Daily Independent (Lagos)
Atu Ikot
8 January 2009
opinion
Last month I did an article titled "Lawlessness in partnership with law enforcement agents" which drew attention to the hell that Lagos roads have become, owing to the recklessness of commercial vehicle operators and their law enforcement collaborators. The article submitted that where lawlessness is treated with tender loving care, impunity results. The focus was largely on Lagos.
However, in the last few days before Christmas, on Christmas day and days after, newspaper headlines have been replete with stories of ghastly and fatal auto crashes with scores of deaths accompanying each incident. This prompted me to surf the Internet to find out what obtains in other countries of the world in this regard. I was confounded when it became obvious that no other country had a record near that of Nigeria. Countries that recorded worse fatalities in the past were victims of extreme natural elements. I then wondered why we love wallowing in self-inflicted catastrophes.
Unlike what obtains elsewhere, most of the disasters that visit Nigeria are man-made or man-induced. In short self-inflicted, either deliberately or through inordinate indulgence. Indiscipline has become a creed that is recited verbally and physically. It has become omnipresent. It is so potent that discipline bows at its approaches. Every facet of our national life is pregnant with indiscipline, and this has invariably given birth to ultra irresponsible and insensitive leaders. These so-called leaders in turn inflict their idiosyncrasies on the people; and the people again, because of the complacent nature of the leaders, become outlaws and in the process create more problems for the few that strive to remain sane. The sane consequently becomes sick in the maddening crowd. That 'sickness' leads to death; and this we harvest every day. It is a vicious circle.
In responsible countries of the world you often hear of serious automobile accidents without serious human casualties; the question then arises: Why do so many people die when there are road mishaps in Nigeria, particularly those involving commercial vehicles? First to come to mind would be that rescue operation is usually far-fetched. That may be; but the more fundamental reason is that most of the vehicles used for commercial passenger transport are contraptions made originally to convey goods only. These vehicles are then converted into passenger vehicles without the necessary consideration for comfort and safety. In a situation where such vehicles are involved in an accident, it becomes absolutely impossible for passengers to escape, and so they get trapped, and roasted like Suya meat.
Also, even those built for human conveyance and used for commercial transportation are allowed to degenerate to scraps. These are the mobile junks that ply our roads everyday without qualms, without the necessary navigational lights, without the right parts, with worn out tyres, with dismembered chasis. When these junks, whose alignment and stability are long lost, face the slightest challenge, they summersault and lock every contents in a deadly grip.
Government must take the blame for the carnage on our roads. It must, because it has abandoned its statutory duty to protect lives and property.
Apart from the state of the roads, which are appalling, the non-insistence on adherence to standards has empowered profiteers to make money at the expense of human lives. The major difference between what obtains in responsible countries and here is that there are laws and there are sanctions. Sanctions act as deterrence. Where laws are not enforced and sanctions not applied, anything goes. The leaders of this country are so concerned with mundane things and have become insensitive to human feelings and impervious to ideas that could forward the cause of humanity. That is why we reap deaths in quantum daily.
The respective governments are more interested in floating outfits and deriving pecuniary benefits there-from rather than ensuring that they serve the purpose for which they were established. To think that we have the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), the Federal Highway Patrol (Police), Motor Transport Division (Yellow Fever) Police), the Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOs), Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) and the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), the last two in Lagos, and yet Nigeria is one of the countries with the most chaotic traffic experience. It is one country that has some of the worst roads and the most irresponsible road users.
The unnecessary waste of lives on Nigerian roads would have been stemmed if those entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring safety were up to their duty.
To start with, the contraptions called commercial vehicles used in conveying human beings in Nigeria are not allowed in any country with sane leaders or responsible government. The Molues and Danfos are cages with aperture windows lined with sharp aluminium frames. Most of these vehicles were made for goods only, but are converted for passenger transport, without enough ventilation. These 'cages' are poorly maintained and often overloaded, but the authorities seem unperturbed. If anything, such misdemeanors become sources of income for those who are supposed to apprehend culprits.
Cases of accidents resulting from collision with broken down vehicles are legion. This is one country where a vehicle breaks down in the middle of the road and is abandoned right there without the slightest care. It remains there as long as the owner wishes. And this is without warning signs to alert other road users. Another reckless or unsuspecting driver rams into it, casualties result, and nothing happens to the offender. The people mourn, bury their death and move on. Life is so cheap here!
Overloading of vehicles result in some of the most fatal accidents recorded on our roads. Wetin concern agbero with overload is a common slang in Nigeria. It stems from the attitude of those who load vehicles at the motor parks. Their major concern is how much money they can make out of the enterprise; they are not in the least concerned about the safety of passengers. Of course, there is no discerning difference between the attitude of enforcement officials and that of the agberos. While the agberos ply their trade in the park, the enforcement agents do theirs on the road. The passenger, who has very little or no choice at all, is often left to the mercy of these heartless folks.
Again, most of the intercity and major intra-city roads have been converted to parks, constituting not just a nuisance to other road users but a veritable death trap. Tanker drivers and commercial bus drivers now decide what section of the roads to convert into motor parks. The sickening aspect of it is that the Local Governments give impetus to these by collecting tolls from them, thus legitimizing an obvious infraction.
The major reason there is so much carnage on our roads is the complete absence of a well-articulated transport policy in the country. Enforcement, which is a key element of the policy, is therefore lacking. That, of course, is not a good enough reason for the tardiness displayed by those entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that those who use our roads obey traffic rules and consider other road users while on the road.
It is bad enough that more than one hundred and fifty Nigerians who had left their different places of endeavour to celebrate Christmas with their kith and kin at home never got to their destination alive; but the government and its relevant agencies would do more than sermonizing about keeping our roads safe, and match words with action. You never can tell whom the bell tolls next. Carefulness on one's part these days is no guarantee of safety on Nigerian roads. The country's highways now lead obviously to Golgotha.
Atu Ikot, our guest columnist, is a commentator on contemporary issues.
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