It is difficult to accurately picture what goes on in the mind of a bystander who has just witnessed a typical accident scene, ghastly or fatal. Blood-soaked victims, in the cusp between life and death, are groaning, writhing in agony.
But the bystander’s first impulse is, rather than rendering immediate, lifesaving first assistance, is to reach for his or her smartphone and gleefully snap or film away!
This is simply the growing trend in our society these days in an increasingly ubiquitous tech age where smartphones and social media now largely dictate the pace of life.
Humanity is taking the backseat as every Nigerian has become an emergency ‘citizen journalist’ competing to be the first to post online photos and/or videos of tragic events real-time, either for pecuniary purposes or for the fun of it.
Indeed, this rather bizarre, noxious social media craze is fast redefining Nigerians’ age long pre- social media benevolent mentality of being our ‘brothers’ keepers’, especially the usual eagerness to be first responders to accident/disater scenes.
These photo/video-crazy onlookers so crowd accident scenes these days with smartphones that they even often hinder emergency responders from gaining easy access. Such was the case on December 29, 2025 concerning a fatal auto crash on the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway involving Nigeria-born boxing icon, Anthony Joshua, and his team members.
Disturbing reports and viral videos surfaced showing bystanders and motorists taking videos of the scene instead of rendering aid. Observers reported the absence of immediate medical assistance to the victims and took umbrage at prioritizing filming rather than saving lives in an accident scene involving such an iconic international figure.
While the boxing legend was lucky to have survived the crash, he lost his two soulmates, Shina Gbami and Latif Ayodele,who had accompanied him from their UK base.
A video also went viral recently featuring a large crowd of heartless Lagos bystanders filming a girl, who had passed out having sustained a head injury from a bad fight with a co-teenager, rather than immediately offering a lifesaving assistance or at least taking her to the nearest hospital.
Some years back, a Dana Air plane had crashed into a house in Iju part of Lagos. As expected, the unusually loud, deafening rumble of the crashing big metal bird had attracted thousands of people, who had in horror thronged the scene. But instead of rescuing the agonizing victims, many of the bystanders were merely snapping or recording the images of the dying individuals!
The latest victim of this freakish trend is a 29-year-old highly promising and popular digital creator, Lucky Elohor, who was involved in a ghastly auto crash in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, early last week. Elohor, the founder of GROW Network, an online platform dedicated to career development and professional growth, mentoring hundreds of young Nigerians, was a victim of the absence of emergency responders and the parlous state of healthcare in the country.
According to a post shared by her friend, her vehicle ran into a pothole, lost control and crashed in the Kwara State capital. But there was no emergency rescue service to transport the victims, including Elohor, to the hospital in time.
As usual, bystanders who rushed to the scene, were busy recording the gory sight, completely inured to the victims’ heart-rending yelps of pain before them.
When help eventually came the victims’ way, including Elohor, the nation’s fractured health system rammed the final morbid nail on them. Doctors in public hospitals, including the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), who could have saved the day, were on strike.
Many of the private medical facilities in Ilorin were ill-equipped to handle the medical emergency, as none of the three hospitals visited had a functional MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) equipment, which healthcare providers use to evaluate, diagnose and monitor several different medical conditions through scanning.
The nearest option was Ogbomosho, but Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH) doctors were on strike too. Elohor eventually gave up the ghost and big dreams as well as lifelong prospects perished with her.
Her avoidable death has dug a deep hard-to-fill emotional gash on her family’s psyche. They lost a gem in her.
The family penned an emotion-laden tribute about her: ”Elohor was a light, full of purpose, grace, and an unwavering commitment to impacting lives. She built with intention, loved deeply, and served selflessly through her work, her community, and her faith.
“Though our hearts are heavy, we are comforted by the assurance that she has gone to be with the Lord, and that her legacy will continue to live on through the many lives she touched”.
Interestingly, this vexatious trend is a global phenomenon. Many countries, including the advanced ones, have their fair share of citizens who prioritize filming scenes of tragedy over saving lives.
What could be driving this cruelty against humanity? Experts have identified a possible mix of psychological, social and technological factors to explain why bystanders sometimes photograph or record accidents instead of intervening.
An experimental psychologist,who researched the behaviour of people at emergency scenes, has a theory on why people reach for their phones first instead of being first responders to emergency situations.
“It’s not so much what goes through their minds, it’s what doesn’t,” he says. He thinks this type of sharing, in a culture of ubiquitous tech, is an act of mindlessness. “Often we’re just running on autopilot and we’re not thinking and that’s why it doesn’t seem intrusive to those doing it.”
An example was cited of one Omega Mwaikambo, who took photos of a body recovered from one of the UK’s highest profile disasters – the Grenfell Tower fire.
His explanation seems to underscore the mindlessness proffered by the experimental psychologist.
Using an iPad, he began photographing – at a distance – a plastic-wrapped corpse in the courtyard at his nearby flat. Then he lifted the sheet to take close-ups. He then posted the pictures on Facebook.
When he was asked later why he did it, he replied ruefully and regretfully that his reasons eluded him. He shocked his listeners when he added: “God knows what I was thinking in my head. It just happened. No explanation. Why would anybody do this kind of thing?”
Another expert links the growing trend partly to the vagaries of life, which, according to him, have created such psychological dislocations that people take to irascible behaviours. They do things impetuously.
“There are so many psychological issues in society today,” he explains. “A well-dressed man you see walking on the side of the road, for example, is probably a ‘walking corpse’ suffering from various problems, many from family burdens — unsettled bills, including children’s school fees, pressures of feeding, so many issues. That is why at a little provocation, they flare up because they have to vent their anger on somebody and they do it wrongly because, at that time, they are not in control of their mental senses.”
However, one of the overriding factors widely canvassed for this abnormal practice is the craze to earn a living and be part of the latitude afforded by the ubiquitous social media to feed blogs and content creators with the latest tragedy in town real-time. The competition to be the first to post photos and videos tends to override the immediate need to save lives.
The Federal Government has, of course, attempted several times to regulate the use of social media to ameliorate its noxious side effects. One of the efforts is the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) (Amendment) Act 2024 (which amended the 2015 Act).
Additionally, the Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries, released by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in 2022 and enforced as of 2024, is the primary regulatory instrument for content moderation.
The key legal framework of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) (Amendment) Act 2024, signed into law in February, last year, is to strengthen digital surveillance. Specifically, through Section 24, the law penalizes the sharing of “false” or “misleading” information, or messages that threaten life/public order, with up to three years’ imprisonment or fines.
The Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries (2022/2024) mandates that platforms with over 100,000 users in Nigeria must register, have a physical presence in the country, and take down harmful, illegal, or “misinformation” content within 24 hours of notice.
Some people have, in fact, been arrested and prosecuted for various offences under these laws. But a psychologist believes that the current regulatory frameworks concerning the social media are not enough. Despite these regutions put in place, the social media, according to him, is still too free.
He said government needs to either introduce more laws or tighten the noose of the current ones to make them more effective. He believes there are still a lot of abuses of the digital space. Many things that are not supposed to be on social media are being posted there.
“Some people even edit videos of killings and violence in other countries and post them as if they happened in Nigeria. Such affects the viewers because we are not all psychologically balanced. Some people will view horrific scenes and be disturbed for a very long”.
Beyond regulations, however, let us as Nigerians put on our thinking cap and stop this mindless pastime of filming dying co-Nigerians instead of offering prompt assistance that could save lives.
Let us return to who we were before the ubiquitous tech craze — kind-hearted people who hate injustice and oppression. Typical Nigerians, before the social media ‘madness,’ would readily pull off their shirts to rescue a woman from a predator, for example, or from a weakling being bullied. You would see others rally to rescue accident victims or trapped people in a raging inferno and put off the fire in any building they do not necessarily have a stake.
It is that kind of team spirit that defines our unique Nigerianness. We should not allow social media and smartphones to take it from away from us.
Let us return to being first responders to emergencies, evacuate the injured for timely medical attention and stop the consistent, avoidable waste of precious lives through cruelty to accident/disaster victims.
