What about life expectancy?

MANY thanks to Reuben Abati for his article entitled "Disasters, Crocodile Tears, and the Next Tragedy" of May 25. The hope is that the officialdom reads the obvious that: Nigeria is fast degenerating into a Nation of mourners albeit without declaration of wars. The legendary Hobbesian state of nature in which reportedly life is short, nasty and brutish might very well be Nigeria after all. The other Thursday, as many as 46 soldiers again summarily got perished not in the notorious battle field of Darfur (where they gallantly served under the auspices of UN peace keeping operation) but along Bauchi-Potiskum "road" to their respective homes.

The Potiskum human wastage, regardless of the scale of its attendant grief and sorrow (assuming we can assign units to human tragedy) only adds to the increasing deafening noise level of the worsening life expectancy in Nigeria. Pray if those trained and tested to defend us like these scores of fine soldiers proved so vulnerable and defenceless in the face of avoidable death quakes rampaging Nigeria, what then about the multitude of Nigerians whose "untimely" death might not be as news worthy?

Paradoxically, with this deafening noise of the dead and wounded and their widows, the officialdom remains ever "deaf and dumb" acknowledging latest mass road killings today apparently awaiting another mass funeral tomorrow. What values do we assign to human lives? Judging by the frequency of mass burials, Life Expectancy (LE) being a significant success factor in Human Development Index (HDI) as conceptualised since 1990 by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is increasingly meaningless in Nigeria. Here longevity is proving an exception. In fact, Death Expectancy (DE) assuming anything like that exists is more real than Life Expectancy (LE). The latest human body count on the "roads" came just when the human body count of Ijegun area of Lagos pipelines explosion (again without Nigeria being under military attacks) proved protracted; from charred remains of school children to burnt cars and motorcycles from 40 to 100 dead. Meanwhile a visit to the web-site of the National Road Safety Commission reveals human tragedies and miseries of varying proportions reduced to some miserable statistics.

Witness the following reported carnage: In October 2007, as many as 30 died when a road tanker overturned and caught fire along Lagos-Ibadan expressway. The fire engulfed three buses and several cars. In February, 2007 along Funtua- Brini Gwarri road as many as dozens were killed and injured due to front tyre blow up. The lorry was packed full of traders and domestic animals, (again Nigeria remains the only member of OPEC whose "Lorries" pack humans and animals together not fleeing a tornado or war zone). In January, as many as, 30 were killed in similar accidents in Yobe. In 2006, 20 people died when a bus collided with a truck while attempting an overtake along Lokoja- Abuja road.

In Nigeria most adults know somebody killed or maimed in road-related accidents. Nigerian Journal of Surgical Research shows that 70 per cent of all admissions into one emergency medical centre are due to road accidents. In January this year, many were reportedly killed and several wounded during the weekend in Port Harcourt following an explosion of an oil tanker. The carnage which took place at Eleme Junction of the city was the reported second oil mayhem in the city in recent times. On the eve of the New Year, a fuel tanker reportedly caught fire destroying many houses. The episodic tanker explosions are far from being regular sources of misery in Port Harcourt alone. On the contrary, explosions via moving tankers are fast becoming a national malaise. Our cities compete with notorious Iraqi cities in explosions albeit, without declaration of war!

Down town commercial city of Lagos, tankers' explosions brutally added to the growing number of human causalities. Inter cities carnage occasioned by tanker murderers (or are they still drivers) are too many for memory. NTA once reported complete shut down of Ilorin- Jebba road because two tankers collided. The tape showed burnt vehicles and the attendant human wastage. Nigeria is the only oil producing country that hits international media headlines via intolerable and unexplainable fuel carnage on the road.

Given the above, the dictionary definition of the term "accident" does not apply in Nigeria. According to the Oxford Dictionary, accident is defined as happenings "unexpected" or "unplanned". From the serial catalogue of road/pipelines killings will anybody still say that these rude happenings are unexpected or unplanned? Indeed when accidents prove addictive they are anything but accidental. Addictive accidents mean incidents that are either planned or expected that are preventable and certainly not inevitable. There is nothing "paradoxical" about 46 soldiers dying on any road, it is indeed preventable and criminal if it happened as it did.

If we get this clarification clear then, we can truly come to terms with daily murders (murders are what they are!) on our roads and around areas pipeline explosions take place. Both President Umaru Musa Yar Adua and his deputy, Jonathan operate within the false and unhelpful "accident" paradigm judging by their reactions to the deaths of the 46 soldiers. Despite the expression of their personal emotions over the painful loss, they betray no official policy emotions (and that's what they are elected and paid to do!) that will put an end to this serial murder. President Yar'Adua should interrogate a situation in which gallant officers "survived the hazards of service in strife-ridden Darfur" only to get burnt on a "road" without landmines. The Federal Road Safety Commission warns against night travels against the background of roads ridden with pot-holes and clearly unlit and without safety signs. Who then put these gallant officers on the murderous trips on officially classified murderous roads? Why should we in 21st century Nigeria allow vehicles to carry human beings and animals? If they arrive at destinations, the hazards that trail them are clear to any knowledge-driven society that value human as well as animal lives.

Why should we allow fuel tankers (read: mobile bombs!) to freely ply roads at anytime and at any speed? How many officials have resigned following serial pipelines explosions from Jesse to Ijegun? How many have been prosecuted and punished for plain murders? We should remember that late statesman Chief Sunday Awoniyi died of road-related "accidents" (again only in Nigeria can a statesman be so vulnerable). Yet the driver who drove him is still very well alive, possibly driving another possible victim? The point here is that it is time President Yar Adua declared emergency on roads and "accidents". This cannot be as intractable as the power sector emergency. You don't need trillions of Naira to prevent "accidents". There must be zero-tolerance to preventable head-on collusions and suicidal driving and drivers.

That the roads are bad we know. We also know that in Nigeria the roads can only get worse. But what we know is that it is not compulsory that we must ply these roads at night. In fact we must ban night travels until the roads are made better. There must also be enforceable speed limit with punishment for murderous and suicidal drivers. It is bad enough that a country like Nigeria allows its citizens to be transported by miserable objects called Okadas. Okadas are not just "accidents" waiting to happen, they are daily tragedies! It is officially criminal to ignore that these motorcycles are murdering their vulnerable users in hundreds nation-wide precisely because they recklessly ride and without any protective devices whatsoever as we know this in civilised knowledge-driven countries. "Accidents" kill Nigerians more than malaria, HIV/AIDS and xenophobic/apartheid attacks combined and yet "accidents" have cure, prevention and punishment.