WHEN life is meaningless, people throw it away without a thought. Thousands did so in Jesse, Delta State in 1998, and the hundreds who died in Okogbe, Rivers State last Thursday, added to the long list of Nigerians who died scooping fuel.

They knew the danger in the venture. They took their chance and like hundreds before them, they died. More will die until fundamental issues about survival in Nigeria are addressed. Condemnation of their behaviour is not a solution.

Why would people risk their lives after the well-known stories of fuel fires roasting 300 to death in Warri in 2000 and 125 in Ovim, Abia State in 2003?  In between there were other fuel fires that killed Nigerians.

In 2006 alone, more than 500 people died in two separate incidents in Lagos (Snake Island and Abule-Egba). They were scooping fuel from burst pipes. As if to give the incidents national spread, at least 93 were killed in Kaduna, in March 2007, when an upturned fuel tanker they were looting burst into flames.

The incidents were avoidable, but the situations that produced them have been ignored for long. People are too poor to value their lives. If fuel fire does not kill them, poverty will. They are the living dead, they have no hope; they have minimal expectations from life.

Surviving for the next hour, even at the cost of their lives, is more important than the consequences of the efforts at survival. Poverty, when experienced at the crippling levels more than 100 million exist, can produce devastating results. People at this stage think with their stomach.

Unfortunately, governments, with billions of Naira at their disposal, do not realise that more than 100 million Nigerians live on less than N150 daily; in fact, they would be grateful if they had N150 daily. Policy makers are oblivious of the grim reality of life at this level.

Of course, the East-West Road, where the accident occurred has been a stagnated project for decades. On a better road, the tanker driver could have had space to manoeuvre.

The state of our emergency services reflects in the rescue efforts. It is unsurprising that they are unable to handle emergencies considering that facilities for regular life – water electricity, access roads, health services – are inadequate. Emergency services work within these constraints, no matter our expectations.

Our people know the consequences of scooping fuel. Governments have spent decades preaching about these dangers. Without addressing the poverty that leads to this extent of desperation, the preachment is futile.

The tragedies are damning portraits of how poverty continues to devalue Nigerian lives. Nigerians are embracing death to escape poverty.