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Death On
Nigerian Roads
An Eye Witness
Account
By Uche Nworah
If you have ever heard the saying that the
death of one person diminishes us, then you will truly
appreciate its deep meaning after seeing these shocking images,
and imagine that it could have been you, your friend, or family
member lying under this 40-feet petrol tanker.
For the families of the 16 people that were crushed to death in
this accident, no cries will ever ease the pain and no amount of
condolences will bring back to life their loved ones, who lost
their lives in a most horrific and horrendous manner.
Even as they boarded the Mitsubishi L300 passenger bus with
registration number: Akwa Ibom XA 554 KTE on the evening of
Thursday, the 14th of July 2005, they must have been filled with
a sense of joy, that they were finally going home from their
different offices and places of work to their families, after
another long hard day. Some of them may have dreamed of sitting
out in the moonlight with their families for some late family
dinner, others may have been looking forward to a forthcoming
family or personal event, a wedding or naming ceremony or even
to attending church service the coming Sunday.
But all those dreams died, and with them the
dream carriers. Their lives cut short by a combination of
factors: human error, poor judgement, political inefficiency,
infrastructural decay and man’s inhumanity to man. Some of the
villagers I spoke to blamed the cause of the accident on the
driver of the petrol truck belonging to Total Nigeria Plc, who
had mis-timed an overtaking manoeuvre, others heaped the blame
on the Nigerian government for neglecting the pothole – filled
Aba/Owerri Express road, saying that if the road, one of the
busiest in the eastern part of Nigeria had been dualised as
planned, then there would be less risks of accidents.
According to another villager, the accident
occurred between 7-8 pm, he said that the driver of the petrol
truck which was travelling from Owerri to Aba had tried to avoid
a pothole, and had then suddenly swerved to the left, and on to
the path of the on-coming mini-bus, which was then already close
by, the driver of the mini-bus had then out of desperation
swerved sharply into the nearby bushes to avoid a head-on
collision with the truck, but for whatever reasons, the driver
of the truck lost control of the truck which then climbed on top
of the mini-bus crushing all the passengers to death. There were
still unconfirmed reports as to the fate of the driver of the
truck by the time we arrived the scene, a few metres from the
main gates of the Anambra-Imo River Basin Development Authority,
in Agballa – Owerri, Imo state.
Any hopes of rescuing any survivors must have
been lost because of the slow pace of response of the largely
under funded and under-equipped ambulance and emergency
services, who are not well equipped to handle such tragedies,
little surprise then, that as at 10 am the next morning, no form
of help or assistance had yet arrived the scene.
This is not an isolated case; there is so
much death on our roads, as a result of a combination of the
factors I earlier mentioned. This is only one of the many sad
tales and tragedies that confront our people everyday, and
another example of wasted opportunities in rural Africa.
As for the families of the deceased who may have lost their
'bread winners', we can only pray for them, that is the much we
can do for now, knowing that the true causes of the accident may
never be officially determined, neither will those responsible
be brought to justice, nor will they be made to pay any sort of
compensation, but as a good corporate citizen, hopefully Total
Nigeria Plc will not sweep this under the carpet. A case then
for the many non- governmental organizations (NGOs) in Nigeria
to pursue to its final conclusion.
Source:
Nigerian
Village Square / Tuesday, August 09, 2005
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Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
* * * * *
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
 |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 22 December
2011
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