Could this still be attributed to joblessness, poverty, hunger, and hopelessness, which we regularly write about? It is true that the above are the true realities in Nigeria. People are jobless, impoverished, hungry, and hopeless. But despite the above grotesque realities, there is no justification for the heartlessness of the heartless to make victims of accidents simultaneously victims of robbery. This is victimhood raised to the power of two. Put differently, it is double tragedies.
Most accident victims fall victim to our bad roads, to our faulty and rickety vehicles and also to the reckless driving of our reckless drivers. While they deserve emergency help and attention in gory accident scenes, some heartless individuals seize the opportunity to rob these victims. Animals of the same specie are not this wicked to themselves. Unfortunately, some men are so wild and beastly that one is tempted to think it is better to be animal than to be man. This must stop.
In the road accident that occured last Monday night in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, one is made to understand that as an accident victim, you are not only On Your Own (OYO) but a victim of additional tragedy. It was gathered that some travellers in a bus coming from Oore in Ondo State had an accident at Oolo axis enroute to Ogbomoso. While the accident victims wallowed in pain and yearned for help, what they saw were robbers who “honored” their call but to make a fortune.
In a nutshell, rather than help these victims, they were further victimized by some “fellow” Nigerians who robbed them of their valuables—money and mobile phones—on the accident scene. Luckily, other fellow patriotic Nigerians later appeared on the scene for rescue mission. These victims were later rushed to hospital. Access to the mobile phones of these victims by the good Samaritans who came to rescue them would have made contact with victims’ relatives seamless, but robbers have stolen them. This is bad. Thanks to the media houses that reported the incident. I wish the accident victims quick recovery.
This is becoming a common harrowing situation experienced by accident victims. A similar case was reported just two months ago at Alausa in Lagos State. A driver of a Toyota Camry 2010 reportedly lost control and rammed into a road divider. Rather than assist the victims in the car, some suspects who were close to the accident scene chose to ransack the victims’ pockets and the vehicle for valuables. Fortunately for the victims, the thieves were caught with iPhone 15, valued at N1,300,000 and an iPhone 12 valued at N620,000 which they stole from the accident victims.
It is traumatic that accident victims could hardly count on fellow beings for help in such a dire situation. I recalled an accident I had sometime in 2023. It was in the night on highway. That day, I thought my ride and phone were gone. I was not thinking of getting help because I understand how heartless people have become. I tried to manage to get up to help myself since I was not incapably injured. In the course of doing that, someone driving behind me who witnessed the scene packed his ride and rushed to rescue me.
Even then, I did not trust him until I could trust him when he picked up my phone on the highway and handed it over to me. I was fortunate. He was also a fortune rescuer. It was dark and late in the night. Plus, it was an area devoid of people where he could easily pick up my valuables and walk away without any fear of being trailed. I was very fortunate as my accident experience was an isolated case; not the common nasty thing experienced by many accident victims who are rather robbed. May God handsomely reward the young man who rescued me. Many accident victims are not fortunate and that is why I an writing this piece.
It should be noted that robbing accident victims of their belongings is not peculiar to Nigeria. It happens in other countries. But that is not a justification to just let it go. Something must be done about it. All known causes of accident must be addressed. I have identified bad roads as a prime cause. Our roads should be fixed. Many roads in Nigeria are in good shape only on paper especially as allocation for repair and construction of new ones is always provided for in our annual budget which is now better described as annual ritual.
Yet, our roads continue to crack, continue to be potholed and continue to bleed despite huge funds annually earmarked for them. Many of the vehicles plying Nigerian roads are far from being roadworthy. But do you blame the vehicles or their owners? Nigerian roads, as I write, are not meant for vehicles that are roadworthy. Many of our roads are meant for rickety vehicles that are best driven by agbero drivers whose eyes have been reddened enough by enough intake of local hard liquor like ogogoro or shepe or paraga or Kaikai in preparation for the suicide mission which driving on Nigerian roads is.
Thus, the first priority—in the right order of things—is to fix the roads, then the vehicles, then the drivers. Everything and everyone have to be fixed to minimize accident on our roads. Government should also prioritize job creation— commensurable with living wages—and let’s see whether robbing of accident victims will reduce or not.
The Bullying Teacher and the Bullied School Toddler
It is sad again that we have in our midst a quack teacher who thinks a toddler must write figure “6” by fire or by force. Haba! Wetin na? A three year old pupil? Wetin im go fit write? I can agree that there are exceptional toddlers. But how many tens of such toddlers can we count in a billion?
What I am saying is this: what, in the first place, is a three year old pupil looking for in school? Who is that mother or father that enrolled the kid? Is the owner of the school a trained educationist? What about the teachers? I cannot pretend that I don’t know that parents nowadays enroll their wards in schools even at age two.
Even if many parents and so-called teachers think formal school enrollment of toddlers is not intrinsically wrong at age three, it is absolutely nonsensical to think such kids ought to be taught how to read and write at that age. Three years old falls within the age bracket where kids are supposed to play to their maximum satisfaction. They are supposed to sing and to dance. To eat and to poo poo and to wee-wee. Enough of this premature school enrollment of kids.
At the end of the day, many of these kids would still grow up and their parents would have to struggle to look for miracle centers where success in WAEC and JAMB is guaranteed. What have we not seen! Let’s stop deceiving ourselves. Our kids are not ripe for formal school enrollment until they are ripe.
Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com
