 people are dead after several deadly crowd crushes in Nigeria in recent days, which comes amid an extremely tough time financially for Nigerians.

On Wednesday, 35 people were killed in a massive stampede at the Islamic High School in the city of Ibadan, the country's third-largest city, with a population of around 4 million people. Ibadan is the capital of the state of Oyo of southwest Nigeria and is located just 70 miles away from the country's largest city of Lagos. The school was hosting a funfair for local children and was handing out gifts and food during the event, which caused the stampede. Dozens of people were injured as well, and local hospitals soon filled up with patients. The Nigerian government begun an official investigation into what caused the stampede and how it happened, and they promised to hold anyone involved in the incident accountable.

Then, on Saturday, an additional 10 people were killed in Nigeria's capital of Abuja on the same day. The second stampede of the week took place at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church when they attempted to give out food in a charity event to celebrate Christmas. The opening of the gates into the church sparked an influx of people who had been waiting for the food for hours, forcing people to trample over each other in a massive crowd crush. Over 1,000 people were evacuated from the area, and dozens of people were hospitalized with injuries.

Unfortunately, 22 people were killed in another stampede during a local citizen's food distribution event on the same day. This time, the incident occurred in the town of Okija in the state of Anambra, located in southeastern Nigeria next to the Niger River.

All three stampedes were due to a crush while handing out food, further proving that Nigeria is in a deep crisis. Nigeria is Africa's most populous country, with over 230 million people, but around 40% of those citizens live in poverty-- over 88 million people. In fact, a staggering 12% of the world's population in extreme poverty lives in Nigeria, making it one of the top three countries in terms of largest share of global poverty.

Nigeria has also been experiencing a severe economic decline and extreme inflation over the past few months, which has crippled citizens financially. Inflation in the African country recently hit a 28-year high at 34.6%, and the cost of living for Nigerian citizens has skyrocketed during the past few years. According to the United Nations, the average Nigerian spends over 65% of their income on food alone, compared to a mere 11.2% in the United States. Due to this, charities and locals have tried to help struggling citizens by organizing food drives and distributing necessary items, but that has led to chaos among locals as they make a mad dash to grab as many supplies as they can.

To prevent further incidents, Nigerian authorities have confirmed that citizens or organizations may not arrange charity events without explicit permission from police, which will allow them to increase safety measures around the area. However, Nigerians remain frustrated over the country's poor economic state, and while incumbent President Bola Tinubu has promised to remedy the situation, many citizens blame their current financial state on Tinubu and have very little hope in him and his government.

Upcoming Events:

• Christmas (Wednesday, December 25)

• Hanukkah Begins (Wednesday, December 25)

• Kwanzaa Begins (Thursday, December 26)

• International Day of Epidemic Preparedness (Friday, December 27)

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): Given the current global population of around 8 billion people, it means that around 7% of all humans are currently alive. Considering that humans have existed on earth for over 200,000 years, that's a significant percentage.

Quote of the Day: Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. (Robert Breault)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Ambient (adj, pronounced AM-bee-unt)- In technical use, ambient describes things—such as air quality or light in a room—that exist or are present on all sides. Ambient is also used to describe electronic music that is quiet and relaxing, with melodies that repeat many times.

In a Sentence: The chemicals must be kept at an ambient temperature of 70°F.