Much against the stereotype of analogies that have been made, I fancy myself as one of the few from the male-folk who can combine more than one activity successfully! As a result of this 'talent', it is not difficult for me to answer or make a phone call while driving a car, without any thing about my driving being changed by my engagement in the phone call. It took a while of study for me to arrive at this conclusion, and so I am very confident of this. And before you think I break the law at will, I try (*wink*) to ensure that I answer phone calls with my hands-free kit while driving, and I discourage a few other people whom I do not think handle the two activities well (e.g my Jewel) from doing so.
Given the background above, you will understand my shock on Friday afternoon while I was making a turn off Ozumba Mbadiwe road. I had been on a call for about eight minutes but I was entirely focused on the road too. I was driving on the third lane had just engaged the trafficator to indicate my intention to turn to the right, and then this commercial bus decided to overtake everyone else on the fourth lane. He was coming so fast I had to stay on the third lane to let him go first. As if he had not done enough wrong, he went past me and gave me the 'open-palm' sign, which some people refer to as 'waka' in these parts. I convinced myself to disregard his folly and move on. Then came this bike going at top speed, riding so close to the bus that had just gone past me that he could not have been aware of anything else happening on the other lanes of the highway. Of course, he had to turn off the road to avoid hitting the raised culvert just ahead of him. It turned out that he was a military man - he was wearing the army uniform - and thought to exert his authority. The first thing he asked me is, "Why you know use trafficator?". Of course, I was taken aback, and then I rationalised that my trafficator bulb must have been burnt, so I apologised and stated this. After trying unsuccessfully to create a scene, he went his way.
It was only at this point that I could respond to the friend on the other end of my telephone conversation who was worried that I had been in an accident. All the time I was talking to the military guy and his passenger, I had obeyed the rule of the male stereotype - focused on just on thing - where the phone call was concerned, at least.
So, I parked the car, left the trafficator on and came out of the car to check the status of the lights that had failed me only to discover that it was working fine. What is it then that the arrogant military guy was talking about? It was he after all that was riding on the 'blind spot' of a busy road and was oblivious to the fact that he was a danger to other road-users.
How often do we suffer in the hands of uniformed people in our country? They abuse the citizens of our country at will and at no consequence. Not long ago, the world got wind of this ill when the phone coverage of a lady's abuse by military men on a popular street on Victoria Island was sent by a passer-by to CNN's I-Report platform.
Help! We need to be saved from the Uniformed Madness in our nation!
Sunday, November 06, 2011
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Oil subsidy & The Plight of a Young Nigerian
About the time I was trying to get my mind off the humiliating story of the birthday bash of Mrs Goodluck Jonathan which was held in Australia at our nation's expense, I got some more sad news: A young intern at a bank in Lagos, Nigeria who had been missing for about two (2) days was found abandoned in a hospital. It emerged later that he was rescued from a near-death situation at the ever-busy Obalende (under-bridge) bus-stop.
Young Olumide (not real name) is a National Diploma holder from one of Nigeria's Polytechnics and he got a well sought-after spot in a leading bank as a teller. In order to meet up with the demands of his job, Olumide had to leave his Ikorodu home not later than 4.30am, only to return as late as 10pm sometimes. With the floods that have taken over the part of Lagos where he resides, this young chap has had to leave home as early as 3am in order to beat the early morning traffic. Luckily for him, the firm he works with arranged buses for staff pick-up, so he did not have to worry much about transportation till he got to Obalende. The only problem is that the staff bus got to Obalende as early 4.00am on certain mornings and he had to take a 20minute walk on deserted roads to his office where he would wait till about 6.30am before any of his colleagues arrived. Why would a twenty-something year old boy allow himself to go through such stress, you may ask. Well, this only child of a single mother provided financial support to his mom from the savings he could put together after the cost of transportation had been taken out.
Like any other day, Olumide set out for work this fateful Wednesday morning and no word was heard from or about him till his Aunt got a curious phone call from his place of work the following morning. His colleagues were worried that he had not reported for work since the day before and had not been reachable on phone either. They had thus begun a campaign to reach his family members through his personnel file to ascertain his safety. It was shortly after this worrisome call that Olumide's aunt's phone rang again, this time from Lagos Island General Hospital, with information that her nephew was there.
It is still unclear what happened, as Olumide still has temporary amnesia (the last thing he remembers before that Thursday, are the events of the previous Monday). However, the story goes that he got off the staff bus on Wednesday morning and was hit by a car soon after. What is curious however is that the only piece of clothing found on him at the time he was dropped off in the hospital by an ambulance was a torn pair of boxer shorts.
The earliest callers to the hospital from Olumide's place of work got to a total shocker when they found their colleagues on the floor of the hospital ward with swollen eyes and lips on a head that had become twice its original size. In fact, the only reason they took closer looks that confirmed Olumide's identity to them is that the nurses on duty confirmed that the person they were looking at was the only casualty brought in to the hospital the previous day. The boy looked absolutely disfigured! To make matters worse, he had not received any attention since he was dropped off there. As a matter of fact, the bandage on his face was given by the ambulance service that brought him to the hospital. More disheartening is that fact that the nurses told the visitors that if no one had showed up for him, he would have been left on the floor till it was time to "pass him along" to the morgue! Behold our health system in Nigeria!!
As is the case many other areas of the Nigerian service sector, money had to exchange hands before the nurses eventually gave Olumide a bed in the ward. When the prescribed intravenous drip was bought, the hospital staff simply told Olumide's friends to place the items under his bed, and they took their time to administer the items - in fact, they practically had to be begged to do their jobs of healthcare. It took tips and the use of "connections" to get half of the required medical attention to Olumide. It goes without saying that many victims of accidents and less-privileged citizens of our dear country are dumped in our government-owned hospitals on a daily basis, and a good number of these people lose their lives to the unwritten codes of government healthcare "service providers" who would not touch them with a pole until money changes hands. Meanwhile, the cheapest of private hospitals in these parts proves to be beyond the reach many Nigerians.
I cannot help but wonder how the intellectual arguments of economists in support of our government's planned removal of oil subsidy would bring any benefits to people like Olumide's mother who neither has any savings nor can make any sales in order to raise money for her son's hospital bills. How would the removal of oil subsidy affect the labourer who prefers to walk several kilometers daily to allow him save money to feed his family and send his children to school? What does the street-hawker stand to gain other than the increased cost of logistics that is sure to follow?
In a society where the priority of leaders is service and the provision of amenities that make life easier for their followers, the planned oil subsidy removal would probably make sense. But in our society, almost everyone who gets into political office plans to stash away more than enough cash to live lavishly on for the rest of his/her life. It appears that the subsidy on petroleum products is the only benefit many Nigerians get from their government. Little attention is being paid to anything that does not bring immediate benefit to our politicians and that position is not likely to change when the oil subsidy is removed. If anything, certain businesses would attain a position of power and a few more selfish individuals would seek more opulence. The fate of the common man? Nobody really cares!
Young Olumide (not real name) is a National Diploma holder from one of Nigeria's Polytechnics and he got a well sought-after spot in a leading bank as a teller. In order to meet up with the demands of his job, Olumide had to leave his Ikorodu home not later than 4.30am, only to return as late as 10pm sometimes. With the floods that have taken over the part of Lagos where he resides, this young chap has had to leave home as early as 3am in order to beat the early morning traffic. Luckily for him, the firm he works with arranged buses for staff pick-up, so he did not have to worry much about transportation till he got to Obalende. The only problem is that the staff bus got to Obalende as early 4.00am on certain mornings and he had to take a 20minute walk on deserted roads to his office where he would wait till about 6.30am before any of his colleagues arrived. Why would a twenty-something year old boy allow himself to go through such stress, you may ask. Well, this only child of a single mother provided financial support to his mom from the savings he could put together after the cost of transportation had been taken out.
Like any other day, Olumide set out for work this fateful Wednesday morning and no word was heard from or about him till his Aunt got a curious phone call from his place of work the following morning. His colleagues were worried that he had not reported for work since the day before and had not been reachable on phone either. They had thus begun a campaign to reach his family members through his personnel file to ascertain his safety. It was shortly after this worrisome call that Olumide's aunt's phone rang again, this time from Lagos Island General Hospital, with information that her nephew was there.
It is still unclear what happened, as Olumide still has temporary amnesia (the last thing he remembers before that Thursday, are the events of the previous Monday). However, the story goes that he got off the staff bus on Wednesday morning and was hit by a car soon after. What is curious however is that the only piece of clothing found on him at the time he was dropped off in the hospital by an ambulance was a torn pair of boxer shorts.
The earliest callers to the hospital from Olumide's place of work got to a total shocker when they found their colleagues on the floor of the hospital ward with swollen eyes and lips on a head that had become twice its original size. In fact, the only reason they took closer looks that confirmed Olumide's identity to them is that the nurses on duty confirmed that the person they were looking at was the only casualty brought in to the hospital the previous day. The boy looked absolutely disfigured! To make matters worse, he had not received any attention since he was dropped off there. As a matter of fact, the bandage on his face was given by the ambulance service that brought him to the hospital. More disheartening is that fact that the nurses told the visitors that if no one had showed up for him, he would have been left on the floor till it was time to "pass him along" to the morgue! Behold our health system in Nigeria!!
As is the case many other areas of the Nigerian service sector, money had to exchange hands before the nurses eventually gave Olumide a bed in the ward. When the prescribed intravenous drip was bought, the hospital staff simply told Olumide's friends to place the items under his bed, and they took their time to administer the items - in fact, they practically had to be begged to do their jobs of healthcare. It took tips and the use of "connections" to get half of the required medical attention to Olumide. It goes without saying that many victims of accidents and less-privileged citizens of our dear country are dumped in our government-owned hospitals on a daily basis, and a good number of these people lose their lives to the unwritten codes of government healthcare "service providers" who would not touch them with a pole until money changes hands. Meanwhile, the cheapest of private hospitals in these parts proves to be beyond the reach many Nigerians.
I cannot help but wonder how the intellectual arguments of economists in support of our government's planned removal of oil subsidy would bring any benefits to people like Olumide's mother who neither has any savings nor can make any sales in order to raise money for her son's hospital bills. How would the removal of oil subsidy affect the labourer who prefers to walk several kilometers daily to allow him save money to feed his family and send his children to school? What does the street-hawker stand to gain other than the increased cost of logistics that is sure to follow?
In a society where the priority of leaders is service and the provision of amenities that make life easier for their followers, the planned oil subsidy removal would probably make sense. But in our society, almost everyone who gets into political office plans to stash away more than enough cash to live lavishly on for the rest of his/her life. It appears that the subsidy on petroleum products is the only benefit many Nigerians get from their government. Little attention is being paid to anything that does not bring immediate benefit to our politicians and that position is not likely to change when the oil subsidy is removed. If anything, certain businesses would attain a position of power and a few more selfish individuals would seek more opulence. The fate of the common man? Nobody really cares!
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