Accidents

The Cost Of Freedom

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Unless a country or a group of people are willingly to genuinely give their today in the name of true freedom, their children will never be free tomorrow.

The Cost Of Freedom

Which Way Nigeria?

Which Way Nigeria?

By Adeola Aderounmu

Nigeria’s 54th year as a so-called independent country was marked in several ways. One headline that caught my attention was the one that stated that poverty in Nigeria has been reduced by 50%.

The headline is first class fraud.

Statistics was one of my favourite subjects during my first and second degrees at the University of Lagos. It is one of those subjects that I really felt comfortable doing. At Idiaraba it was Medical Statistics and oh, how I enjoyed every bit of it and the lecturer was awesome.

Poverty may have been reduced by 50%, it depends on the sample size or the part of the population where you draw your samples from.

So I can conclude that if we take the population of the follow-follow people flocking Aso Rock since the inception of Jonathan’s administration, he has successfully tackled the poverty among 50% of the ass-lickers including the expanding society of Aso Rock Bull Dogs.

If I cast my dragnets at the places that I know like Oshodi, Ojuelegba or Okokomaiko, my data will produce a result that will make nonsense of the results produced by some drunkards in Aso Rock. More than 90% of the people will be below poverty level and living on less than N500 a day.

For more than ever before majority of Nigerians groan under an increasingly senseless and insensitive government. Increasing the death rate and lowering the life expectancy of a population does not mean that poverty has been reduced.

In several essays I have depicted the nature, spread and characteristics of poverty in Nigeria as one of the worst hidden tragedies in the world. I have also been very quick to dismiss the claims of the few people who escaped the threshold of poverty sometimes through luck or unmerited opportunities that their situations cannot be used as the yardstick.

The title of this essay came as a result of my feelings in recent months. I’ll approach it.

I do know, and convincingly too that there are a few people in Sweden who have cultivated the habits of reading my articles, not because they want to be “my readers” but because they “enjoy” this culture of gossiping about “what did he write this week”?

I am happy for them, that they found a weekly delight.

I’ll keep them in the dark by not defining their range but amongst them are people who need to understand though that I have the right to my views about Nigeria no matter what they think or feel.

I cannot help those who found out too late that they had been talking to someone who has been writing about Nigeria since 2001.

One of my pictures on Facebook must have tilted the table over. I had a T-shirt with the inscription Oduduwa republic on my mind. It is one of my ideas of freedom. The image must have gone viral among some folks. I am still happy for them and I hope they get a pat on the back when they make their reports.

I wonder how much shock my Swedish-Nigerian readers suffered in the last 4 weeks when I had written stories about love. I will choose love any day over a failed country under the bondage of crazy and deaf rulers.

The love stories came to me after a recent trip to Finland. I think my ancestors love nature and they prefer the solitude of a calm sea to bring me teachings and guidance.

Today I wanted to write a story about “The Dreamer Boy” but I thought some people will like to know if I am still in tune with Nigeria and how the drunkards have reduced poverty by 50%.

What is more interesting than this blatant lie is the growth and spread of individuals, groups and associations that are intensifying their doubts about their continuous recognitions as Nigerians.

They are weighing the options of bailing out of a jaga-jaga Nigeria. There are many t-shirts nowadays with a lot of messages and one boy even tore his green passport and posted it on YouTube.

I have a lot of reflections on this emerging trend especially among “Nigerians” who are far away from their regions in Nigeria, based mostly in Europe, Asia and America.

For the Nigeria we have today became a total mess as a result of our collective failures as citizens and participants or onlookers in the successive corrupt and useless governments in Nigeria over the years and even to this day in October 2014.

The Nigeria of today was not the dream of the men and women who fought collectively to wrestle the country from the colonialists.

The reason we write or recite or even highlights repeatedly our failures as a country is because some people need the education at some point on what has happened and what we expected. Where Nigeria is today on the scale of human development and quality of life is a complete disgrace to the intellectual abilities of the African race.

One failed government blames the other and the cycle of idiocy rotates as nobody tackles the menaces of corruption, federal character (yes, it is a menace), nepotism and tribalism.

It was the greed in Nigerians and the corruption in their veins that exposed the madness of the colonialists who married different nations into one entity. “Irreconcilable differences” is an expression made in Nigeria. The crazy rulers destroyed the institutions of governance and many crazy people in government stole for themselves, their friends and their unborn generations-even to this day.

Since the mid-1960s, no government has made efforts to return power and freedom to the regions just the way it was when education, health and technological developments were functional until greed and outright stupidity reared their ugly heads.

The process of divide and rule, looting and total disregard for the rules of law continued and reached a new dimension since the inception of pseudo-democracy in 1999.

For Nigeria I have oscillated between hope and hopelessness and my understanding of statistics says it is time to try something else.

I am all for the freedom and the emancipation of the people who are currently enslaved in Nigeria.

It is imperative to define the modalities and the cost of freedom so that the sycophants and the major players of today do not ruin the future of our children and grandchildren the same way they ruined our parents lives and displaced us to different places around the globe.

I wish that all the groups and associations around the world will emerge from their clandestine positions and start to talk openly. The Scottish people just had a vote. The outcome was not as important as the action they took but it will define the things to come in the future. Their children will grow up feeling more secured.

It is old fashioned to seek freedom in the dark rooms. It is very primitive to seek independence through confidential emails or social media closed groups.

If you want something, make it open, make it plain. Go for it and carry the people who need the change along.

Healthy debates, open groups, open discussions and other form of transparent dealings may help to check some of my personal fears regarding the stakeholders in all these clandestine groups scattered around the world.

What is the cost of freedom?

The cost of freedom lies in service to humanity. It is not looting the treasury and telling stupid lies about security and poverty.

The cost of freedom in public service lies in willingness to die at the altar of truth. It is not in building houses of gold on the polluted land across Nigeria.

The cost of freedom is the deprivation that comes with the belief that humanity comes before self.

The cost of freedom will be correlated to conventional free thinking and explorative mindedness.

It will not be locked to dying for the sake of acquiring virgins in an imaginary place. It will not have anything to do with deadly assembly at the feet of gangster mortals called prophets. The cost of freedom will rid a nation of the defenders of evil.

Unless a country or a group of people are willingly to genuinely give their today in the name of true freedom, their children will never be free tomorrow.

For the nations entangled in Nigeria these sacrifices are non-negotiable.  Along with the irrepressible truth, they will be the ultimate cost of freedom.

aderounmu@gmail.com

Very Bad Days Plague Nigeria..

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By Adeola Aderounmu

A former Nigerian minister Olusegun Agagu died recently and was to be flown to Ondo State for burial. Unfortunately the Aircraft in which he was flown crashed not long after take off, there in Lagos.

More than 20 people were on the flight and some are feared dead already. May the souls of the departed rest in Peace. May those in hospital find quick healing.

There will be hundreds of theories surrounding this ill-fated flight. There will be both natural, spiritual and physical explanations.

No matter which theory is right, we all know that Nigerian roads are among the worst roads in the World and the state of Nigerian Aviation industry may also be suffering from the general decadence that is plaguing everything in Nigeria.

Some comments on the social media are indifferent to the death of Agagu and now to the death of his family members/friends of the family.

There are reasons for this line of reasoning. Nigerian politicians think about themselves and their families/friends only, so when they evil befalls them, people tend to be “happy” (unfortunately).

It is very easy to argue that the people involved in this accident and even the dead minister himself could have done something to improve the living conditions of Nigerians generally. The argument is right because one man can make a difference.

No man in Nigeria wants to make a difference, that is why even Jonathan will continue to buy presidential Aircrafts for himself instead of improving the Aviation industry. Still, no ruler in Nigerian politics has stuck his head up to say “I’ll die for the people to make sure their lives improve”.

It’s always selfishness and self-improvement. It is always me, me, me and my family.

Sadly too, Nigerian looters don’t realise that life is transient and that no one can live forever. They still loot as much as they can and are not deter by the natural law that Life terminates anyway by natural, physical or spiritual means depending on what they Believe.

May the souls of the dead find Peace. Even the students massacred in Yobe, one prays they find peace. For all the grieving families (we are all griefing one thing or the other anyway), may we find the strength to move one and may we learn to live one day at a time and to know that no matter what, nobody will leave this World alive!

In Nigeria, Christmas Time Can Be Hell..!

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BY Adeola Aderounmu

I wrote Christmas in Hell after my visit to Nigeria in 2006. The story is available in my blog archive.

I guessed some things will never change.

In 2012 Nigeria, the month of december, fuel is scarce and there has been a fire pipeline explosion in Lagos.

These things have become “normal” for Nigerians.

The bottom line is that the Nigerian government as probably the most corrupt government in the world does not care a dime about the welfare and life situations of Nigeria.

Every government, Federal, state and local, is so corrupt that nobody cares if the right things are done or not.

That is why it is possible for stupid and useless things to repeat themselves with accuracy and perfection.

In december 2013 there is a possibility that fuel will be scare all over Nigeria and there will be a pipeline fire in Lagos.

What a country

Bangers, The Fire Brigade Approach And Another Call To Duty

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Adeola Aderounmu

In the past and even this year, the Lagos State Government had tried without success to prohibit the use of firecrackers and other fireworks (popularly called knockouts and bangers in Nigeria).

The fire disaster that took place in Lagos this week is another wakeup call on many fronts.

The unfortunate incidents reminded me of one of my earliest articles published both on the Nigeria Village Square and in the Nigerian Guardian Newspaper. The article first published in 2007 is titled: What is Fire Brigade Approach?

In that article, I defined The Fire Brigade Approach as “Nigerians spending last minutes efforts in trying to solve a problem that has been there forever”. That definition borrowed from what I knew of the Fire Brigade while growing up in Nigeria still sadly fit the working approaches of several institutions and agencies in Nigeria today.

No one will likely succeed in stopping the use of fireworks during celebrations or festivities. Some traditions are too strong to kill.

It will require adequate regulations to monitor the safe sale and proper use of these fireworks.

It should not be possible for any businessman or woman to just be able to import or take possession of these dangerous things simply because they are business persons.

The federal and state governments in Nigeria should monitor and approve companies that are fit to undertake such businesses and these should not be based on sentiments or family connections.

Wholesale and retail outlets that distribute these products should have adequate safety procedures to deal with accidents. It is even better to have procedures that will prevent the accidents in the first place.

Considering the fire outbreak in Lagos, it is clear that there are no regulations or they are not followed. Often in Nigeria, the time is not taken to do things meticulously. In many cases no one is ensuring that the regulations are followed especially when bribes can be paid to make rules worthless and inconsequential.

I cannot still imagine that knock-outs as we call them are sold in such a congested area in Lagos. Obviously whether they have done that for several years is not the question, the point is that it has always been a disaster in the making. Then it happened!
With adequate and proper planning, such an accident (if it occurred) should have happened in an industrial area or a shopping area out of town. I mean a building that houses fireworks should either be isolated somewhere or has walls made of fire-resistant materials that will prevent the spread of accidental fire.

On other fronts some of the abnormal things about Nigeria were furthermore exposed by the ugly fire incident which has claimed one life and injured several others. The damage also included a number of houses.

Do we know if there are in-house emergency arrangements in the building where the fireworks are sold? I have not read about fire-extinguishers being used while awaiting the arrival of the fire brigade.

Generally this accident calls for a review of emergency handling situations in Nigeria.

Minor, major, man-made and natural disasters need to be reviewed in Nigeria.

People need to be taught how to deal with minor accidents so that they don’t escalate to major accidents. In certain accidents in Nigeria, stampede has led to more casualties than the original causes of the accidents.

People need to be taught how to prevent domestic and environmental accidents. When they happened they need to know how to deal with the situation immediately and what to do while seeking or waiting for help.

How many Nigerians have been educated that firecrackers are supposed to be mainly outdoor hobbies, something done at some reasonable distance from places of abode? I remembered how people threw bangers at each other in Nigeria and in fact that it was okay to aim them at another man’s flat or compound!

I knew people who held bangers in their hands till they explode and I’d seen at least two boys whose hands were blistered from such experiments.

Sadly too I recall many ugly incidents-including deaths-related to the use of fireworks in Nigeria.

Nigerians are also fond of looking and forming unnecessary crowd at the scene of accidents. Still what kind of crowd gathered in such a way that
it took the fire brigade about an hour to get through?

If the sirens were blowing out loud, does it means that Nigerians have become deaf that they couldn’t hear the siren or could it be that the sounds of sirens have become meaningless considering the misuse/abuse over the years? Where was the Nigerian Police during all these?

One man even took the helmet of a fireman. Was that a joke? The fire brigade and emergency workers can claim in this case that their work have been hindered or hampered by crowd gathering and doing nothing but taking pictures to be posted on social networks. Some heartless people actually visit scenes of accidents to steal or loot.

However, one man was reported to be scooping water with a bucket from a nearby source. Lagos (and Lagos Island in particular) is lineated, permeated and surrounded by water and the fire brigade always runs short of it. The disgust is the same when you see people who don’t have safe water to drink.

In any case, this man-made accident is another wakeup call.

The concerned Lagos State Government agencies or authorities should rise, step up and do that which is necessary to prevent another tragedy of this nature. It is not enough to earn or share money through official titles. It is not wise to wait for the next tragedy before something is done. The jobs must be done now and people need to be educated and informed.

The Lagos State Ministries in charge of Commerce & Trade, Environment, Information, Education, Town Planning and Industrialization should step forward and tell Lagosians the measures that have been or that are now in place to ensure the safety of lives and property. Emergency Management Agencies, the Police and the firemen/women should not be left out of the plans.

Winter Time And Accidents in Stockholm

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Adeola Aderounmu

There are no expert or clever drivers when it comes to slippery roads caused by snow fall.

Here are two classical examples of what can happen to you when you drive at the “normal speed” around curve roads on during winter.

When you approach curve roads or unfamiliar roads it is better to reduce your speed to below the usual recommended limits

Car in Ditch

Car in Ditch

This car was either turning right or left into the road but it ended in a ditch because it turned at a high speed. I know because it is a road I drive past almost on a daily basis. The driver ended up in the dicth either due to ignorance of the road or underestimation of the effect of snow on the road. If the driver was cautious and still ended up in the dicth, then he or she probably has summer tyres on.

Akalla Road 275

Akalla Road 275

This second image is total careless driving. It could have ended badly and sadly if the driver had met an oncoming car or vehicle in the opposite direction.

This accident happened on a day we had wet snow. The driver was approaching a curve and kept a speed of 70km/h or more. At the curve, he swerved into adjacent lane meant for opposite traffic. He must have been very lucky not to run directly into an oncoming vehicle and I think I got there 5 or 10 minutes after the accident.

People should be more careful when they drive in the winter. Accidents rate automatically goes up during this time but with more caution, driving can still be safe regardless of the season.

God jul!