WHY do thousands of people turn up at campaign grounds? What security arrangements do campaign organisers make to take care of contingencies like large crowds at their events?

There are many reasons for crowds at campaign grounds. With the distance between our political personalities and the public, campaigns are once in a lifetime opportunity for some to see some of these personalities. They do their best not to miss the chance.

Under our laws that grant freedom of movement, some would argue that they were exercising their constitutional right to movement by being at the event. Others attend because of the promises of some goodies at the event.

These range from food, drinks to money. The bigger the personality campaigning, the more likelihood of a high attendance in line with the expectations.

Our security agencies do not have a growing understanding of crowd management. For them, managing crowds is mostly about stopping people usually by force.

Those attending campaigns are at the mercy of the police, and other non-uniformed, but equally brutal enforcers.

In Port Harcourt, where 20 people died, there were several possibilities — over-crowding, people passing out from fatigue, after long hours of waiting for VIPs, who arrived late, and finally the usual police penchant for charging at crowd.

A version of the incident was that the crowd was tired and some people started heading home, as soon as their governors had been recognised, before the President’s speech.

The security agencies would not permit this conduct. They tried to stop the people, it did not work. Someone fired shots to scare the crowd surging at the locked gates that still did not work.

By then the stampede had begun and it was a matter of time before the body count began. A related matter was someone throwing money to the departing crowd, apparently to keep the people on the campaign ground. The confusion increased and the injuries and deaths continued.

Crowd management starts with ensuring more people are not admitted to a facility than it can hold safely. With campaigns where many groups are striving to lend their support to a cause, the larger the number of people recruited for an event, the more the group is perceived as a strong supporter of the candidate.

In Port Harcourt, no effort was made to limit the attendance. In fact, there was a big struggle to get more people to attend because the event was in the President’s zone and had to enjoy immense support. The capacity of the Liberation Stadium was irrelevant in the quest for a high attendance.

Those who survived have their stories lending credence to the issues of over-crowding and the enthusiasm of the security agencies to use brutal force.

It is no longer enough to conduct investigations of misbehaviour of the security agencies or condemn their poor skills. More campaigns are going on and if the deaths must stop, the conduct of the police must change to protecting people not harming them.