Sadly, we are faced with another tragedy. Award-winning novelist and popular academic unionist, Festus Iyayi, was killed in Lokoja when a vehicle in the convoy of Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State rammed into the bus conveying him, and his colleagues to Kano. The group were on their way to attend a meeting of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU), which has been on a nation-wide strike for four months. A commander of Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Olakunle Motajo, is reported to have said that a preliminary report on the accident revealed wrongful overtaking on the part of the government vehicle.
I first met Festus Iyayi during "The Eagle on Iroko" conference that brought the cream of the Nigerian literary community to the University town of Nsukka in 1990. Shortly after that conference, the convener; Professor Edith Ihekweazu lost her life in a car accident, and the celebrant Professor Chinua Achebe just survived a similar one. Since then, our country has continued to lose thousands of people every year on our roads. We mourn, but then we throw our hands up in the air, as we lose the very people that we need to shape our country to that which we aspire.
Iyayi should need little introduction in Nigeria. I was introduced to Iyayi's literary work at a relatively young age, when I was trying to come to terms with the Biafran War (or the Nigerian Civil War). I had read several accounts of the war from books lying on my parent's shelves, from Obasanjo's "My Command" to Madiebo's "the Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War" ...and everything in between. Despite these, I felt most informed and engaged by Iyayi's two books; "Heroes" and "Violence". Through his books, Iyayi tried to redefine the heroes and victims of this war (and any war) from the bottom, up. The dominant narrative of every war is written through the eyes of its architects - while on either side, there are often true heroes and victims that have borne the brunt of the killing ...
And while we dither - these are the headlines in other parts of the world: BBC - Car deaths in England and Wales 'down 40% in 50 years', based on research published in the Emergency Medicine Journal. This happened over the same period that car ownership across the UK had been increasing by about 3% annually. The factors that led to this reduction in deaths were 1.) introduction of compulsory seat belts, 2.) drink driving curbs, 3.) child safety seats, and 4.) speed cameras, as well as the 5.) development of specialist trauma centres. Of all these, only the first one is sometimes applied in our country. And there are many more! I will be surprised if more than 1% of all drivers in Nigeria have done a driving test ...
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