By Mike Ikhariale
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| Injured governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada, will spend at least three months before he can gain full recovery after sustaining a fracture in his thigh bone when his convoy was involved in an accident on Friday, December 28, 2012 |
The idea of this piece was conceived a
long time ago as an academic conversation addressing the phenomenon of
incessant cases of avoidable crashes of official convoys in Nigeria. Several
years on, we have seen more of such wasteful accidents in the country. The
recent case of the auto crash involving the motorcade of Governor Idris Wada of
Kogi State created immediate impetus for me to briefly represent it today. Do
we ever learn?
Since the present civilian
administration picked up the mantle of leadership from the totally exhausted
military junta, Nigerians have lost count of the number of reported accidents
involving official government vehicular convoys. From the local government
councils to the state governments, right through to the Federal Government, the
story is the same: multiple ghastly car accidents involving top government
officials. Many of these crashes had recorded mind-boggling fatalities, not to
enumerate the various broken limbs and wasted human organs as well as the
millions of taxpayers’ money lost in the endless carnage.
Why would official government
motorcades constitute such a tremendous traffic hazard to themselves and other
road users? Are there no more traffic regulations in Nigeria? If there are, are
government officials exempted from compliance? What is in government business
that transforms its members into highway stunts overnight? Is it the proverbial
intoxication of power at work or what? Why are Nigerian political office
holders so highly accident-prone?
Is it really safe to entrust the
management of a nation to individuals who cannot conform to basic traffic
ethics or who are making a virtue out of traffic recklessness? What manner of a
boss that would sit coolly inside a car while his chauffeur is cruising across
the country like James Bond in a movie stunt, spreading death and horror in the
process? Can an official driver possibly operate the vehicle outside of the
instructions given to him by the boss? These are questions whose answers may
give us some insight into the mindset of those who presently rule us.
The late Tai Solarin is on record to
have said that any of his drivers who exceeded the nation’s speed limit of 100
kilometres per hour, to his knowledge, had earned himself an instant dismissal;
and to avoid the temptation to ever break that personal traffic code, the
respected social critic always set out on his missions as early as possible.
It is only in Nigeria that political
leaders of all grades and hue literally crash into public assignments, at the
very last minute, in ways that are clearly calculated to intimidate the people.
Why and how Nigerian leaders developed the risky habit of driving recklessly
through the poorly maintained roads of Nigeria as if they are on open race
tracks still continue to baffle me, especially if one takes into account the
fact that these miscreants are no kids who stealthily took their parents’ cars
out without due permission just to impress their not-so-fortunate peers. These
are adults, Nigerian rulers!
Here, we are talking about governors,
ministers, legislators, councillors, the vice-president and even the president
himself. Without exception, they have all been cited for traffic accidents in
the last several years. Starting from when former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s
convoy, during a visit to Bayelsa in 2001, was involved in the usual
bumper-to-bumper slamming due to excessive speed. The unending statistics of
‘executive crashes’ were followed by that of the then vice- president Abubakar
Atiku, who apparently would not want to be out-done by his boss in the
vehicular kamikaze circus while he toured Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, soon after.
What is really going on among our
leaders? Is there a spell? Sometimes, one is tempted to evoke the old road
safety frustration-induced billboards on Nigeria’s highway on them thus: For
years, we have warned you, kill yourself if you dare!
In the days of military rule, it was
very easy to understand why armed convoys of leaders were always moving at
break-neck speeds. The risky driving they indulged in was accepted to have
suited both their occupation and their circumstances. There was also the
psychological fact that they were perpetually afraid of being ambushed and
killed by those of their colleagues who were also keen on violently seizing
power. So, largely out of fear, they had to always move at break-neck speed.
I always find it a nauseating circus
watching these officials as they childishly misuse expensive public vehicles in
lengthy convoys to chase and intimidate members of the public out of the way.
These routine dramas are generally indicative of the presence of what a
colleague used to refer to as Vagabonds in Passage or VIPs. There is no other
rational explanation for those stampedes of shame. It is madness.
Let us not forget, however, that apart from
the suicidal nature of this driving style, they are also setting bad examples
for our youths. Take it or leave it, these people constitute a part of our
elite for now and children are naturally looking up to them for inspiration,
especially those amusing aspects of such dangerous traffic conduct. But how can
a government whose officials are being regularly citable for reckless and
indecent driving muster the moral strength to want to legislate on a civilised
driving code for the society?
The simple truth about all these
alarming official car crashes is that there is a surfeit of misfits in high
places. Of course, they may easily cheat on the people, even intimidate and
harass them, but certainly, they cannot cheat machines whose basic science they
hardly understand. When you abusively push any mechanical contraption beyond
its designed safety limits, you are surely accelerating your funeral date.
Driving speedily on the bad Nigerian roads is nothing but sheer suicidal
plunges. Those who must govern others must first learn to govern their own
instincts and idiosyncrasies on the highways. Riding official vehicle should
not be interpreted to mean a licence to kill, as it appears to be presently.
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