[b] When one dies, we believe that the debt the people he leaves behind owe him is to return him to mother earth. Returning him to mother earth in form of a burial is the last rite the people should perform for him, how they do that is another thing. There is one friend who has constantly said that his interest ceases to be meaningful when he breathes his last breath by giving the ghost. That he does not care a damn how he is buried. The last thing the people would do would be to leave his corpse unburied. Should they do that, the stench that will ooze out from his decaying body will provoke an epidemic. So at least, for fear of that, he must be buried by his people. This man only requires to be buried when he dies. Whether people who attend his burial drink coke or champagne is not his business.

What's worrisome is the festivities that accompany burial ceremonies. The way people look at it seems as if burial ceremonies are desirable engagements they are looking up to.
When somebody dies these days, the first thing that his relatives do is to take his corpse to the best hospital with the best mortuary services. It does not really matter however, if the person died consequent on the refusal or inability of the relatives to give him a reasonable medicare. Whether he starved to death is immaterial to them. As soon as the corpse is deposited in a good mortuary, arrangements swing into action. The first thing is to make sure there is a good house where the body will lie in state.
It does not matter if the person died in a thatched house. If it takes six months to get a good house in place, it does not bother them. After getting the house ready, the next thing will be how to get burial posters proclaiming the death of a personage when the person in real life died a pauper. Depending on the financial disposition of the family, some people go to the extent of buying imported caskets. Others go to special places where designer caskets are made.

On the burial day, the vehicle that carries the corpse must be a jeep brand of car and at least it must covered by 2 video cameramen so that even the ants on the ground will be picked. At the wake keeping ceremony, live bands are invited to entertain the wake keepers. The number of live bands determines the financial strength of the organisers of the burial.
When the dead has been buried in perhaps a house that cost thousands of naira to erect. When the chips are down and all the sympathisers are gone, the immediate family now come back to count its loses and gains. It is only at this time that it dawns on the people that they have over spent because it is not possible to square up. The sympathizers who must have been expected to bring cash gifts only brought one or two goats and some cartoons of beer, crates of minerals - which the villagers in their insatiable appetite for drinks have consumed.

If the dead person was a married man with children, it is at this time of settlement of debt unreasonably Incurred that the poor widow is brought into the fore. Remember that before this time, depending on her relationship with her relation's in- law, she may not have been directly involved in the burial arrangements. She will now be asked to suggest what should be done to settle the debt incurred from the burial of her husband. The woman in most cases will simply burst into tears. Of course expectedly, she must be made to realise that shading of tears at this time is out of place. The solution to the problem which they must Confront is monetary.

If the dead man was a man of means and left one or two houses behind, selling them becomes a sure solution. The house will then go up for sale. That done, the debt is settled and the difference if any is given to the widow and her little ones.

Nobody should misconstrue me, am not saying that the dead should not be given a befitting burial. Far from it, but the issue is that we should not transform burial ceremonies into festivals at the expense of yawning and immediate needs.[/b]

That's what most Africans especially Nigerians have been conditioned to believe and accept forgetting that those left behind still have their lives to live after the burial. If the dead is worth more than the living, common sense is still far away from us.