DOUBLE WAHALA FOR DEAD-BODY, MORE FOR THE LIVING!
By: Olanrewaju Ojuoluwa

It is no more news how Nigerians keep experiencing avoidable delays on the highways across the country. And as a matter of fact, travelers and road users most times envisage such delays and sometimes plan ahead, calculatedly summing it up with the supposed duration of their journey.

Even though these instances have become a trend in Nigeria thereby making it no big deal, I experienced a worrisome situation in which a journey of less than 3hours turned 9hours! Did I just hear you hissed, saying "ordinary 6hours added, and you're complaining?" Yes, a whopping irrecoverable 6 hours of my life stranded on the road because some IRRESPONSIBLE elements were playing blame game!

And that reminds me of this: _"There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done."_

With more than 500 vehicles stuck at both sides due to pit-like potholes which have resulted in the falling of many trucks carrying loads, we all came down, devising a way out, using other trucks to pull and clear the unimaginably poor pathway. This we continued and were succeeding in doing when suddenly some vehicles came fast approaching, it caught the attention of all, what could be wrong with these people, were they going to fly?

Lo and behold, it was the entourage of a politician! Trust me when I say, "BAD TIMING". As they got to us, the policemen came down and attempted to make a way where there was no way, jumping up and down, coercively bullying their way until they themselves got stuck! And the events that followed validated the fact that, an intellectual Revolution is a lifeline for us all, because bloody Revolution would be too costly for a country such as ours.

The politician (name withheld) was forced by persistent request from us to come down from his Jeep. He gave the same old story of how the road is a federal road and the contractor is not doing well and jargons plus jargons which is equal to NONSENSE from a NO-BRAINER! A vibrant young man, cut in furiously saying, " Mr. Politician, you had better enjoy this last few moment of you and your cohorts devastating reign over NIGERIA because it is the beginning of an end to your era already... For crying out loud, to whom brain is given, sense is expected, how can a road be like this when all that would fix it is stipends compared to what you individually take-home for doing nothing to benefit this country?"

And that was how this young man stole the show from the supposed established politician... The politician was embarrassed and he was lucky his aides had found a way to maneuver themselves out of the looming mess. He sluggishly entered into his Jeep and off he was rescued.

A short while later came a vehicle carrying a coffin, with leaves attached to it, front and back, and it also got stuck. I went close to the vehicle and saw depression on the faces of the occupants. They were mute, yet I could loudly hear their agony - an untimely death of their brother (a breadwinner) who I later learned died in an autocrash caused by bad road, his car got into a very deep potholes in the night and he tumbled many times before a tree stopped the car, and there was little those who were around could do as it was far from the next town. And now, to add insult to injury, his corpse is stuck again because of the same bad road network that claimed his life? Hmmm... double WAHALA FOR DEAD-BODY!

There after I met a Corp member (NYSC) currently serving in Maiduguri narrating his plight and ordeal of being on the road for 8 days already and yet to reach his destination due various bad road networks. He said he had been stuck for more than 16hours on a spot in one of those experiences. It was then that I discovered that, not only do these present breed of position occupants called politicians who are mere dealers rather than leaders loot our Commonwealth, they also tactically waste our lives actively and passively! Hmmmm... MORE WAHALA FOR THE LIVING!

Time they say, is money. But as far as I am concerned, time is beyond money, time is Life itself! Because any second spent or lost cannot be recovered again, it is gone forever!

A former commissioner of a southwestern State who was also stuck shook his head and said "what sort of disgrace is this, in this same world where some advanced countries are devising techniques to remote control their road networks, we are still struggling with mere bitumen!" He caught my attention and went close to him, introducing myself to him and telling him that the best bet is for us to have a generational power shift to the YOUTHS as it is long overdue.

He agreed with me on that and he said something which I believe is a message to all Nigerian Youths - "Youths will only TAKEOVER power when they can be resolute enough not to sellout... Poverty is a long term tool devised by the ruling class to tame you; face the hunger squarely, once and for all and get what is rightfully yours as that's the only way out of this mess!"

I rest my case...

Olanrewaju Ojuoluwa - SHARPMINDS (1stsharpminds@gmail.com ) is a Youth Advocate, a Social Reformer and an arrowhead in the ongoing sociopolitical Youth Revolution in Nigeria.

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