Niran Adedokun
There are some stories you read in Nigeria that make your heart bleed and make you wonder if the people of this country are actually ready to break out of the shackles of underdevelopment.
While we are all quick to identify the speck in the eyes of others, especially our leaders, we refuse to acknowledge, let alone speak of removing the log in our own eyes. We forget that the values, moral and ethical composition of a people congregate to define the present and future of such a people.
Most often than not, we attribute all of the challenges that we face as a nation to the ineffectiveness, lack of capacity and sometimes wickedness of our leaders but we neglect the fact that these leaders are essentially Nigerians and that there are minute ways in which we all contribute to the stunted progress of our country. One of such is the almost universal careless disposition to the respect for and preservation of human life by the average Nigerian.
Let me share one recent sad event with you to explicate this point. A couple of weeks back, a man, possibly in his 60s, left a construction site where he was a supervisor for his home in the Berger area of Lagos. He crossed the expressway to make the journey to his home and was suddenly hit by a careless bus driver who had some passengers in his vehicle.
Immediately the incident happened, a witness said passengers came out of the bus, apparently not willing to be found on the scene by law enforcement agents. The bus driver was said to have hurriedly packed the writhing victim into his bus saying to those who were watching that he would take the man to a medical facility.
No one asked questions about the specific medical facility he was taking the victim to, no one took down the registration number of his bus as he was said to have been an intercity driver. He was allowed to take the man away while every other person went about their business. Oh well, there was one concerned man, who was said to have found the wallet of the victim on the spot of the accident and called his family to alert them about what happened, where it happened and the decision of the driver to, all by himself, take the victim to the hospital.
Until well past midnight, the family combed hospitals from around Berger, the Accident and Emergency Unit at the 7Up area of Lagos, where the victim would have received treatment, Magodo, Shangisha, Ketu and the entire vicinity without success.
The search continued for the next two days and it would only be on the third day that the attention of the family was drawn to a dead body that had been dumped somewhere around Orile, tens of kilometres from the scene of the accident.
The family quickly rushed to the scene, unsure of what to meet, hoping against hope that their father would be found alive rather than dead. On arrival, it was the body of their otherwise bubbly father that they found. And even as they grieved over the untimely death of their patriarch, they found consolation in the retrieval of his corpse; days after a heartless driver chose self-preservation over the noble opportunity to save a life.
This raises question about how much value we place on the lives of others in this country. In a country where people thought more about the sanctity of life, the system would provide rapid response instruments that ensure people get taken care of. And where that is not available, he would have been taken to a nearby hospital under the supervision of witnesses. He possibly would be alive with his family today but here, he had no chance!
Gone are the days when Nigerians considered the preservation of life as a common duty. This is why some medical personnel will place priority on money over the prescription of their professional pledge to save lives.

source -punch

Nigerian police has turned everyone to heartless citizens