Rebasing the economy without the funeral industry

Sitting in the lobby and waiting for my flight back to Lagos from Owerri, I elected to browse through the internet and then I stumbled on an article in Forbes Magazine entitled “Death of the deathcare industry and Eternal Life online”, which threw up some startling yet somber statistics on the cost of death in the United States. “In 1960,” said Forbes, “the average cost of a funeral was $706. Today, the average traditional funeral costs between $8000 and $10000 (between N1.3m and N1.65m). The US funeral industry accounts for about $20 billion in annual economic activity with around 130,000 employees that make a living on the 1.5 million people that go to rest each year.”

Morbid?  Perhaps. Thought-provoking? Absolutely. Coming from a funeral, my mind naturally wandered to the economic implications of the funerals I have been attending in my home town this year (seven at the last count) and several others I couldn’t attend.  Then, a question came to mind: How on earth could anybody have rebased the economy based only on the perceived growth in the telecommunications and entertainment/movie industries without regard to the burgeoning funeral industry? I refuse to accept that there was something instinctively manipulative about the much celebrated rebasing of the economy, but I wager that the process was not entirely comprehensive-as I will demonstrate presently.

This might be quite a staggering narrative considering the morbidity with which most people view deaths and funerals in these parts. Of course, we don’t have (accurate) records of deaths to build our own statistics neither do we keep tabs on the business activities which sustain this sorry industry. So, let me help.

As a kid growing up in the village, news of death was few and far between. If at all, it was all about old men and women. But for reasons I do not intend to go into in this article, many more people (both old and young) are dying nowadays. Or, as a friend argued recently, it is all about communication. According to him, due to the increased access to communication, including telephones, mass media, social media and reduced “fear of death” (if you may), a lot more is said and heard about death. On the average, however, regardless of the parameters, I believe a lot more people die today than they did some decades ago. And with this upsurge has been an outbreak of an initially disorganized funeral industry and now a much more organized and thriving industry with several players in the eco-system.

Back in the days, we didn’t have mortuaries in the neighborhood-outside hospital environments. Today we do. People now talk about this mortuary and that one like they are discussing restaurants and bars. You hear things like “Oh, that one along XYZ road is very good. They preserve bodies better.” What the hell! But that’s reality. So, there is a thriving mortuary industry everywhere you go. They come in various sizes and levels of sophistication, and of course, the charges are different. Bottom line: They are all making good money with the obviously spiraling death rate.

Closely related to the morgue business is another necessary business: Caskets. Again, as kids, we used to avoid passing through Mr. Ehiemere’s shop, where he made and sold caskets (we knew them as coffins). They immediately conjured images of deaths and funerals, and so we dreaded the sight of them. Today, casket shops dot every corner in the villages and in the townships. Some of them are beautiful-ironically. The first time I did business with the casket dealers was in 2003 when I lost my father. As soon as the press announcement was made about his death, I was swamped by brochures and estimates, unsolicited, from dealers. These “containers” don’t come cheap at all. Of course, there’s a whole army of artisans ranging from carpenters, spray painters, soft-furnishing suppliers and so many others that come together to deliver a casket.

Some years back, while on a working visit to Accra, Ghana, I found myself in a street where some amazingly creative caskets were made. Some of them looked like airplane, ships, houses, cars, etc. Out of curiosity, I stopped and asked why the “unnecessary” details and designs and I was told some people ordered them while they were still alive (ostensibly). You can imagine the number of people, including artists and designers, who got involved in delivering the caskets. It must be a thriving business really.

The next bit is the ambulance service. Like you have trucks for haulage, there are ambulances everywhere. I observed that some mortuaries have ambulances registered with them. Some mortuaries even own ambulances, a smart extension of their services. There are luxury ambulances as well as basic ones. They generally add some gravitas to the funeral. I have actually seen a limousine ambulance, which certainly reminded me of the wastefulness associated with funerals in these parts, but it is all business after all.

I won’t forget the professional mourners and pall bearers who bring extra somberness or excitement, as the case may be, to funerals. These two have become major businesses in their own rights. From their outfits or regalia to their displays, they deserve every naira they make in their “ghastly” enterprise. The first time I saw a call card belonging to a company of Pall Bearers, I literally fell off my chair in a double paroxysm of laughter and tears. It was sadly hilarious to see someone profit from the death of others in that way or other ways.

Lest I forget, there are caterers and cooling truck providers in the eco-system of funeral service industry. Add to these decorators, canopy and chair rental businesses as well as musicians and DJs. The latter turn the funerals into music and dancing carnivals in a manner of speaking. Again, growing up, we used to hear sorrowful songs blaring out of jukeboxes, compounding the mournful atmosphere at the funerals. All those have given way to more entertaining music, which naturally but ironically culminate in dancing and merry-making. I personally took umbrage at the way people stood in a long-winding queue waiting for food and drinks at the funeral of a 40-year-old! However, this seeming insensitivity is illustrative of the level of expenditure or investment people make in funerals, which has ostensibly gone uncaptured in our rebased economy.

Hopefully, this error will be corrected the next time we rebase our economy, next five years or so. Before then, however, this industry must be “regulated”, so to say, to ensure that necessary data are captured. For example, we don’t have a complete record of deaths in Nigeria, just as we don’t have a complete record of births. Most of the morgues that operate outside the cities accept bodies without death certificates. As a matter of fact, a lot of people die and are never taken to the hospital for proper documentation. This must change.

Then, we can register the operators and employees of this industry. We must have over half a million people practicing in this industry, who earn revenues and salaries which go untaxed. There’s a conspiracy theory that the deathcare industry in Nigeria is in cahoots with the healthcare industry. I would rather stay away from that. Regardless, it is certainly cheaper to preserve life than to bury the dead. I know so. The cost of my late father’s casket was over N500, 000 while the cost of my mom’s comprehensive medical check-up in the same year was less than N300, 000. So, we really can choose life by living right and going for regular medical check-ups. Seriously, it is cheaper to live than to die.

While not begrudging the deathcare industry its good fortunes, it is incumbent on the various tiers of government, corporate organizations and wealthy individuals to invest in the healthcare industry. The multiplier effects, beyond the preservation of lives, are inclusive of but not limited to employment, revenue (through taxes) and ultimately increasing the life expectancy of Nigerians.

By the way, I forgot to list money changers on the burgeoning list of service providers in the deathcare industry. The fellows come loaded with crisp naira notes for people to purchase and spray the family and friends of the deceased when the show heats up. It’s still a marvel to me that people eat, drink and dance and then get sprayed with cash, particularly when they are ironically celebrating the life of a dead person.

Postscript: when I asked a colleague to read through this piece before I publish it, here’s what he sent back to me: “…the ‘death industry’ is a neglected one. Maybe we are just too scared to talk about it. In Lagos, there are no longer new burial places; corpses litter existing mortuaries – there is so much room for expansion – big business opportunity. I believe the day we clear our heads of all the misconceptions we have about the dead, that’s when we can really start developing the industry and harnessing all the opportunities it presents. In fact, there should be businesses that should provide end to end service for the dead. The family’s sole duty should be to mourn and provide funeral guidelines while all the nightmarish logistic problems associated with burying the dead should be outsourced to a ‘death-care’ service provider.”

Oparah sent this piece from Lagos.