First came down Bellview. We have hardly shed the mourning garb when Sosoliso went down. Mother Nigeria lost over 200 of her sons and daughters in eight weeks through plane crashes in Ogun State and Port Harcourt . There were students of one of the best schools in Nigeria on board. There were children of some mothers who can never be consoled. There were wives of some husbands who can no longer find their second half again, even if they remarry. There were husbands of some wives who may refuse to remarry again because their emotional pains cannot be assuaged. Other countries Ghana , Europe and US too also shared in our grief. We lost some of their children on our soils too.

Planes are mechanical devices of human ingenuity that are susceptible to accidents. The way planes now drop from the skies and are crashing is making Nigerians to reconsider their choice of flying to their destinations and digging up a Plan B to return to the road. This is a hard choice because like in any scenario planning session, there are prevailing factors to indicate that all is not well with road transportation system in Nigeria and there is an urgent need to overhaul the aviation industry so that people who can afford air travel will continue to enjoy the blessings and comfort that their wealth generate for them. It is self-evident and a well documented fact that traveling by road in Nigeria is not a joke at all. Those who dare, brave it. You will be amazed volume of prayers that ascend to heavens from Nigeria before, during and after commuting the roads of the inner cities and inter-states daily. The issue is not with the means of transportation. The problem is with the inefficiencies of the leadership and inability of the electorate to organize themselves as a people.

Day or night. Intra-city or cross-country. When you travel by road, you need Psalm 23 to overcome the dangers commonplace with road travel in AD2005 Nigeria in order to return home safely to your loved ones. Our transportation system is still largely underdeveloped. Pot holes trap vehicles and cause needless accidents. Poorly constructed roads are not pliable on a rainy day. Darkness makes visibility difficulty and road users easy prey of armed robbers because there are no streetlights and the few ones existing are not working.

Illegal roadblocks cause traffic congestions popularly dubbed ‘go slow’, ‘hold up’, and most times in Victoria Island, Ketu, Oshodi, etc ‘stand still’. Some Local Government officials and ill-informed people still shut down access and street roads on weekends for their parties, celebrations and religious events making life unbearable for the road users. Vehicular obstructions through inconsiderate parking on the road. Use of siren motorcade to inconvenience other members of the electorate, some cause confusion and accidents. Some leadership has lost the battle for good roads to erosion in some parts of the East; these roads have caved in and some gullies are actually frightening.

Strongly speaking, the activities of armed robbers on the road, particularly at night make traveling by road in Nigeria a dangerous adventure like a scene from Hollywood movie. You will appreciate what I am saying if you have been reading articles in the national dailies cataloguing the thriller-type and horrifying tale of woes of road users in the hands of these wicked armed bandits. We cannot pretend. Things are pretty bad. Nobody is spared. You can count the number of the rich and poor alike whose lives have been cut short by these armed bandits. Their only crime is that they travel by road in their own country.

Again, the proliferation of road traffic agencies on our road is a rotten apple to bite for the million road users who commute daily for their daily bread. The traffic regulatory authorities [legally constituted or otherwise] on our roads are just too many. They are like buzzards gathering for a feast. Police. VIO. Road Safety. Pro-NURTW officials. Anti-NURTW officials. Touts that undercover for Police to extort money from vehicles. Self-appointed touts driven by desperation and hunger to the road. LASMA. FERMA. Area Boys. Street urchins. Street beggars in different shades like professionals, irritants and crude thieves. The list is actually endless, particularly when you are in Lagos. We virtually live and display our decadence, poverty, indiscipline, underdevelopment on the road.

Leadership in different levels of government does not have justification for deploying multiple agencies to compete with one another on the road. It could only indicate service of self-interest and self-preservation but certainly not customer service to the road users. These agencies make life difficult for road users and extort money from them. In another development, government losses billion of naira in revenue loss annually because they have abdicated their civil responsibility of maintaining law and order on the road. All kinds of touts collect all kinds of levy from motorists every day annually. Which coffers are all these monies paid? Government? I have my doubts.

In Lagos, when LASMA officials arrest an offending road user the later is quicker to settle the former with some hundred of Naira because government has set ridiculous amount of thousands of naira as penalty fine. If it were an organization, these fraudulent officials will be dismissed for conflict of interest; they constitute themselves as private agencies to renegotiate the penalty fine and pocket these monies for their private use. Unfortunately they will continue to remain in government service and wax stronger in corruption. The irony of a corrupt man is that he will continue to harden in his corrupt practices once he realizes that he does it and gets away with it. He would devise smarter ways of covering his tracks to avoid being caught. Now, let offences cascade from the huge sum of penalty there is today to minimum of N500 and maximum of N5,000 depending on the type and degree of offences, and you will see a remarkable change on our roads. First, road offences will reduce because the emphasis will now shift from money to road users’ time and convenience. If the road users know that money is not involved but their time and convenience, they will be careful to comply with regulations on our roads. Also, the recalcitrant road users, particularly the notorious Danfo and Molue drivers in Lagos, when caught will be compelled to pay into government coffers instead of using lesser amount to settle officials as presently obtainable thereby making government to loss revenue.

We are a people of incurable contradiction. We are wealthy but our roads are bad. We drive posh cars and buy ‘pure water’ to quench our thirst and ‘plantain chips’ in traffic from child traders. Indeed, Nigerians are a paradox. We laugh in sorrow. We smile in pain. Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the late musician and political rebel once satirized about the state of affairs on our roads. This was in 1978. How ironic? How prophetic? In 2005, we cannot fault the late Fela! How sad! Fela remains prophetic even in death.

A freelance translation of his album Suffering & Smiling I picked up on the Internet captured the decadent situation on our roads, among other things:

Suffer in life to gain paradise, is what the religious sing to us since always. Do you believe these   hypocrites? I ask all to free your mind from any propaganda that is Catholic, Anglican, Moslem or whatever sect, because they pollute our spirit. Open your ears well to listen to the truth, which I’ll say: the priest, the bishop and the Imam are all jovial fellows:

Instead of realizing this obviousness, my people follow the religious. Each year they sacrifice all their money to carry out pilgrimage in Rome, Mekka or London. On the places of cult, like tared, they gesticulate and start to recite ineptitudes they don’t even understand: “spiritus havenus, spiritus cassisusus, yallahoo, yallahoo …”.

What I want to tell you now, it’s a secret, a confidential matter, don’t tell anybody outside. It’s between YOU and ME. It’s our daily batch, we Africans all over the world. Now listen: every day my people use public transport to go their work. They are forty seated and ninety standing, the ones on top of the others tight like sardines. Suffering and smiling. It’s a true path of cross on the roads; go slow (1), police rackets. At home, no electricity, no water. The pockets are hopelessly empty and to find a job is very difficult. And every day, it is similar. Every day suffering and smiling. Source: http://kalakutarepublic.free.fr/english/songs/sufferingandsmilingpart2.htm

I do not agree with Fela on the inter-relationship he made between religion and inefficiency in the polity. Dogma may condition an individual into docility but religious principles gives light and guidance for development if properly presented and obeyed. Or, why are America and Europe great? Isn’t their foundation a Judeo-Christian heritage? How was Israel able to convert an arid desert to a land flowing with milk and honey? Israel has God. Our problem with religion is the embrace of materialism in the name of religion. If we know and serve God aright, he will bless us with intelligence, creativity and capability to meditate about the mysteries of life, humanity and divinity, think about hereafter and the common good of mankind, invent things and systems to make life worth living here on earth and create a society where freedom and rule of law prevail. Some nations have done it, and it should not be too difficult for us to also replicate using the same principle of religion. I also do not agree with Fela’s lifestyle to which he is entitled, and I would not make any comment on his lifestyle.

But, look at it again. Nobody can fault Fela’s situational analysis of our inefficiency in 1978, which in 2005 has become a prophetic reality. What has changed from 1978 to 2005? The electorate should listen to Fela again and answer this question themselves.

Will Nigeria ever rise above its problems? Will the leadership and electorate alike continue to recycle our problems and pushing them into the threshold of the future for the coming generation to resolve? We must put policies, structures in place, implement and sanction failure to implement them in order to stop the carnage on our roads and in the air and start sacrificing today for our future generation through self-discipline, and efficiency. Nigeria can work.

Babatunde Ayoola Fajimi, Accra Ghana

Robot  # 1 | 17.12.2005 10:48

The way planes now drop from the skies and crashing is making Nigerians to reconsider their choice of flying to their destinations and digging up a Plan B to return to the road. This is a hard choice because all is not we...Read the full article.

Unregistered  # 2 | 18.12.2005 15:41

"Israel has God" Hahaha

Unregistered  # 3 | 18.12.2005 17:09

Dear Fellow Villager/Visitor, To the extent that Israel is able to tap into divinity and explore its infinite resources to renew their pyche and develop their country amidst hostilities, and at times isolation or withdrawal of support from other countries, Israel has God. This is the mystery of the Old Testament. Guess you believe in the Holy Book. Only if Nigeria could have God, but not in the context in which we proclaim it now. Merry Christmas. Babatunde Fajimi

GemuhDesayinah  # 4 | 18.12.2005 18:23

A few problems with the logic in the original article: The author writes: Or, why are America and Europe great? Isn’t their foundation a Judeo-Christian heritage? Japan is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, but is primarily Buddhist, Shinto and/or Atheist. The United Arab Emirates is incredibly wealthy, but primarily Islamic. etc. etc. Also, Isreal has God. Israel is primarily non-Christian. And since the new testament of the bible states that "only by the name of Jesus Christ can one be saved", does Israel really have God (according to Christian doctrine?)