Legislating on burials

Anambra State was in the news a couple of days back, but for a good reason. The state House of Assembly, worried by the high cost of burials and sundry cultural practices that impose serious financial hardship on the bereaved, just passed a bill to control expensive burial and funeral ceremonies.

Titled: Anambra State Burial and Funeral Ceremony Activities Bill, the piece of legislation seeks to peg the cost of burials in the state by curtailing some of the practices that escalate financial burden on the bereaved. It also provides for monitoring and punishment of offenders.

The new legislation which is said to be awaiting the assent of the state governor, pegged the duration of burials to one day. It stipulates that during burial ceremony, the family of the deceased shall provide entertainment to their kindred, relatives and other sympathizers at their own discretion, while banning the destruction of property, gunshots, praise singing, blocking of roads and streets.

Other provisions of the law are that no person shall subject any relation of the deceased person to a mourning period more than one week from the date of the burial and that depositing of corpses in the morgue shall not exceed two months.

The legislation, though well intended, is bound to be received with mixed feelings. Even as it seeks to tackle some of our cultural practices (both old and new) that have rendered the burial of the dead especially in the southern parts of the country a nightmare to many a family, it is still bound to be received with some reservations in some quarters. This is especially so given that aspects of what that piece of legislation seeks to regulate, hinges on our cultural practices and values.

There is therefore bound to be issues on the extent the government can really go in making laws that impinge on some of our traditions and cultural practices without eroding the norms and precepts on which the foundation of our society was erected. Such a conflict of interest is bound to surface in the instant case. But that clash cannot substantially whittle down the overriding objective or the propelling factors that gave rise to that legislation.

No doubt, the cost of burial ceremonies and associated activities especially in the south-eastern part of the country has for some time now, become a major issue of serious concern. Not only have such expenses become too prohibitive for people to bear, some of the cultural practices have also come into serious conflict with the realities of modern day life. In most cases, the bereaved have had to even sell landed properties or even borrow huge sums of money to meet up the huge expenses involved.

Given the increasing conflict of these practices with the realities of life, it is little wonder that those who have had to bury their loved ones, have most often come out with sordid tales of the unbearable demands they faced in the hands of relatives, friends, religious and cultural organizations and motley of sympathizers. Definitely something would have to give way at some point, given the increasing inability of the bereaved to cope with the rising demands of burial ceremonies.

Matters are not remedied by artificial display of affluence coloration which burials in that part of the country have come to assume. Sometimes, one begins to wonder what point is meant to be achieved by families and relations who roll out elaborate and expensive burial programs for people who could hardly afford two square meals a day while they lived. Yet, there abound other instances children and relatives of the dead who could ill afford to send them to good hospitals while they were sick, are compelled to borrow huge sums of money to satisfy the yawning and showy appetite of our people during burial ceremonies.

It is good a thing Anambra State House of Assembly has been sufficiently worried by the increasing hardship and incontinences suffered by the bereaved that it is seeking a way out through the new legislation. That is the way it should be. In the view of the state House of Assembly, the new legislation will substantially reduce burial costs and other ancillary practices that impose serious inconveniences, some with life threatening consequences.

That is the rationale behind confining all burial activities to one day, putting seal of two months for the deposition of corpses at the morgue and making it mandatory for bereaved families to entertain and serve their guests according to their capabilities. These will undoubtedly save cost and free the bereaved from menacing demands and manipulations of sundry groups and organizations that see burials as avenues to feed fat at the expense of the bereaved.

The law is futuristic and visionary in banning the destruction of properties during burials as well as the blocking of roads and streets. But these are not the only cost components of burials which relatives of the deceased have to contend with. There are sundry fees, levies and demands emanating from social groups, cultural and religious associations that contribute to the high cost of the burials. There are also issues with the sewing of sundry uniforms by family members and groups, printing of brochures and other customized gift items.

The inability of the new legislation to target these areas, expose the limits of such legislations in providing wholesale solutions to the complex issues involved in legislating on cultural matters. And that is where the new legislation is bound to run into troubled waters. The law went too far in banning all manner of gunshots and praise singing. While firing of symbolic gunshots can be regulated to avoid the dangers associated with it, outright ban encroaches substantially on some of our cultural practices.

Utmost discretion ought to have been called into action in these areas. It also remains to be conjectured, what the law is meant to achieve by banning praise singing. Though some of these praise singers could constitute some nuisance to visitors, their nuisance value constitutes some of the attractions without which burial ceremonies will become dull and boring. There is no need banning them since patronage remains at the discretion of the individual.

There is ample justification for restricting mourners especially widows and widowers to a mourning period of not more than one week. The old practice which entailed months or weeks of confinement and inactivity has become obsolete in the face of modern realities. Many of the bereaved are bread winners of their families. They have to go back to their places of work or businesses for them to take care of their immediate responsibilities. Confining them too long will amount to further punishment. Even then, those in gainful employment will not have the luxury of time for such confinements as they risk loss of their jobs. So it makes ample sense to do away with such confinements. Nothing bars those who wish to stay longer from doing so as it within their individual rights.

More fundamentally, these measures will pale into insignificance if we do not address the attitudinal issues and dispositions of our people that propel and sustain ostentation both in our normal lives and at burials. That is the real challenge to contend with and the success of any legislation will bear very positive correlation with our ability and willingness to imbibe attitudes that conduce for modest living.

Most of the ills of our society today including the complex web of insecurity that now hold the nation on the throat, stem in the main from wrong societal values that promote get-rich-quick and ostentatious living. Ironically, lavish burial rites and expensive spending during such events contribute to and reinforce such unwholesome societal tendencies.

It will therefore entail serious and well thought out general reorientation programs to change the general attitude of our people to life generally. So much has gone wrong with the psyche of our people that legislation without moral suasion and positive attitudinal change may prove ineffectual in addressing some of these ills. The government, churches, traditional institutions and all socialization agencies have serious roles to play here. Overall, it is a contradiction of sorts to retain burial practices that tend to suffocate the living to death.