There is a haunting photograph taken during the Sudanese famine by South African photojournalist, Kevin Carter, of a little child who had stopped to rest while struggling to a United Nations feeding centre and a vulture stalking the child, waiting for the child to die so it can feed on the corpse.
The photograph, first published in The New York Times on March 26, 1993, attracted hundreds inquiries from around the world as to whether the child had survived, for which the newspaper had to run a special editor’s note explaining that the girl had enough strength to walk away from the vulture, but that her ultimate fate was unknown. Even though Carter had said he chased away the vulture after taking the photograph, he was bombarded with questions about why he did not help the girl and only used her to take a photograph.
“The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene,” wrote The St. Petersburg Times in Florida.
The photograph won Carter the Pulitzer prize in 1994, but he took his own life a few months later, saying in his suicide note, “I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain… of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners.”
A lot of what is happening in our present world, especially since the advent of the smartphone, relates to the above story. An increasing number of people are opting to document distress scenes like accidents with their smartphone cameras instead of rushing to aid the victims or calling emergency services. This leaves many wondering about the values of our digital age and the moral responsibilities we bear when faced with emergencies.
So, the question is, what makes us respond in this insensitive way?
One answer that readily comes to mind is the monetisation of social media. People earn money by posting content (videos, photos, etc) on many social media platforms like Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), TikTok, amongst others. So, people take videos and photos to accumulate credit by way of “views” and “likes” on paying social media platforms for the ultimate purpose of making financial gain.
On these platforms, popular content is gathered from areas including entertainment, distress and emotional matters. TikTok, for instance, offers a creators’ fund programme, where eligible creators can earn money based on the number of views their videos receive. TikTok calculates payment based on a formula that takes into account video performance, engagement and other factors.
Earning on X (formerly known as Twitter) has been made easy since a new owner took over the platform. An X user should be 18 years and above to be eligible for the creator Ads revenue. The user must have paid for an X blue subscription and should have a tweet impression count exceeding 5 million per month and must also have quality and engagement with their followers.
Revenues can be withdrawn if a user has accumulated up to $50 and above and they are paid through stripes.
To enjoy the benefits of these paying platforms, many do not mind exploiting the situations of hapless victims of accidents and other mishaps.
We now live in a culture where photography on phones is what most people do, seeing it as a normal behaviour. People assume that if no-one else is acting, there’s no need to. And taking cues from each other, the larger the crowd, the greater the chance of inaction. We find ways to save our moral selves. But it’s an afterthought to later justify our behaviour; again, in the moment thinking a photo can help is an act of self-deception. We know that if something is made public, it has the power to change opinion, and so some people may think they’re fulfilling that purpose.
Furthermore, why do people seem to walk by, particularly if they are in a crowd? Because in such a scenario, someone’s mind flicks through numerous calculations almost instantaneously, wondering if they can actually help and if others will support them if they take the lead.
The fear of running foul to the awkwardness of the law is another disincentive, as it is quite commonplace in Nigeria for the Good Samaritan to find him or herself being accused of being the offender after helping an accident or crime victim to hospital or the police station.
A staff of The Nigerian Observer, Mr Edward Oseghe, told the story of how he was harassed alongside his friend by the police and the family of an accident victim they helped.
“There was an accident sometime in August involving a woman who was hit by a car when the driver lost control at an ATM stand. My friend and I offered to help as others stood aloof and were unwilling to render support,” Mr Oseghe narrated.
“On getting to the hospital, the hospital staff would not accept the patient until we threatened to report them to the police. Fortunately, the nurse who initially declined accepting the patient eventually discovered that the patient was someone she knew and was quite close to. She then informed the family of the woman.
“When the family got to the hospital, they came with a policeman who immediately started harassing us claiming that we were the ones responsible for the accident. It took a lot of intervention before we were allowed to go,” he said.
With the scenario of helpers turning into victims becoming rampant, it becomes difficult for people to render help in such emergency situations.
Another reason that people are often at a loss regarding whether or not to render help in an accident or other emergency situations is that most people have absolutely no idea what to do in those situations because very few Nigerians have first aid skills or training. For instance, giving an accident victim water to drink may do more harm than good, according to experts, and many people do not know this.
A first responder is an individual who is typically the first to arrive at the scene of an emergency or crisis. They play a crucial role in providing immediate assistance. In many cases, alerting emergency services such as the police, fire service or ambulance service could go a really long way to save lives and bring succour to those in despair. It is a bonus if the first responder has first aid skills but it is advisable for as many people as possible to get first aid skills because you never know when circumstances may put you in a situation where those skills could save someone’s life.
However, these issues can be solved if the general public are enlightened that saving a life comes ahead of taking photos. Of what value is a distress photo or video footage if it comes at the cost of someone else’s life? Remember the African adage that if you throw a pebble into the sky in a marketplace, it might just land on the head of a loved one.
In an extreme situation, calling the emergency numbers is very important for the victims.
Emergency numbers should be made public and accessible to the people so that those who are not able to be of help can easily place a call through to them and get them to come and save the victims. Furthermore, having so many emergency numbers could be a distraction, so there should be a universal number that can connect to all emergency centres in Nigeria. And these centres should be very active and responsive to distress calls.
Hospitals have also been responsible for many deaths by insisting on police reports before attending to accident and crime victims. In the course of this insensitivity, many a victim have bled to death.
It is a good thing that security authorities have clarified that accident victims should be quickly treated by hospitals without recourse to police reports.
In a police internal memo signed by the Force Principal Staff Officer, Olatunji Disu, on October 25, 2023 and addressed to all Deputy Inspectors-General of Police, Assistant Inspectors-General of Police, Commissioners of Police and the Commandants of Police Colleges in Ikeja, Kaduna, Oji-River, Maiduguri and Enugu, the acting Inspector General of Police, Olukayode Egbetokun, ordered the compulsory treatment of gunshot victims without police report. The IGP stated that the directive was in line with the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act 2017.
So clearly, it is against the law to reject accident victims because there is no report from the police. Everyone, especially the hospitals and even police stations, need to update their profiles in this respect.
