27 Aug 2008 |
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When nine years old Shannon Mathews was found alive after going missing for 3 weeks in the West Yorkshire area of the United Kingdom in 2008, the police department confessed that the scale of the investigation was nearly as close to the case of the hunt for ‘the Yorkshire ripper’…who went on a 5 years spree of killing 13 women between 1975 to 1980. A spokesperson of the force said 16 of the best UK specialist search dogs came from as far south as Hampshire and as far north as Glasgow, just to look for a missing 9 year old girl. The cost of the operation ran into millions of pounds. This was regardless of the girl’s parent’s status in the society or what the missing girl’s future could turn out to be, the west Yorkshire police still used hundreds of men to unravel the case. What matters to them was the life of that young girl, the re assurance to the public not to panic through dutiful operations and the good name of the west Yorkshire police department if the case is finally cracked open. But most importantly, they were just doing their job. Indeed life must feel safe in the UK, even though there are some crime hot spots in the country; it is least comforting that nothing will be spared in trying to bring the criminals to justice. When these cases draw to a close, the family of the bereaved or accused will find some solace in the thorough work of the police and the justice system either to vindicate or prosecute the person(s) in question. A while ago, a friend observed that we (religious Nigerians) don’t always pray to GOD in the morning for preservation of life and properties here in the UK as we normally do in Nigeria. He even pointed out that we don’t even pray for protection fervently at night as we would have done back home. My response to that was that Nigeria seems to be loaded with freaky unavoidable deaths. Insensitive and careless successive Governments facilitated the breeding ground for these short timed tragedies. There are death traps as roads everywhere in Nigeria, insane men in uniform as cops. And even where the uniformed men are sane, there is no weaponry to help combat crime. Those who are in charge of the roads would rather have 50,000 deaths on Nigerian roads yearly than fix the roads causing the accidents. They prefer going to church or the mosque to pray against accidents. How an area of pipeline route became a residential area and did not get any attention from the authorities will beat any sane mind. It is most puzzling though, when a simple rigor of health and safety was ignored and hundreds, including children were burnt alive due to negligence and unprofessional handling of a maintenance or repair exercise. Those who were responsible were never apprehended talk less of prosecuted. It is no longer a situation of dejavu whenever a report of incinerations occurs in Nigeria. It has become part of life to get roasted from a leaky petrol pipe work. Yet no one is taking ownership or trying to take ownership. So we keep going around in circles. What we hear when such disasters happen from government quarters are words like “lets thank God because it could have been worst” or “let’s grief but grief like we have got God”. And then, the normal pot bellied fellow in kaftan appears in the media to say “government will ensure this or that…” kaput! that is the end of the matter until another fireball engulfs… When a head of the Chinese drug department was sentenced to death for taking bribes against the backdrop of local and foreign concern over poor standards of Chinese produced food and medicines he would have wished to be the head of NAFDAC as the current head of NAFDAC seem to be swimming against the tide. For taking 850,000 dollars in bribes to approve hundreds of drugs he ruined millions of lives and sabotaged the Chinese state. If someone as important as the late Sultan Maccido got killed flying in Nigeria and the funds released to better the airports in the country decided to do some flying of its own, then we commoners are done for. Not even the deaths of religious or political figures can make us get things to work right. We often times attributes our avoidable human errors and irresponsibility as that which the Lord wills. Whilst it is absolutely alright to look unto some deity for protection when traveling, it would be grossly unfair on yourself and not the man upstairs if you decided to travel 120 kilometers with three bolts missing from your front tyres and then hope HE delivers you safe to your destination. But that can not be said about someone who took all his time to make sure his journey is safe at his own end, only to be shot dead by a trigger happy, ‘20naira’ wanting cop or get killed by a lack of maintenance of the highway? Instead of directing us to our various altars for prayers or comfort during and after avoidable disasters, government should put a big price tag to the life of the people by making these avoidable mishaps a rarity. If one should do an appraisal of a typical journey from one metropolis to another in Lagos, one would be appalled at the numbers of sitting disasters waiting to happen. From the potential dangers posed by social miscreants called ‘area boys or agberos’ to the gun wielding police officers at every junction. There lurking, is that uncertainty we have been talking about. Even in the sacred books, the valuation of life is no child’s play yet the custodians of the Nigerian state are indifferent to our plights. They gave themselves and their families the well paid and equipped smartly dressed police men while the scruffy, hungry and underpaid ones were left to terrorize ordinary Nigerians, seeking their daily bread. What does it take to make death a bit more natural in the country? Why can’t an average Nigerian die at 65? A brother of mine on a visit to the UK used the public transport on several occasions and observed that it was always filled with senior citizens than anything. Hence he termed the UK as the “land of the old people”. Whilst that may be a wrong assumption, it could just be a reflection of the confidence the old people in the UK have of being secured in their country, therefore, they go about their lives without fear of molestation or intimidation. Our national life expectancy should be able to smile a little; the ordinary man in Nigeria has a lot to combat with daily due to economic failures. The least he deserves is the security of sitting at home after a difficult day without the fear of a stray bullet wrecking havoc or being caged indoors by his own design.
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